Nursing Leadership
Nursing Leadership
Laura Edwards
Submitted to Jeanne Morrison PhD, MSN in partial fulfillment of
NR622 Advanced Leadership Concepts
Regis University
October 15, 2011
Nursing Leadership
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.
Nursing Leadership Definition
“Leadership has many different meanings” (Northouse, 2010, p. 2). Leadership defines a process where the leader influences others to achieve a common goal. Nursing leadership involves a process, which includes influence, working with groups, and working to attain common goals as per evidenced based practice.
As with the process of leadership, characteristics are the framework of leadership. Spears (2002) writes having something in trust for someone, helping someone to heal, and understanding and accepting others are basic characteristics to possess in order to be a leader. All of the following characteristics incorporate a life-long learning experience to achieve leadership.
Awareness and listening are the most important, because the meaning of what one is saying is more important than the spoken word. Persuading others, to look beyond themselves and think of the team as a whole, is crucial to successful leadership. To execute a strategic plan, leadership requires developing foresight to project for the future growth of the community. Over time, a leader learns to develop staff. Staff development requires a directive approach early in the new nurse’s job and evolves into a supportive approach as the nurse demonstrates a
Laura Edwards
Submitted to Jeanne Morrison PhD, MSN in partial fulfillment of
NR622 Advanced Leadership Concepts
Regis University
October 15, 2011
Nursing Leadership
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.
Nursing Leadership Definition
“Leadership has many different meanings” (Northouse, 2010, p. 2). Leadership defines a process where the leader influences others to achieve a common goal. Nursing leadership involves a process, which includes influence, working with groups, and working to attain common goals as per evidenced based practice.
As with the process of leadership, characteristics are the framework of leadership. Spears (2002) writes having something in trust for someone, helping someone to heal, and understanding and accepting others are basic characteristics to possess in order to be a leader. All of the following characteristics incorporate a life-long learning experience to achieve leadership.
Awareness and listening are the most important, because the meaning of what one is saying is more important than the spoken word. Persuading others, to look beyond themselves and think of the team as a whole, is crucial to successful leadership. To execute a strategic plan, leadership requires developing foresight to project for the future growth of the community. Over time, a leader learns to develop staff. Staff development requires a directive approach early in the new nurse’s job and evolves into a supportive approach as the nurse demonstrates a
References: Judge, W. Q. (1999). The leader’s shadow: Exploring and developing executive character. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc. Northouse, P. G. (2010). Leadership: Theory and practice (5th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc. Spears, L. C., Lawrence, M. (eds.) (2002). Focus on leadership: Servant-leadership for the twenty-first century Townsley, C. A. (n.d.). Resolving conflict in work teams. The team building directory. Retrieved on September 28, 2011 from: World Health Organization. (2007). Team building. Retrieved September 21, 2011 from: http://www.who.int/cancer/modules/Team%20building.pdf Valentine, S. (2002). Nursing leadership and the new nurse. Journal of Undergraduate Nursing Scholarship (4)1