Free Custom «Nursing Leadership» Essay Paper

Introduction

Leadership is an area of study that has spanned centuries. Thus, it is not surprising that it touches on every field. This explains why nursing leadership is critical.Leadership in nursing is critical towards ensuring the delivery of quality and effective services to societies. The paper embarks on underscoring the characteristics of exemplary nurse leadership following the agreement that leadership is an important cog in any discipline. This heralds the presentation of a good nurse leader. Before drawing the conclusion, I consider the impact that the nurse leader has on my current and future professional leadership growth.

Presentation of the Nurse Leader

The preferred nurse leader works at the Magnet Program. The nurse leader has often earned plaudits for being in the forefront while searching for solutions to issues uplifting the society. Although, the mother of the leader was a nurse, the biggest influence came from visiting a hospital after an illness. The person in question was taken ill at a young age paving the way for admission to a hospital. This helped to highlight the experience that people face under the care of nurses. From there, the leader hoped to become a nurse upon growing up.

 

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The leader has come through convincingly, although she continues facing various challenges. For instance, when Magnet faced intrigues because of a rapid growth, she provided the required leadership. It also emerges that the leader moved from CNO, where she was comfortable to join Magnet. This shows her willingness to assume new challenges. In the new place, the leader has led the organization to greater heights by setting an example to the rest of the industry players. The leader has also used her experience to shape the organization in the pursuit of organizational objectives.

Characteristics of a good nurse leader

An effective nurse leader possesses inspiration skills. In this regard, such a nurse must be able to inspire colleagues in their pursuit of setting common goal. Such a goal could be seeking enhancement in the provision of patient care. Secondly, a nurse leader must have a set of distinguishing features. Features or qualities border on personal attributes such as initiative, courage, integrity, as well as the ability to deal with stress (Tappen, Weiss and Whitehead, 1998). The possession of such attributes puts a person above the rest. Consequently, it is easy to set a good example for the rest in the profession. It is also significant to note that such characteristics are critical in helping an individual to think critically on how to tackle emerging issues. The same attributes are valuable since they allow the leader to communicate effectively. Thus, the four main attributes of a nurse leader include: the ability to communicate effectively, ability to inspire, a high level of integrity and ability to learn.

It is critical to observe that communication is of essence within any field. Practicing in nursing field is not done in a vacuum. Thus, communication is a requirement. Whereas each person has a responsibility to play in regards to passing of information, an effective nurse leader has additional responsibilities. For instance, a nurse leader is supposed to develop initiatives to improve organizational performance or the provision of healthcare services. In this regard, the nurse leader could be having a duty to come up with various initiatives or strategies. In devising such strategies, a nurse leader would require to learn new ideas. Learning new ideas would be successful when a nurse is able to communicate freely. Furthermore, a nurse leader is under an obligation to communicate with subordinates and colleagues. It is only through effective communication that guidelines or new strategies are passed to colleagues and subordinates.

The second significant characteristic is based on the ability to inspire. Inspiration is a key component of task execution. Inspiration takes the form of a leader taking charge by impressing the led or colleagues and making them improve their performance. An inspirational leader is the one who lead from the front. Such leaders are shining examples who dedicate their lives to service delivery. Thus, they always engage in aspects that induce improvements in the performance of others. In this regard, an inspirational nurse leader would go beyond limits to introduce new ideas to colleagues or help them regarding how to tackle emerging concerns.

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The third aspect that influences the worth of an individual as a nurse leader is integrity. Integrity demands that individuals should observe set guidelines and rules in task performance. Nursing professionals have their guidelines too. In addition, questions bordering on ethics emerge. In conducting professional affairs, nurse leaders are expected to adhere to both ethical and moral guidelines. A good nurse leader should ensure that all provisions are observed while discharging duties (Sullivan & Decker, 2005). In addition, a nurse leader should ensure that colleagues conduct themselves in a manner that promotes integrity. In so doing, healthcare providers earn respect since services they provide would be beyond reproach.

The fourth attribute considered is the ability to learn. Learning is a continuous exercise. Nurse leaders need to learn in order to update their knowledge on emerging trends in healthcare. Through learning, nurse leaders are also able to adopt new approaches to leadership. Upon learning, nurse leaders would need to manage their knowledge. This is especially significant whenever organizations are involved in knowledge creation. Knowledge management is indispensable since nursing is a knowledge-based profession (Glines, 2011). Organizations face an array of challenges. Most of them are market based. For example, changes in technology, policy and legal regulations, competition and globalization are influential. These have an immense influence on the activities of organizations since they directly affect their operations and overall performance. This has therefore necessitated the practice of knowledge management within organizations, so that they cushion themselves against these changes. Knowledge management is a range of strategies and practices that are employed by organizations to identify, create, distribute, and enhance the adoption of insights and experience (Leonard, 1999). Such includes knowledge instilled in individuals or upon the organization in their processes or practices.

Impact of Presentation

From the presentation, I have learned that experience is a vital part of leadership. This is based on the case presented. The earned experience helps individuals to tackle new issues. I am also impressed by the decision of the nursing leader who left a comfortable position to take a new position at Magnet. This affects my professional life since I would be more willing to take new challenges. I also learned that some attributes such as being skillful are critical in the nursing profession, especially, in regards to leadership.

Through sharing of insights, employees are able to learn from their colleagues who perform better. The low performers, thus, get a chance to study on how they can improve. This practice can also encourage innovations within an organization though the combination of knowledge. Where such working together helps enhance the productivity of an organization, the aims as envisaged in the statement of objectives are thereby within reach and achievement. The primary aim of communication is to facilitate the necessary level of engagement in any organizational setting. Internal communication in any organization has been found to play a significant role in influencing the achievements that any organization attains. When the internal communication department closely works with the top management, it has been found that job satisfaction levels rise, which in effect translates to a higher individual and group output from workers.

In conclusion, nursing leadership emerges as a significant topic. It also emerges that leadership in nursing is critical towards ensuring the delivery of quality services. The paper underscores that the ability to communicate effectively, ability to inspire, a high level of integrity and ability to learn are key characteristics of exemplary nurse leadership. Thus, a good nurse leader should possess the attributes. I finally observe that the impact that the nurse leader has on my current and future professional leadership growth is immense.