Leadership in Nursing - Essay Example

?Running Head: Leadership in Nursing Leadership in Nursing [Institute’s Leadership in Nursing Introduction Since centuries, thenotion of caring (Peterson’s, 2010) has remained a major component of human societies, and today, even in midst of advancements in the field of information technology and more specifically, medical science, one can observe the significant role of nursing that plays a pivotal role in ensuring quick recovery of patients in different healthcare environments. Although doctors and surgeons play the leading role, however, experts (Peterson’s, 2010) believe that nurses have to play the major role in terms of care of the patients. In other words, nurses become a caretaker, a guardian, a partner, a friend, and at the same time, an adviser that take special care of her/his patients to enable them to recover soon and live their life in a healthy manner (Crisp et al., 2005). In this regard, one can found innumerable cases and examples where nurses have been caring and have brought changes in patients’ lives. For this reason, nursing (Peterson’s, 2010) is a respectable and a profession in demand, and will always remain respectable and in demand. At the same time, I believe that nursing though being a profession is an art that involves some personal touches from the individual, as one can acquire nursing-related education from the academic institution but to be a nurse, one should be caring, compassionate, considerate, etc that becomes an art and a self-thing rather than a job. Since my childhood until now, I went through different phases that brought me closer to the families living in my community. Our neighborhood was a tight-knit locality where celebration or even tragedy would become friends and even strangers come together to celebrate or share the moments jointly. In this regard, my decision to go in the nursing profession (Peterson’s, 2010) was an outcome of a moment of my life when I came across a tragedy, death of a loved one in our community. While recalling my memory, I remember the feelings of compassion and kindness that everybody in the community showed to each other, especially during final days of that loved one. I saw how each individual reduced the pain in a different way as everybody took the death in his or her own perspective. In specific, from that experience, I now relate and interact with patients and their family members as someone from my community that went through the same experience of losing a loved one and that enables me to reduce my anxiety, and at the same time, reduce their pain during taking care of the patients. In other words, nowadays, I put efforts to acquire a different perspective of life in an optimistic manner and employ my knowledge and learning of medical education as my contribution as a nurse. Besides the experiences that influenced me in becoming a registered nurse, my connection with God has been another notion that has been facilitating me in appreciating people and their relationships, and this relation helps me in taking life as it happens. In this regard, I believe that service is not a thing of everyone and different events of my life and relationship with God has taught me that the major purpose of life is to live for others and very few have really the heart to do that. The learning I have acquired through being a Registered Nurse at the Fresenius Medical Center, as well as at Jefferson Hills Manor have influenced me to perform my best for the betterment of other people both on and off duty. Besides acquisition of Bachelor of Science Degree in Nursing from California University of Pennsylvania, experiences such as volunteering had been very constructive in making me an ambitious person that now ignites me to do everything in life for the sake of other people. In addition, working as dynamic organizations such as Fresenius Medical Center and Jefferson Hills Manor as a registered nurse and patient care technician, I have been successful in developing calmness, character, and skills to be caring in the moments of anxiety and stress. As earlier mentioned, faith has been a major contributor in making me a successful nurse and leader in the field, and it ignited the desires to get involved in voluntary services as well to help people in the time of need voluntarily, as for instance, during the disastrous Hurricane Katrina. From voluntary experiences, I have acquired learning that though education is very essential and important; however, to be a great nurse, it requires more than a textbook and more than lecture notes. With every patient, a nurse has been caring in the same and similar way regardless of culture, creed, race, social class, etc. In addition, a nurse while at the work receives an opportunity to make a positive change in someone’s life (Nettina, 2006) and not everybody in this world get such kind of power and responsibility to bring major alterations in people’s lives. In this regard, through my experiences from childhood teenager to a registered nurse, I have been able to become self-confident and at the same time, have learnt to stay serene in times of stress that is one of the major qualities and reasons of my success as a nurse. During an instance at a hospital after Katrina catastrophe, I served as a nurse at an emergency medical station that subsequently became the emergency local medical center. During this experience, I came across extraordinary instances in the virtual emergency rooms that were nothing like the usual hospital training that I had gone through during the university. During the nursing care, we confronted many difficulties while providing medical resources to the patients and their family members, and I found myself relating with the patients that were appealing for help and at the same time, were worried about their missing loved ones. In such situations, it is very imperative for nurses to stay calm and in self-control to deal with the patients and their family members (Miller, 2008), and I believe