Leadership Attributes required for Graduate Level Nurses
Instructions:
Examine the attributes of leadership that may be needed for graduate level nurses.
Analyze your personal leadership attributes you feel you have that will help you in your graduate nursing role. Also discuss those attributes that you feel you may need to develop in your graduate nursing role.
Finish with a quotation from a library article related to leadership in an advanced nursing role. Look in some of the known leadership journals like The Journal of Nursing Scholarship or Nursing Leadership Forum or the American Journal of Nursing, Journal of Nursing Administration, Nursing Administration Quarterly, Nursing Management or Health Care Management Review.
Solution
Leadership Attributes required for Graduate Level Nurses
Graduate level nurses need leadership attributes to assist them to deliver high-quality service to their patients. Some of the key characteristics include the following: Sympathetic patients’ welfare, professionalism, accountability, interpersonal skills and contextual knowledge (Sheppanon, 2008). These skills are beneficial to the individual nurses and the health care facilities. It is, therefore, crucial for graduate nurses to nurture and develop these qualities to provide excellent service and attain professional growth in their field.
Firstly, the Sympathetic patients’ welfare attribute is concerned with empathy to the clients. The trait ensures that nurses listen to the opinions of their patients, understand the patient’s experiences and provide support. It also entails sensitivity to patient wellbeing. A nurse with this trait is a good listener, compassionate, and maintains the patient’s privacy. Secondly, Contextual knowledge means that a nurse requires knowledge of concerns associated with the nursing profession such as finance, healthcare economics, accessing resources, available social services and legal implication of malpractice. A nurse with this attributes well converses with their duties thus minimal mistake instances. Thirdly, Interpersonal skills are crucial to ensure peaceful coexistence and relations with other nurses. These skills prevent conflict which is inevitable due to the diverse backgrounds of the various practitioners.
Fourthly, the professionalism attributes are concerned with nurses displaying professional characteristics while working. A professional nurse is always a team player, focused on their duties and concerned with development. They obtain professional development via further learning and upward promotions in their relevant fields. Lastly, accountability is crucial as it ensures that nurses can justify their deeds and accept responsibility for those actions. The accountability is to themselves, the public, the employer and the profession. Accountability is essential for satisfactory service. Successful nurses have these five traits. Graduate nurses should, therefore, aspire to acquire them.
I have some few leadership attributes that I believe will assist me in my graduate nursing role. They include excellent organizational skills, emotional maturity, and transparency. Besides, I am presentable, a team player, empathetic, articulate, and thorough and passionate in what I do. However, I need to develop contextual knowledge in the nursing field. I will achieve contextual knowledge through completion of this course and training in my posting upon graduation. I also require more practice on caring for patients, listening to their concerns and understanding what they are facing. Lastly, I need to learn how to be more firm and assertive while showing compassion especially during instances of a patient facing financial challenges or when dealing with difficult patients.
In their article, Kelly, Runge and Spencer (2015) state that organizations need to invest in compassion fatigue and satisfaction to reduce the turnover of newly recruited nurses and the burnout associated with the above. Despite having leadership attributes, graduate nurses leave their positions with limited experience due to stress and burnout. Meaningful recognition will increase compassion satisfaction, impact retention and increase job satisfaction. The article proves that nurses require leadership qualities and important recognition to succeed in their various roles. They should, therefore, strive to develop the necessary leadership traits while healthcare facilities strive to create work environments that accommodate and encourage recently recruited nurses.
In conclusion, a graduate level
nurse requires leadership attributes to survive and grow in their respective
fields. However, facilities should aim at providing environs that are
encouraging to these young nurses in addition to the leadership attributes to
necessitate grown and maturity in the sector.
References
Kelly, L., Runge, J., & Spencer, C. (2015). Predictors of Compassion Fatigue and Compassion Satisfaction in Acute Care Nurses. Journal Of Nursing Scholarship, 47(6), 552-528.
Sheppanon, V. (2008). Desired attributes of new graduate nurses as identified by the rural community (Masters). School of Rural Health University of Melbourne,.