A Nurse Leader Interview : Bessie Marquis

Observing and analyzing my leader opened my eyes to the amount of responsibility and knowledge one needs to be a great leader. These responsibilities that were witnessed during the shadowing project included aspects of role modeling, mentoring and educating fellow staff and colleagues alike. My leader possessed a well-rounded amount of experience, skills and knowledge about nursing and her management role. All of these aspects we observed and I feel my leader is not only strong nurse, manger and mentor; all these aspects contribute to making her a fine and valuable assets to our organization.

The role of a nurse leader is invaluable to the performance and ultimate success of an entire nursing team whose goal is to provide excellent patient care. There are a few key characteristics that define a nursing leader. The first characteristic is one who communicates effectively and is accountable on all levels, from the patient and their family to the interdisciplinary members and senior staff. Effective communication and accountability are characteristics of an individual who

Nursing leaders are crucial to any nursing organization. They motivate, empower, influence, and communicate the organization’s vision to create change within the organization. Great nursing leadership depends on great nursing leaders. This paper will define nursing leadership and describe leadership characteristics. It will further depict the democratic style and transformational theory of nursing leadership. While exploring leadership in action, this paper will illustrate the aspects of nursing.

Leadership has been defined in a number of ways, but the concept is still indefinable (Barr and Dowding 2016). Buchanan and Huczynski (2010, p. 596) define leadership as “a process of influencing the activities of an organised group in its efforts towards goal-setting and goal achievement”. In clinical practice, leadership translates to an ability to direct other to achieve evidence-based practice that supports enhanced patient outcomes (Kelly-Hiedenthal 2004). Like any other industries and organisations, an effective leadership skill is vital in the healthcare sector to improve the standards of the care and to achieve organisational goals (Bach and Ellis 2015). Sullivan and Decker (2004) stated that nurses often step up to the

Leadership at times can be a complex topic to delve into and may appear to be a simple and graspable concept for a certain few. Leadership skills are not simply acquired through position, seniority, pay scale, or the amount of titles an individual holds but is a characteristic acquired or is an innate trait for the fortunate few who possess it. Leadership can be misconstrued with management; a manager “manages” the daily operations of a company’s work while a leader envisions, influences, and empowers the individuals around them.

In healthcare it is very important to have strong leaders, especially in the nursing profession. A nurse leader typically uses several styles of leadership depending on the situation presented; this is known as situational leadership. It is important that the professional nurse choose the right style of leadership for any given situation to ensure their employees are performing at their highest potential. Depending on which leadership style a nurse leader uses, it can affect staff retention and the morale of the employees as well as nurse job satisfaction (Azaare & Gross, 2011.) “Nursing leaders have the responsibility to create and maintain a work environment which not only promotes positive patient outcomes but also

Leadership, one of the seven professional standards outlined by the College of Nurses of Ontario (CNO), discusses how nurses are to be leaders in the workplace and with patients. This includes teaching health practices as well as promoting good health.

Leadership is in many ways a responsibility, whether it’s an appointed job as a leader or a role you find yourself in unexpectedly you must perform adequately not just to accomplish the given task but to also have those following you achieve a given goal. Some are natural born leaders, taking responsibilities for self, never pointing fingers and possessing the ability to find solutions to the obstacles that arise. Others can learn how to lead and achieve the same results. In the medical field, when we look to our leaders it is so that they can lead us to be able to provide and deliver safe quality

Leadership and management are essential to any health care organization, balancing patient care, employees, physicians, and the organization. Nursing is founded on interpersonal relationships. As a people-oriented profession, nursing leadership styles are influenced by humanism. The mission, attitude, and behaviors of a health care organization begins with its leadership, which creates the direction and purpose of the organization. The purpose of this paper is to differentiate between leadership and management, describe views of leadership, and explain the

Not all nurses go into the profession with leadership ideas. The nursing profession must produce leaders throughout the health care system. Leaders must function as workers, and administrators with leadership qualities, while still meeting their budgets and running effective units with high functioning and happy staff members. They need to trouble shoot necessary and work with the medical faculty while pleasing their staff and the administers.

Nurse leaders inspire others to work together in quest of a shared goal, for instance, improved patient care. The nurse leader is a critical thinker, sets goals, uses effective communication, and recognizes the emotional needs of others (Roskoski, 2012). Nurse leaders carry out any changes that are to be made that have been implemented by management.

Leadership may mean different things to different people, the consensus opinion of experts in this field is that leadership is using power to direct and influence activities of people to achieve set goals or targets. Nursing leadership is all about every nurse providing, facilitating and promoting the best healthcare services to client and to the public. Leadership is a shared responsibility. (CNO 2012). The nursing profession need leaders that can build the capacity of nurses through mentoring, coaching, supporting, developing the expertise and management skills of nurses to make a difference to the quality of patient care at all levels of the profession ( McIntyre & McDonald, 2014 ). At the core of every leadership either political or managerial is power and how the leader uses it. While it is practically impossible to lead without power, how the nurse leader uses this power not only determine the leadership style but also the results or outcomes of what is achieved through the process.

Leadership does not always come with a title or prestige. Every nurse has within themselves qualities that make them a great leader. Leadership by definition, “is a combination of intrinsic personality traits, learned leadership skills, and characteristics of the situation (Cherry& Jacob (2013 p. 335). A leader is one who has the capacity and skills to direct or encourage others in efforts to achieve an outcome. I recently completed a self-assessment on my perceived leadership abilities. The survey was called the Nurse Manager Skills Inventory (Nurse Manager Leadership Partnership, 2008). It consists of four content areas of which I will address and identify my strengths and weaknesses.

Interview of a nurse leader. Last week, one nurse a friend told me about an amazing colleague in her practice who she considered to be a transformational leader. This nurse is called Genine who incidentally works as an administrative and managerial nurse supervising other teams of nurses. She told me that Genine comes from a poor family in Ireland, and that she came here to support herself and her family. The amazing thing, she told me, about Genine is that she seems to be anchored within herself. She is constantly and genuinely friendly and warm to anyone regardless of religion, ethnic background, and socio-economic factors and so forth. Everyone, in turn, likes and respects Genine. And more so, Genine seems to be undisturbed by anyone's particular opinion of her. Intent on doing what is right and on performing her job in eh maximum quality, Genine consistently acts in an ethical manner, consults her conscience and internal measurements rather than hankering for approval of others, and seems to be consistently content and peaceful. My friend described Genine as having a certain 'Nirvana' the kind of blissful, detached from desires contentment that Buddhism espouses. In turn, Genine is consistently beleaguered by colleagues who seek her advice, patients who want just her to help them, and many, many people who tell her their problems.

Thank you for your post. I enjoyed reading about your experiences with your nurse leader. I have worked with two laissez-faire leaders. Marquis and Huston (2015) characterized this type of leaders as being permissive, providing little direction, dispersing decision-making throughout the group, and someone who does not criticize. The first manager I encountered with this style of leadership when I was a pediatric intensive care unit nurse. Many times the staff would get frustrated with her because it seemed like she did not give much direction. Later, I joined the pediatric transport team, and this same person was also the manager of the transport team. The staff of this department liked her style of leadership. This group was a highly