Personal Narrative: My Leadership As A New Graduate Nurse

As a new graduate nurse I do not have any personal experience with nursing management of units or facilities. I have spent a fair amount of time witnessing the leadership skills my manager(s) utilize on a daily basis. The Chamberlain College of Nursing’s online lessons states, “Although all managers should be leaders, not all leaders are managers” (CCN, 2016). What this quote indicates that leaders in the workplace are not always managers, they can be the charge nurse, staff nurse or maybe even the tech who helps to lead the team. Leadership takes many shapes and forms; it could be as simple as helping out the staff you are responsible for. I have had a unit manager, who when we were in diversion status and short staffed she left her comfy

office to help with anything she could such as admission/ discharges to giving patients baths (I think she assisted with 6 within an hour). For the sake of this discussion, I would like to use a charge nurse position as my demonstrations of leadership in the unit.
The charge nurse in my unit is responsible for 41 beds (largest unit in hospital), 10 nurses on shift, 6 techs on shift, secretary on shift, and any other personnel that comes on our unit. Looking at the number of people the charge nurse is responsible for it is easy to realize that communication, time management, camaraderie, and many other aspects are utilized on a constant basis. The charge nurse is the one to go to when in a pinch, or just for an extra hand. They are there to be a resource to help you with a procedure, or help you look for something you simply cannot find. Charge nurses are the ones that can make or break a shift/ team depending on how they handle their position and lead their people. Charge nurses acting as a mentor for staff nurses is important as Catherine Meliniotis states,” Being a model for your team members is vital” (Meliniotis, 2015). Some hospitals, break in charge nurses early, however I find the best charge nurse leaders are the ones who are clinical experts so to speak. Furthermore, they are nursing experts dealing with patients, families, doctors, staff, and plenty others. Despite the many qualities charge nurses as leaders possess, finding a good leader is not very difficult, for we as nurses all have some traits of leadership in us already.