that it was the most professional experience of my life that would have taken me closest to the level of nursing and patient care. During the experience, I saw strangers coming out to help each other that was quite resembling the moments from my childhood neighborhood. Now, I believe that the same instance and similar later instances have brought specific changes in my personality that has made me a successful nurse, and at the same time, a leader at my place. I believe that it requires great determination, mental maturity, and spiritual understanding to be a nurse, and I have been successful in having the same during my life. Little instances such as listening to patients when they expect someone to listen, caring for them while listening to their stories of survival are something that has now become a part of my life and will remain as one of the biggest strengths of my personality. In specific, if succeeded, I will follow the dream that God put in my heart to work in a reputable company where I can learn, grow, and be able to continue my education in the nursing field, and contributed as a nurse. In this regard, I will bring the same to my confidence as a lifelong learner. Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) Since few years, MBTI - Myers Briggs Type Indicator (Bayne, 1997) has become one of the major instruments for evaluating someone’s personality (Burger, 2007) today around the globe. In specific, experts and psychologists are nowadays referring MBTI as means of bringing alterations and seeking an insight into someone’s future. For this purpose, the paper will now include results of my MBTI test that will help me in understanding my leadership role in the field of nursing. Before discussing the results, analysis has indicated that the major objective of MBT indicator is to enable individuals to evaluate their perspectives that they have about their outside world and at the same time, allow them to figure out the factors that can facilitate them in playing a vital role during different decision-making instances (Miller, 2008). In specific, the MBTI test in fact endeavors to classify individuals as “either Extraverts or Introverts (E versus I), either Sensing or Intuitive (S versus N), either thinkers or feelings (T versus F), and either Judgers or Perceivers (J versus P). In this regard, the results can be one of the sixteen personality types” (Bayne, pp. 14-16, 1997). For instance, an extrovert, sensing, perceiver, and judging person would be ESPJ personality type. According to MBTI result, I seem to have an ENFP type personality. Analysis has indicated that ENFP personalities are generally energetic and responsive individuals. They have their own world of opportunities and possibilities and are moderately impulsive and quick responder that helps me in performing my work as a nurse effectively. However, this explanation of MBTI (Bayne, 1997) does not mean that ENFP individuals are not ambitious and they do have their objectives and goals in life but it indicates that ENFP people are spontaneous to alter their course of action in order to achieve a different and wider perspective or goal. In addition, ENFP people are value driven, inspirational, and encouraging ones (Bayne, 1997) who give significance to their lives, take it as a blessing, and put their efforts to make the most of it. Further scrutiny of my results has shown that society usually adore people with ENFP personality due to their warmness, friendliness, understanding nature (Bayne, 1997), and more particularly, ENFP people love to know new people and increase their social circle that matches certainly with my profession on nursing, as it allows me to know different people from diverse backgrounds. Furthermore, it has been an observation that people with such personality traits usually stay happy; however, not when they confront strict schedules and detailed tasks that indicate the stress that I often confront during nursing hours (Bayne, 1997); however, from experience, I have attained skills to manage and avoid stress during and after work. Still, results show that ENFP people adore working with flexibility, little command, imagination, and creativity (Bayne, 1997). Another imperative point that I came across during the MBTI test (Bayne, 1997) is the risk-taking abilities of ENFP individuals that allows them often to achieve things that might remain impossible for others. This point matches certainly with my experiences in the field of nursing that indicates the reason of my success in the field. In particular, some of the major careers for ENFP individuals are teaching, acting, counseling, nursing, writer, journalist, and others (Bayne, 1997). In this regard, from these results and discussion of different personality traits, there is consistency between my nursing profession and results of MBTI test. Specifically, both of them propose that I am an outgoing person, sociable, responsive, cooperative, sensitive to other’s needs, spontaneous, modestly unorganized but creative (Bayne, 1997). Leadership It is an understanding that every individual seems to have a different personality according to his or her mental and physical capabilities; however, at the same time, it is very imperative that individuals should put efforts to benefit from the opportunities to achieve success in their field, and in their lives. In this regard, I feel fortunate to come across a number of instances and opportunities that enabled me to develop my personality with the acquisition of medical education that enriched me personally. Now, I am self-confident, have been accomplishing things, taking different challenges, and fulfilling my responsibilities as a successful nurse, and at the same time, a virtual leader at my workplace. In addition to strengths, every human being has few weaknesses as well that may look as a flaw (Marquis & Huston, 2008); however, it depends on the individual to either let it be as a weakness or put efforts to turn that weakness into a strength