NUR 4827- Nursing Leadership Reflection Paper

NUR 4827- Nursing Leadership Reflection Paper

NUR 4827- Nursing Leadership Reflection Paper

Nursing leadership and development mean a great deal to me as I prepare to finish my BSN. One question stands out apart from the many explored in this course: what does it mean to be a leader in healthcare? Throughout this course, I have found many situations where I felt compelled to take on leadership roles. The projects, the coursework, the reading all led me to believe that leaders are primarily born and are further developed as they become more educated.  In the BSN program, I feel I’ve transitioned from being more passive in terms of completing team projects to taking on more aggressive leadership roles.

                Being a leader in healthcare is about more than simply taking aggressive stances in course work. Leadership is about inspiring others and serving those whom you lead. One of the primary concepts of leadership we’ve learned about is that of servant leadership. Servant leadership embodies many of the values I consider primary to that which makes a person a great nurse and leader. Empowering others through servitude and devoting oneself to a team or group of people enables you (the leader) to move beyond a “boss” relationship; it earns trust and respect which are fundamental to a strong organization.

                I have conducted many interviews throughout my years working at gas stations as a manager. I had led many people as well. The concepts and information I’ve picked up in this course have been invaluable to be as I take retrospective looks into my history as a manager and now as a nurse. When I had conducted the mock interviews in this course, I learned a great deal about what characteristics are becoming of a good interviewer with a much lower emphasis on what to expect from an interviewee. For instance, an interviewer must ask questions that are not simply pertinent to the specified job, but they must also allow for the longest possible answer from the job candidate to illicit a broader response.   I have always felt a compulsion to focus narrowly on job-specific information in interviews without paying much attention to the more subtle characteristics a person can display. These lessons will serve me very well in the future as I develop myself as a nurse leader.

                Leadership is ultimately rooted in the highest levels of responsibility. In this course, we were able to be treated to an attorney visiting our class to speak about many wide-ranging healthcare issues. Many of our questions were answered about topics such as: labor laws, staffing issues, and ethical treatment of employees. It was absolutely fascinating to hear an experienced professional speak so frankly about the realities of the healthcare workplace that I wished that we could have had more time discussing additional topics.

                Nursing leadership has taught me more than I thought I was capable of learning, and for that I am truly grateful. I’ve always felt naturally compelled to lead my fellow staff and after this course, I feel as if I have legitimate tools to apply to my career and help accelerate me to more responsibility!