At OAAPN, we already know that APRNs are extremely valuable to today’s healthcare system. The Nurse Practitioners, Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists, Clinical Nurse Specialists, and Certified Nurse Midwives among our members all hold critical roles in addressing the rise in chronic medical conditions, expanding access to healthcare, and meeting population health needs, especially for aging or underserved populations.
Ensuring the expanding and essential role of APRNs continues during these uncertain times, however, necessitates strong leadership – and that begins with developing personal leadership. Not only can honing your personal leadership skills help you in your own career but it can help you to affect change by inspiring others to work towards accomplishing both individual and organizational goals.
Using Personal Leadership to Advance Your Profession
While it takes an individual with specific qualities and characteristics to embrace their potential for personal leadership, all APRNs are already leaders in some capacity. Simply by providing patients to take appropriate steps in their treatment or acting as a mentor or preceptor to a less experienced APRN, you demonstrate personal leadership every day. And these skills can help you to make a greater impact on your patients and organizations can achieve better outcomes and alleviate burnout.
In addition to honing personal leadership skills in your day-to-day practice, you can further develop your skills by seeking out management opportunities and taking on leadership roles in professional industry organizations. Organizations like OAAPN offer roles in areas such as advocacy, activism, lobbying, and networking, and the connections you can make provide motivation, support, insight, and valuable feedback.
OAAPN Leadership Opportunities
As we grapple with the changes spurred by COVID-19, personal and professional leadership by APRNs has become a differentiator between low and high-quality healthcare and is linked to patient mortality, quality of patient care, and improved personal wellbeing. Understanding that improved healthcare options for all Ohioans are important to both the profession and the community as a whole, OAAPN seeks to strengthen the profession and provide resources to our members that they can’t get elsewhere.
At its core, the mission of OAAPN is to promote advanced practice nursing through practice, education, advocacy, and leadership. Of course, accomplishing the mission of OAAPN requires tireless effort and leadership of numerous volunteers who serve as Executive Officers, as Director’s-at-Large, and Regional Directors. We encourage all members of OAAPN to get involved, become a leader, and of course, If you are not already a member of OAAPN, we invite you to join today.