with the implementation of academic capability and emotional maturity. In a similar way, while analyzing my experiences and my journey of becoming a successful nurse leader in the field, I take my altruistic personality as a weakness that often limits my capabilities in this materialistic world. However, at the same time, I have worked hard and have been using my humane traits as a successful registered nurse in the field of healthcare. In this regard, I believe that a balanced approach with my strengths and weaknesses have turned me into a stable and ambitious person, imperative for becoming a successful leader nurse to bring constructive alteration in the society. In particular, it has been my observation that leaders always play a critical role in determining success or failure of an organization (Marquis & Huston, 2008). Personally, it becomes the responsibility of an individual to provide a vision and a direction to the team members once he/she takes the seat of a leader. In addition, a leader must have the vision of identifying potential opportunities, and at the same time, should have the courage to confront issues and resolve them effectively. In other words, a leader steers the car of an organization that may reach its destination and on contrary, may end up in an accident (Huber, 2006). In this regard, leadership has the power of altering behavior and perspectives of individuals, and I believe that such an understanding of leadership has enabled me in becoming a prosperous leader in my field of nursing by relating with behaviors and attitudes of my colleagues, patients, and their family members. From my experiences, I have come to an understanding that the major confrontation of a leader is to deal with diverse perspective of team members (Hayes, 2002), I have been dealing with the same during my job at Fresenius Medical Center, and I dealt the same as well at Jefferson Hills Manor. In specific, there, I came across people from diverse backgrounds under my leadership; however, I took the responsibility as a challenge, resolve the issues with self-confidence, and I was successful in providing a vision to my team members in the healthcare organizational setup. One of my most successful approaches has always been to toss few perspectives of my vision in front of my colleagues while acquiring their responses being a good listener, and then, putting efforts to alter those perspectives into a shared vision. Such approach has always been advantageous for me in developing a constructive environment where deliberations offer a notion of ownership to my colleagues that improve the process of tasks performance. In this manner, I perform my tasks as a collaborative leader while confronting few risks that may result in benefits for the healthcare organization I am working in ultimately. I believe that risks are central in the leadership and it is imperative for a leader to confront risks as no lunch is free in this world (Bethune & Turner, 2010), and therefore, challenges and issues are important for successful leadership. As earlier discussed, during my life, I came across various opportunities at different healthcare organization as a registered nurse and I was lucky to work as a leader during some instances. During such instances, I was successful in understanding various procedures of patient care and treatment plans, as although a leader does not perform each task; however, he/she should be aware about every perspective of the issue, in order to lead the team effectively. Lastly, analysis of my personality indicates that my style is that of a transformational leadership (Marshall, 2010) that facilitates my team members in accomplishing tasks, as well as motivates my patients to recover quickly. In specific, transformational leadership model indicates controlling of team members by a leader while allowing the team members to develop their individual goals in a collective manner. Such a leadership style (Marshall, 2010) includes development of a shared vision that results in long-term success. From test results and the discussion, I have come to an understanding that I am convinced, adore confronting risks and issues, and have been victorious in accomplishing my goals through passion making me a potential leader and a successful nurse. Lastly, with the much that I have already acquiring in my life and a strong commitment and ambition for more, it is my belief that I will be successful in contributing in the growth and development of my own personality, family, community, and the entire world as a successful nurse. Future Conclusively, the most imperative component of this paper is this section as it includes comparison and conclusion of all the discussion and scores analyzed. After the incorporation of scores and discussion from the former sections of the paper, it is very clear and there is perfect response to the query that there is a match between my profession and my personality traits. The optimistic perspective of this depiction is that a nurse should be very understanding, supportive, affectionate, welcoming, considerate, concerned for others, compassionate, and a good leader and according to my results for the tests, I am a package comprising all of these. However, on the other side, as the discussion indicates that a nurse has to carry out a very imperative task of organizing herself. Now, this is modestly absent in me, which are “strategic” and “planning;” however, it is my belief that by preparing little things in my everyday life, creating more specific goals and carrying out their evaluation after every now and then, I will be able to include this trait in my personality as well. Finally, I will be putting more efforts to enhance my capabilities and polish my strengths to become a better nurse leader in the future. References Bayne, R. (1997). The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. Nelson Thornes. Bethune, E., Turner, D. (2010). Leadership in Nursing. 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