Becoming A Nurse Leader Essay

Becoming a nurse leader can be stressful, but very beneficial when the right person is in the position. In this paper I will speak about three different exercises. The first exercise explains how, as a nurse manager, I would discuss an unpopular decision to the staff. The second exercise speaks about what my concerns are and what I need to know as a staff nursing going into a leadership role. The third exercise is a summary of an article that speaks about nursing leadership.

Exercise 1

Managers have to make changes to their unit, whether the staff likes all of the decisions or not. If I were a nurse manager and had to tell my staff about an unpopular decision that had been made to implement, I would use an evidence-based research theory to

For every manager, situations that arise are always different and there is no handbook for it. I would definitely need to know who I could turn to when complications arise and I need advice on how to handle it. Senior nurse managers on other units or even the nursing administrator that is on-call, like Quin used. Even as a staff nurse, there are some situations that you learn as you go. I have been a staff nurse for two years now and I learn new things weekly. When I run into situations that I have not encountered before, I ask another nurse their opinion to ensure the decision is in the patients’ best interest.

Exercise 3 This peer-reviewed journal article is about a study done at Cleveland State University School of Nursing to evaluate the qualities if nursing leadership within the faculty at the school. This study was done by sending out e-mails with a link to an online survey tool to all the nursing staff. The tool asked a total of 27 questions that asked about the different qualities in nursing leadership and improvements. A total of 724 surveys were sent out, but only 52 surveys had enough usable data. The majority of the returned surveys were completed doctoral level prepared nurses.

In this study, the survey showed that time management and support from upper positions were barriers when it came to them being better leaders within their facility. Time management comes with practice, but when you have time constraints, lack of support from administrators, poor relationship with people above them, lack of financial support, and unrealistic expectations, especially when doing research, it becomes a challenge (Delgado & Mitchell, 2016).

Personal Challenges and Limitations

Family, for most, comes first, and it can be a personal challenge, especially when you are in the managerial role. “Previous research has shown that family care responsibilities can affect the decision to seek leadership positions,” (as cited by Delgado & Mitchell, 2016, p. 13). The biggest limitation that was shown in this study was the low response rate.

Discussion

The majority of nurses who go into nurse leadership have a higher education and have had multiple years of experience. The aging of leadership is becoming and issues and leaders are delaying retirement because it is harder to find qualifying faculty to take on their role.