The healthcare industry is constantly and rapidly changing, and it is only with strong nurse leadership that nurses will continue to grow and help to shape a smarter healthcare delivery system for the future. In fact, effective nursing leadership is essential to optimizing the delivery of healthcare services in medical institutions of all sizes.
Nurses make up the largest segment of the healthcare workforce and spend more one-on-one time with patients than any other role. It is not surprising then that nurses significantly impact – either positively or negatively – patient care. But more than just impacting patient care, nurses, through their leadership, directly impact an organization’s overall drive, performance, and people, including caregivers and patients alike.
What is a Nurse Leader?
The American Nurses Association’s Leadership Institute describes a nurse leader as one who is:
- Interested in excelling in the chosen career path
- A leader within a healthcare organization, representing the interests of the nursing profession
- A seasoned nurse or healthcare administrator who seeks to differentiate themselves or advance to the next level of leadership by refining their skills
What Qualities are Important to Leadership in Nursing?
There are a variety of character traits crucial towards building trust with employees, making informed decisions that enhance the quality of patient care — and becoming an effective nurse leader. Nurse leaders often are described as being encouraging, inspirational, and supportive, but they also must be able to evolve as the nursing profession itself experiences ongoing changes. Common traits include:
- A passion for and commitment to clinical excellence
- The capacity to build authentic relationships and earn trust with staff
- The confidence to inspire and drive change in the nursing practice
- An open-mindedness to ideas and innovations that can improve patient outcomes
- The willingness to embrace empirical data as a measure of quality performance
- An interest in the professional development and workplace satisfaction of the staff
- An open, honest communication style that respects conflicting opinions
- The determination to exhibit nursing best practices at all times and lead by example
Why is Leadership in Nursing Important?
Even before COVID-19, the healthcare system was facing numerous challenges including the aging baby boomer population, the shortage of physicians, the retirement of registered nurses and health care reform. Now, the global pandemic has placed increasing demands on the healthcare system that require fast responses from healthcare providers and the leadership of nurses to adequately respond.
As we grapple with the changes spurred by COVID-19, the leadership in nursing becomes a differentiator between low and high-quality healthcare. In fact, effective leadership in nursing has been linked to patient mortality, quality of patient care and patient satisfaction, and better staff wellbeing and morale.
LEAP Leadership Series
OAAPN is proud to partner with Pam Maxson, Phd, ACC, of Periscope Coaching, to deliver a variety of four week LEAP leadership workshops aimed at providing Ohio APRNs with the tools they need in their journey towards personal and professional growth and development.
This opportunity is perfect for any APRN who wants to:
- Become the leader they are meant to be both personally and professionally
- Take identity-drive, rather than emotion-driven action
- Build a network of peers to support their growth
- Stop reacting and start being intentional at work and in life
- Eliminate self-sabotaging behaviors in work and in life.
The LEAP Leadership Series is offered at OAAPN member and non-member pricing. Each series will consist of four, 90-minute weekly sessions. Participants can purchase each series individually or as part of a four or five series bundle. There is limited space available – so register today!