Leadership Reflection of Nursing Experience

Your Experience Segment of Organizational Analysis

 

1. Reiterate the position and credentials of the nurse leader with whom you worked to meet the shadowing requirements of the course.

The Nurse leader to whom I shadowed to meet the shadowing requirements of this course is Mrs. Kalpana Garu. She is a BSN, RN and currently working in a Mercy Hospital Northwest Arkansas. She is working here as a Nurse Manager for 8 months in a medical/surgical unit. She has been in the Nursing profession continuously for 10 years. She was graduated from BSN program from the Maharajgunj Nursing Campus situated in Kathmandu, Nepal. After her graduation she worked for Grande International hospital as a registered Nurse for three years and then she was promoted as a Nurse Manager in a Medical/ Surgical unit. She came here in USA five years ago and has been working as a Nurse Manager of Medical/Surgical unit for eight months.

2. Briefly describe the types of leadership/management experiences or events that you observed or in which you participated. Relate your observations to your leader’s management position and leadership styles. Provide rationale to support your responses.

There are different types of leadership practiced in nursing profession by the nurse leaders. They are Quantum leadership, Servant leadership, Transactional leadership, Transformational leadership, Shared leadership, Emotional leadership, Democratic leadership, Authoritarian leadership and laissez-faire leadership. Among these leadership styles, I have observed or participated in Democratic leadership, authoritarian leadership and Transformational leadership styles. Democratic leadership involves the encouragement, open communication and staff participation in decision making process. Employees are provided responsibility with accountability and feedback about their overall performance. Democratic leader’s places more focus on quality improvement of systems and processes, rather than on mistakes of each team member (Nursing Leadership, 2014). This type of leadership was used by my nurse manager when I used to work in a hospital back in Nepal to manage the unit and the staffs on a daily basis. She used to involve us in almost every decision about the patient and for about the department and staffs. On the other hand, Authoritarian leadership involves making decision by the leader only without considering any input from employees. Autocratic leaders often use negative reinforcement and punishment to enforce rules. Mistakes are not accepted, and individuals are blamed rather than the faulty system and processes. It does not promote trust, communication and team-work. Hence, it is not used for day to day functions, but it can be beneficial and perfect to handle the emergencies or chaotic situations where there is very little time for discussion. Authoritarian leadership involves micromanagement (Nursing Leadership, 2014). Natural disaster called the Earthquake hit my country, Nepal three years back. At that emergency condition, my hospital used the authoritarian leadership because we had to handle and treat the huge mass of victims and had limited time to discuss. Leaders decided what to do and how to work in such situations. They ordered every staff to follow what they said. Another type of leadership which I have observed is the transformational leadership which involves sharing vision and mission with the employees and building relationship with employees and motivating them. Transformational leaders have the good communication skills. They inspire, motivate, encourage and praise the staffs and make them feel the valuable member in a team (Nursing Leadership, 2014). I observed this type of leader in a hospital where I used to work, but she was a nurse manager of the different unit. Her communication skill was excellent. Her motivational and inspirational talk used to add energy and enthusiasm among her employees.

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Being a Nurse, to manage is a very tough job. They have to manage and take care of their unit as well as their employees. They have a variety of responsibilities which they performed by providing leadership and guidance to their staffs, ensuring that the employees are properly and adequately trained, addressing personal problems to enhance a productive and supportive work environment, monitoring quality of patient care, collaborating with the top management teams and others as required to plan, implement and evaluate programs and services, reviewing patient and staff data to measure the effectiveness of patient care and applying evidence-based healthcare practices and nursing standards to their unit (Clinical Nurse Manager). Mrs. Kalpana, as a Nurse Manager performs her responsibilities so the other nurse mangers.

Among all the leadership styles which I have experienced or observed throughout my career, the nurse leader which I am shadowing is practicing democratic leadership and transformational leadership. She is in a Nurse Manager position in a Medical/surgical unit. I observed her leadership styles as democratic and transformational. One can easily identify her leadership style through her communication style with her employees, how she treats all of them, what she feels about them, how she involves them in her every decision about them as well as about the unit and how happy and satisfied her staffs are. For example: each staff in her unit has the responsibility along with accountability. They have a mutual respect between them and all the staff nurses work in collaboration with her. She conducts a meeting with all of her employees and asks for their views, ideas and feedback before making a decision about any new changes in the unit. Almost all of her staffs feel they are valuable members in the team and they always try to give their best output in their work. Similarly, I observed, she had a transformational leadership skill as well because she is that type of leader who always encourages her staffs to work hard. She always motivates all the employees in a positive way instead of being negative. When her staffs make mistakes also, they fearlessly confronted and asked her for help and her, being a leader, instead of blaming and punishing them, assure and support them, finds out the root cause of the problem and solve it accordingly with her best effort. She is a smart leader with good communication skill. She is very encouraging, inspiring and motivating and confident nurse manager for her staffs.

3. Would you like this position? Why or why not? What skills would you need to develop and how would you acquire them if you were interested in this position?

I would like that position but in future, not now because I think the job of Nurse Manager is very tough. A person need to have enough experience of working in a clinical setting and would need to be able to maintain healthy, collaborative team environment, mentor the other clinical nurses, recruit, select and guide the nursing staff. I personally think I am not ready for this position because I do not have experience of working in a clinical setting here in USA although I do have experience of working back in Nepal. I am just completing my education for BSN here and I think I need to work first of all as a RN in a hospital here and get to know all about them, how they run in the actual clinical setting. For present, I do not have good communication skill. I do not know about the systems and processes of healthcare organizations in USA in the actual clinical setting. I am not confident enough to handle the role effectively and most importantly I feel I am not mature enough to handle conflict smoothly and work through it. But in the coming future, after some years’ experience of working, if I get the chance, I would love to be a nurse manager. For that, I think I need a preparation from now. I need to learn how the nurse manager’s work, what are their responsibilities, how they lead all the nursing staffs and maintain a supportive, collaborative and encouraging environment. I think I need to work on skills beyond the clinical care which may be on communication and interpersonal skills to build a good rapport with all staff members, from the janitorial staff to head administrators, along with patients. Additionally, I need to focus on my skill to advocate because nurse managers need to advocate for their staff when needed to ensure safe and reasonable practice environment. They might have to advocate for patient and quality healthcare. I think I need to develop a skill to use my voice and position. I feel I need to develop my mentoring capability as well because once I become a nurse leader I have to guide, encourage, empower and motivate my staffs and enhance their strength and creativity. I also need to learn to act more professionally, address people with respect maintaining my own professional dignity, honesty and integrity.

I would acquire those skills by observation of nurse leaders, imitating their good qualities in my behavior, participating in professional organizations, following professional articles and journals, attending the professional conference and seminars and by practicing.

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