Essential Qualities of a Nurse Leader

Hospital Management and Leadership

This study summarizes an interview conducted on a nurse who happens to be the head nurse in that hospital. This interview talks about the experiences that the said nurse has been going through as a leader and how she has been able to maneuver through the leadership ranks with ease. The paper also shares some insights about good leadership and how to foster it as learned from the interview. Although it is not written on a personal account as reported by the interviewee, the paper brings forth the lessons as directly as learned from the nurse leader.

The interview

In the interview, the nurse is questioned on a number of leadership issues that she responds to appropriately. The background of the nurse is well founded in the medical field. She has a degree in nursing from a leading university. She has also amassed much experience in the field for over ten years. On many occasions, she has been recognized for exemplary service. Her recognition in those instances has come with awards in plenty. She has established herself well in the field and has consequently earned a name there. Going by the record of accomplishment of her performance, this nurse can be said to be among the few to have attained her status (Giuliani, & Kurson, 2012). In recognition of this high achievement, her employer recently appointed her to head the nursing department in her hospital. Previously, she had been serving as the departmental head as well as management committees in her sector. During those instances, she was able to build her career well and initiated many radical changes in the modes of operation within the department she headed while serving at the hospital. This activeness largely contributed to her recent appointment to head the nursing department.

The nurse had her definition of being a leader. In her perspective, a leader is someone who has been placed in charge of some people, activities, or operations. In this case, the leader will be expected to discharge duties as the one responsible for the success of the assigned duty. During such instances, there will be checks and balances to guide the leader. The nurse further went ahead to disclose that a leader is someone who facilitates the realization of the set goals within his or her docket. She discloses that successful leadership is the ability of an individual entrusted with the responsibility of executing some duties to act within the required guidelines and bringing the desired results without failing. Going by this definition, she classified herself as a successful leader.

Characteristics of leaders

From the nurse's response, we can vividly identify the essential characteristics of good leaders. Good leaders are those that keep time and result oriented. The ability to keep time is something that is inborn and can be improved and perfected with action that is more deliberate. According to the reports from the interview, one more characteristic of a good leader is the ability to make critical decisions. Good leaders make decisions that are fit for the moment. They also make decisions based on both facts and intuition. Much of leadership is all about decision-making and their enforcement. This rare quality is only evident in good leaders as stated in the interview. The ability to forecast and asses situations is a trait that a good leader has.

Philosophy on leadership

The nurse has one solid philosophy on leadership. This, she describes as excellence and perfection. She does not believe in underperformance or compromise on quality. According to her, failure creeps in when leaders start compromising on quality, delivery, and appropriateness. According to her, leadership calls for strictness and goal-oriented mentality. From this, she has been able to stand out from the rest of her peers at the hospital.

Learning experiences

From her perspective, failures and challenges that come along the way of leadership are valuable. She asserts that leadership that is without challenges and hardships is deficient. Consequently, she attributes her success to the many challenges that she has been facing as she climbed the ladder. According to her, leadership ought to be centered on good practice but should draw lessons from the many challenges that come with it. In the wake of this, she has found herself at the high standing office by positively responding to the challenges and learning from them.

The evolving nursing leadership

Nursing is one conservative field when it comes to leadership. There are no much unpredictable circumstances and challenges as are often witnessed in the other fields of leadership. Leadership in nursing is more about managing routine activities. These are activities that are mainly centered on the patients and nothing much to do with managing the staff. Even thou staff management is part of it, not much from there is there to manage (Robinson, 2011). This is because the terms of service are clear and can easily be adhered to by the staff.

Challenging issues

As head nurse, the challenges that I face are quite many. They range from issues of staff management in the current dispensation to the inability to handle work at times, especially when patients are many. One major challenge that has been outstanding is the lack of time to concentrate on the many small issues such sanitation during peak season. These are times when there is too much work to be done as patients flock the hospital wards. The work of a head nurse becomes difficult when this time comes since she is expected to attend to every sector and ensure that there is a smooth running flow of work. One other challenge in this role comes when one has to handle disciplinary cases of some staff. Some junior staff can be very disrespectful and can choose to desert their workstations. Given this case, they will make life difficult for the manager. The leader in this interview intimated that she dreads dealing with disciplinary cases and has always tried to avoid them by referring to her seniors. According to her, such cases can end up severing the personal relationship of the offending junior and the boss.