Medical & Health // Combining Nurse Leadership with Advocacy
Combining Nurse Leadership with Advocacy
A recent study conducted in Finland on professional nursing practice with elderly patients revealed that 80.8% of the participants responded more to strong verbal and behavioral empowerment than to outcome empowerment (Roussell & Ratcliffe, 2013 p 42). Findings also showed the strong association of behavioral empowerment to education and work experience of the nurses (Roussell & Ratcliffe, 2013 p 42). The findings are of particular significance to nurse managers whose main function are planning, organizing, leading and controlling or evaluating.
Career Planning
Strengths
I got my first appointment as second-in-rank in a dialysis team for my second job as a nurse, a flattering sign of confidence in my skill and dedication after just my first job as a clinical nurse. My superior or manager intimated that she was impressed with my demonstrated interest and determination to learn as well as my diligence. My former manager in my first job recommended me to this new superior of a dialysis team. The team was first a project in a 600-bed tertiary, general hospital under the government’s department of health. The demand for dialysis grew steadily and attracted many clients as the incidence of kidney ailments increased. And for our professional and satisfying performance, our project – and team – was incorporated by the hospital as a line department. I was appointed second-in-rank to the manager.
Weakness
Being part now of a government arm in health, we in the team are expected to follow a strict set of rules and observances, which leave very little room for reflection and suggestions. And yet reflective activity is essential in all phases of nursing practice (Zuzelo, 2010 p 3). It is a very useful strategy in differentiating reflection on daily chores and on experience. It brings out what we feel and think about aspects of our work that will guide us in planning our career. Unfortunately, this opportunity is absent in our work and not even encouraged.
Personal Journey Disciplines
Strengths
As an individual nurse assistant manager, I am able to apply action learning and embark in reflective practice (AONE, 2015 p 7). I use the techniques of action learning when I am asked to solve problems or confront them spontaneously and then reflect on the decisions I make on them. My individual reflective practice includes what I know and practice about reflection as part of my function and behavior as the second leader.
Weakness
In our fifth year as a line department for dialysis in this government hospital, we have grown accustomed to rigidity of rules and bureaucracy. Despite my natural or tendency to self-explore, reflect and innovate, I am drowned by the huge demand for boring tasks on an everyday basis. We measure our services less on quality and more on quantity.
Reflective Practice Reference Behaviors or Tenets
Strengths
During our meetings and separate discussions with my nurse manager, I frequently try to introduce change in our practice. I emphasize the need to use contemporary as well as classic systems thinking when we discuss problems and making decisions (AONE, 2015 p 8). I have become the most imaginative and innovative member of the team because of my new way of thinking. I keep updated with developments in the nursing arena and new ways of dealing with both old and new problems. My manager is encouraged by the innovations and information I share with the team. She asks me to write formal reports on them and distribute them to the rest of our staff. I emphasize the need for systems as a way of thinking and mental models of behavior for our clinical staff members. I also stress the importance of nursing decisions on the entire healthcare industry and beyond out hospital. I share with them the different nursing paradigms that I learned in nursing school and suggest their application in our practice whenever appropriate and workable (Zuzelo, 2010 p 3).
Advocating Change in Our Workplace
Using my proven leadership skills, I advocate change in our workplace by convincing my manager to form a regular meeting or study sessions among us on new nursing trends, chronic or stubborn nursing issues and related matters. We make sure that the change we evolve is consistent with the goals and resources or capabilities of the hospital for acceptability by management. We then exert effort to elevate suggestions of change to management through channels and to sustain follow-ups of our proposals. Alongside, we maintain the already proven high-quality of delivery of dialysis service to our clients to back up our proposals.
Personal Goal for Leadership Growth and Plan
I have this deeply personal objective of contributing value to the last moments in the care of terminal or incurable kidney patients. Almost all of them are terminal and their life quality is very much diminished by the procedure. I intend to connect with a few of them and make their last moments the most meaningful as far as I can. I have actually begun doing this with a handful in a spontaneous manner by befriending them and sharing their feelings. I make them see life as more than something tangible and that their life on earth, regardless of the length, takes its meaning from the value they give each moment. Uplifting the spirit of these few in their last moments can be very fulfilling and may be therapeutic in prolonging their lives, which may otherwise be cut short by depression.
WORKS CITED
AONE (2015). Nurse executive competencies AONE. American Organization of Nurse Executives. Retrieved on September 22, 2017 from
http://www.aone.org/resources/nurse-manager-skills-inventory.pdf
Roussell, L. and Ratcliffe, C.(2013). Concepts and Theories Guiding Professional Practice.
Chapter 2. Ascend Learning Company: Jones and Bartlett Publishers, LLC. Retrieved on
September 22, 2017 from
http://www.jblearning.com/samples/0763757144/57144_ch02_018_049.pdf
Zuzelo, P. R. (2010). Strategic career planning: professional and personnel development.
The Clinical Nurse Specialized Handbook: Johns and Bartlett Publishing, LLC. Retrieved
on September 22, 2017 from
http://samples.jbpub.com/9780763761141/61141_CH01_001_032.pdf
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