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Nursing Vulnerability Case Study

Decent Essays

Vulnerability is defined by Porter-O’Grady and Malloch (2015) as “openness to others and to new ideas” (p. 309). This paper will explore a time of vulnerability and risk-taking in my professional career; it will explore vulnerability in leadership and will identifying the risks, rewards and outcomes associated with vulnerability and risk. In 2012, the nursing director over critical care informed me that she had been asked to assume leadership responsibility for the emergency department and the air medical team, in addition to critical care. Consequently, with the added responsibility, she asked if I would consider leaving my current position as the nurse manager over Surgical Intensive Care (SICU), to accept a new position as the operations …show more content…

Achiever is my number one leadership strength (Rath, 2007). I worried that my lack of knowledge would prevent me from being successful and that the organization would suffer due to my inadequacies. The emergency department and AirMed have significant financial implications for the organization; these departments are dynamic and complicated. I also worried that my professional reputation, which I had worked hard to build, would be damaged if my leadership proved to be inadequate. Fortunately, I did not allow this fear to overwhelm me and thereby, limit my ability to progress professionally. I found by being open and humble about my lack of knowledge, while also sharing my enthusiasm to learn that the teams in the emergency department and AirMed were willing to teach me and despite my inexperience, they still looked to me as their leader. By allowing myself to be vulnerable and humble I was able to lessen the hierarchical feeling of my leadership position (Ito, 2016). The teams knew right off that I did not have all of the answers. Leaders need to be resilient in order to manage the ambiguity and risk associated with change, they need to act with determination, confidence and enthusiasm and avoid self-doubt and hesitation, if they are to inspire those around them (Porter-O’Grady & Malloch, 2015). I found that several of the emergency room nurses and flight nurses were former SICU nurses that knew me well. This familiarity with members of the team lessened my apprehension and helped me to bond quickly with the teams. Successful leaders need to be adept at finding needed information and at building relationships (Porter-O’Grady & Malloch, 2015). I did not possess the knowledge so I started with building relationships. I have been the clinical operations director for over four years now and I am pleased to say that my

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