Nursing Leadership
Nursing leadership is subject to a variety of notions that must be followed in order for the leadership to be effective (Stanley, 2016). As a leader, I believe I am good at certain of the qualities I am expected to have while still having some weaknesses in others. A leader is in charge of managing the tasks of others under their authority. His primary goal is to assure efficiency. For the nursing case, a leader has several roles including motivating those under his jurisdiction and ensuring they play their part in ensuring that the patients needs are well catered for and both the nurses and the patients are satisfied.
Personal and Professional Accountability
On personal and professional accountability, I am personally able to account for every decision I make as a leader. I do this by ensuring I have minutes for every decision made so that they can act as backup in case there is need for reference. I put a lot of emphasis on ethical behavior since it is the backbone of nursing as a profession. Nurses should be ethically upright as this is the expectation of every patient (Hutchinson & Jackson, 2013). Personally, I encourage certification of those under my jurisdiction since it is the only substantial proof of their ability to perform their duties. A shortcoming as far as accountability is concerned is on the issue of membership and involvement of those under my jurisdiction to professional associations which aid in professional development and networking. Just like a number of leaders in nursing, I have never seen the effect of implementing this accountability move.
Career Planning
Career planning involves majorly knowledge of one's role, their future and having to position oneself (Makaroff et al, 2014). I am very aware of my role as a leader in nursing which I always seek to ensure I have fully implemented and my effect as a leader is felt. I also have several plans which I have classified as semi-annual plans, annual plans and two-year plans which I implement in phases. The plans are a source of focus for me and those under my jurisdiction. I am still developing my will give room for future events. This can be termed as my major weakness in career planning but I am currently working on it.
Personal Journey Disciplines
On personal journey disciplines, I promote shared leadership since I have the required skills and knowledge that are required to manage councils which offer promotion for the shared leadership. I also apply action learning in the occurrence of a problem that needs a series of decisions to be solved. Action learning also gives me the opportunity to have a reflection on the decisions I make when solving problems.
Reflection as a Leadership Behavior
I have recently learned to employ reflection as a behavior in leadership. Reflection gives the leader a chance to have a look at their selves first before judging the actions of those under your jurisdiction. It is a leadership behavior that is very effective and if used appropriately, could yield plenty of positive effects as far as leadership in nursing is concerned.
Leadership Skills
I posses various skills as a leader that I have been using and that I intend to use as I advocate for change at my workplace. The first skill that I will use is performance management. This will involve having a staff evaluation at the end of every month to be able to observe their effectiveness. Performance management will also encourage staff members to set goals which will have effects even to my leadership as I will be dealing with a focused group that has their duties at heart (Derue et al, 2011). I will also be after staff development by offering training and education to them. The training will be on the various factors that affect them either positively or negatively. The training will also be on succession where I will be creating room for more nurses who would be having the capacity to take up responsibilities as leaders. Succession planning will motivate the staff since they will all be focused on getting promotions and therefore putting more efforts on whatever they set out to do. I also plan to improve on my decision making skills by coming up with more elaborate decisions that offer consideration to everybody affected by them.
Embracing Technology
We are leaving in an era where there are technological innovations happening every day (Derue et al, 2011). As a leader, I have understood how much the information technology industry is effective in nursing. I therefore plan to employ the use of technology to offer various services both to the nurses and to the patients. Technology is meant to make work easier and to that note, increasing the manpower available. Leaders are supposed to be mentors and role models (Hutchinson & Jackson, 2013). I plan to take up the responsibility as a role model by ensuring that every detail that I set out to do is in order and can be imitated by those under my jurisdiction. This would mean that I have to try to be close to perfect in a majority of my moves and decisions since those under me will be looking up to me. Finally, my plans are to improve on team dynamics since it is one sector that encourages positive performance greatly. I will do this by coming up with incentives that motivate all staff members to work as a group and acknowledge that they are one team. On employing all the above skills, I am very optimistic that there shall be a major change as far as my jurisdiction is concerned.
Involving Staff Members in Decision Making
My very important goal that I have set to aid in my leadership growth is on involving all staff members in decision making. I won't be settling on their ideas but I will welcome them and get a solution that best fits a better part, if not all their solutions. I plan to achieve this goal by creating platforms that give all staff members a chance to air their grievances without fear of victimization. It is from their grievances that I will be able to pluck out a number of problems that need to be solved and then brainstorm with them the most viable solutions to their needs. Once my goal is implemented, I will have an evaluation of staff performance before and after the implementation to see how effective the move will be.
References
Derue, D. S., Nahrgang, J. D., Wellman, N. E. D., & Humphrey, S. E. (2011). Trait and behavioral theories of leadership: An integration and meta-analytic test of their relative validity. Personnel psychology, 64(1), 7-52.
Hutchinson, M., & Jackson, D. (2013). Transformational leadership in nursing: towards a more critical interpretation. Nursing inquiry, 20(1), 11-22.
Makaroff, K. S., Storch, J., Pauly, B., & Newton, L. (2014). Searching for ethical leadership in nursing. Nursing ethics, 21(6), 642-658
Stanley, D. (2016). Clinical leadership in nursing and healthcare: Values into action. John Wiley & Sons.
