Combining Nurse Leader with Advocacy
Instructions:-
Rate yourself using the results from the “Nurse Manager Skills Inventory”: http://www.aone.org/resources/nurse-manager-skills-inventory.pdf
Write a reflection of 750-1,000 words in which you identify your strengths and weaknesses related to the four content areas below:
Personal and professional accountability
Career planning
Personal journey disciplines
Reflective practice reference behaviors/tenets
Discuss how you will use your current leadership skill set to advocate for change in your workplace.
Identify one personal goal for your leadership growth and discuss your implementation plan to achieve that goal.
Solution
Combining Nurse Leader with Advocacy
As a nursing student, I have grown to appreciate the importance of this career in saving lives and making patients comfortable. It is critical to take time and look at some important parts of the job to determine my ability to execute my mandate. The analysis on my areas of strength and weakness is a good way to help me understand myself well as well as working on my weaknesses.
Accountability
In many healthcare circles, the issue of professional accountability and responsible behaviour have been under increased scrutiny (Crnbc.ca, 2017). As nurses, we must behave in a manner that reflects professional conduct and responsibility at all times. One of my strengths is that I take care of my body physically, mentally and spiritually to make sure I am in the best frame for the job. I take part in contributing ideas towards policies to develop nursing further. My primary weakness is that I sometimes function out of my level of competence due to my passion for the profession.
Career Planning
It is important to have a sense of direction whole doing anything in life. Realising the importance of the intended direction of my career will help me put in the right measures to achieve my target (Borgatti, 2010). Career planning is critical for nurses who aim to have a long and fruitful practice. My main strength in career planning is my love for networking. I always on the lookout for seminars or conventions on nursing to talk to fellow professionals and understand the latest in education, technology, and the widespread occurrences. Networking makes me aware of my environment and allows me to compare my performance against others (Crnbc.ca, 2017). I like to volunteer my time off and offer my services to the needy in various capacities like teaching local kids about the importance of first aid. My weakness comes through my will to be independent. I do not have a mentor, like some of my colleagues, since I consider myself capable of carrying out my responsibility. It is I part of me that I am working on to get a better attitude about mentorship.
Personal Journey
Personal travel disciplines are there to guide someone to become a better leader in the long-term (Borgatti, 2010). In my nursing profession, I have embraced the notion of democratic leadership be giving every person an equal opportunity to air out their opinions when we work as a team. People are encouraged to get creative. Hence it is an excellent method for improving other people as well as myself. I encourage other team members to exercise their leadership skills and learn to take up responsibility in their respective areas of expertise. My main disadvantage is down to my impatience. I expect all members of the team to be up and running with no delays and I get frustrated when some members don’t display the important qualities.
Reflective Practises
Understanding and practising leadership behaviour at work is the basis of reflective practice. One of my main strengths is that I always try to hold myself to the highest levels of integrity at work and home. I encourage everyone around me to hold themselves accountable at all times. I also like to exercise my abilities to the maximum by reading extensively to improve and gain new ideas. My main disadvantage is perfectionism, and I might push other members too hard to achieve a perfect outcome.
Change in the Workplace
I intend to leverage my leadership qualities to achieve a professional working environment. I will lay emphasis on quality service delivery by recommending more dedication towards effective patient care. I will emphasise the importance of sharing information from senior to junior colleagues. Learning is a continuous process, and nurses tend to have very tight schedules. Getting time off to do personal reading can be a difficult task and hence planning classes where the new nurses get to mingle with the old ones is a good way to spread information. Regulation of the sessions is critical to making sure that the seniors don’t get patronising, making the whole exercise counterproductive.
Personal Goal: Self-awareness
The aspect of self-awareness is a vital one for any leader. I intend to improve my skills and ability to be more aware of my activities and surroundings more (Borgatti, 2010). I need to be mindful of the fact that I am dealing with people who have different levels and speeds of learning and hence be patient with everyone. Increased self-awareness will make me more empathetic as a leader and a better nurse in the long term. A self-aware leader understands the difficulties that all team members encounters and work with them in an appropriate manner. My implementation plan will involve taking twice as long to think before making a decision on any situation to make sure that I don’t judge based on emotions.
Conclusion
Leadership is an important quality in any nurse and it
ought to come from within. Taking responsibility and showing accountability are
important traits that will make nursing a more respectable profession. Nurses
must understand the direction of their careers and make the appropriate plans
to achieve their targets (Crnbc.ca,
2017). As a responsible nurse, I need to be a role model to
future ones and share information to make them better. Personal goals like
self-awareness will make me a better person all round.
References
Borgatti, J. (2010). Plan a career, not just a job – American Nurse Today. American Nurse Today. Retrieved 23 May 2017, from https://www.americannursetoday.com/plan-a-career-not-just-a-job-2/ Crnbc.ca. (2017). Professional Responsibility and Accountability. Crnbc.ca. Retrieved 23 May 2017, from https://crnbc.ca/Standards/ProfessionalStandards/Pages/ProfessionalAccountability.aspx
