The Role of Leadership in Nursing: Insights from a Nurse Manager

Understanding Leadership in Nursing

Task:

Leadership plays a vital role in nursing.  In nursing it is studied as a way to increase the knowledge, skills, and abilities that nurses need to facilitate clinical and administrative outcomes while working with people across a variety of situations, settings, and sites (Huber, 2018, p.1).  Huber, (2018) defines leadership a process of influencing people to accomplish a common goal; and defines management as the coordination and integration of resources through planning, organizing, coordinating, directing, and controlling to accomplish specific institutional goals and objectives (Huber, 2018, p.2).

Comprehension

The nurse manager selected to interview is a master’s degree nurse and has attended numerous in-house training before and after accepting the position.  Obtained her Bachelor of Science in nursing at City College School of Nursing located in New York. She has her Master of Science in nursing with a concertation in leadership, which was obtain at Walden University.  She is currently certified as an Inpatient Obstetric Nurse (RNC) and Electronic Fetal Monitoring (EFM).  She is the nurse manager for labor & delivery and antepartum. Velonie has been in the nursing field for twenty-seven years.  Worked in step-down intensive care unit (ICU) for three years as a bedside nurse to develop foundational skills in nursing and then transitioned to labor and delivery as a bedside nurse.  It felt like the right move for me, I gravitated in labor and delivery and quickly learned the skills I needed in order to manage care (V.Blake, personal communication, June 18, 2019).  After about three years as a labor and delivery nurse she was offered a position to become a charge nurse.  Accepted the position and became more confident in skills and was excited to be the person that staff will come to for guidance.  She was a charge nurse for two and half years before getting offered the position to become assistant nurse manager, and eventually transitioning to nurse manager.  As she reflected on how she worked her way up, she stated it has been a wonderful journey thus far.

The nurse manager has an extensive background in nursing leadership; she has been a nurse manager for sixteen years in women’s health.  According to Hallock (2019) the Institute of Medicine incorporated four key messages that nurses should work towards in order to be a nurse leader.  They are as follows: 1. Nurses should practice to the full extent of their education and training. 2. Nurses should achieve higher levels of education and training through an improved education system that promotes seamless academic progression. 3. Nurses should be full partners with physicians and other health professionals in redesigning health care in the Unites States. 4. Effective workforce planning and policy making require better data collection and an improved information infrastructure (Hallock, 2019).

Reviewing the information that was provided in the interview the nurse manager poses these qualities outlined by the Institute of Medicine.  As a nurse manager interchangeably with unit managers she is placed in the chain of command as the third person.  For instance, our organization chain of command highest ranking nurse is first the chief nursing officer, second the director of nursing, third the nurse manager/unit manager, charge nurse, and lastly the staff nurse.  If the nurse manager is experiencing any dilemmas that she is unable to resolve, she will then report it to the director of nursing for the women’s tower.  The nurse manager has a close relationship with the director of nursing, and she has been a great mentor since she accepted the position.  The director of nursing has an extensive background in nursing bringing to the table thirty plus years and also has held an official seat in the Association of Women’s Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses (AWHONN).  Nurse manager everyday job functions includes plans, organizes, and directs the day to day operations of the nursing staff in a given unit including staff supervision and communications with physicians and administrators to provide optimal patient care.  Also working with the director to control cost and spending of the unit.  Made aware of working closely with materials management to control the demand of supplies and reducing the costs if needed be.  The nurse manager also serves a chief retention and safety officer and ensures that safety and quality standards are met by utilizing evidence-based practice, data and technology to make imperative decisions.