Leadership qualities of a hospital head nurse

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.

The Role of a Mentor

The head nurse in this interview had an outright response on the role of a mentor. She disclosed that in her career managerial stint, she has had a mentor. Here, she disclosed that her mentor happened to be her boss, who later joined the hospital. Mentors play a positive role in shaping someone (Vance, 2013). She has moved from the novice that she once be to the currently experienced leader that she is. She attributes the current skills that she has to her mentor. The nurse held that mentors give an opportunity people can learn new things or be motivated in what they are doing.

Advice to aspiring leaders

On aspiring leaders, the nurse had a few words of advice to them. One they should work hard to build their interpersonal skills. Secondly, they need to learn wide by reading and asking from those who know. Leadership, as said, requires one to be armed with all manner of information about everything. Finally, she advised them to stay focused on what they want to achieve since everything is subject to time.