Teaching as an Important Part of Nursing - Essay Example

? Interview of Healthcare Leader Could you speak a bit about your background and the role you have today? Teaching is an important part of nursing. As a nursing educator, I used to teach and co-ordinate several types of planning for the registered nurses. I am teaching about several aspects of clinical nursing to the trainee nurses. I have received Master of Science degree in the field of nursing. I have an expertise in clinical nursing area that deals directly with the subject. I am assigned to develop several important projects and education programs that will impact on patient care. My role is to advise and guide my students that can motivate them to engage in scholarly work. Moreover, I have to prepare nursing conferences to educate the trainee nurses about several aspects of clinical nursing. I have to maintain clinical components. I always try to contribute to the academic community through effective leadership roles. How would you describe a leader? A leader is an individual who have a clear vision. A leader can provide strong commitment and drive his or her team towards the vision. Effective leadership skills can make it happen. Leadership is the process of social influence. A person can enlist the support and aid of other associates in the triumph of a common task. Effective leaders expertly organize a group of individuals to accomplish a common objective. In healthcare sector, leaders need to manage and control each and every healthcare team of doctors, nurses and support staffs. It can help the organization to maintain its organizational vale. Effective leadership in healthcare organization will help to take care of the needs of patients who seek for significant treatment and care. What are important qualities or characteristics of leaders? A leader needs to have positive attitude, behavior and personality that can drive a group of people towards the developed objective. A leader needs to be trusted by other. He or she should have superior integrity and honesty. A true leader should be enthusiastic about his or her work and responsibility. He or she should have the dedication and passion to develop several innovative strategies to achieve successful project outcome. A good leader should be confident about his decision making ability. He or she should have the capability to undertake calculated risk under the decision making process. A good leader should provide commitment to the excellence (Maxwell, 2005). He or she should maintain high ethical standards in the decision making process. Moreover, a leader in a healthcare organization should motivate all the staffs within the team to provide effective performance. Effective motivation process can enhance group performance. It can directly reflect in the profitability of that organization. What is your personal philosophy of leadership? A leader is an important person who can lead a crowd in the direction where the objectives and goals can be successfully accomplished. A good and team oriented leader generally acknowledges a problem and gives solution to it. He or she can attract the people preaching and sharing his or her view of giving solutions to the problems. For example, during an emergency situation a good healthcare leader have to take a quick decision within a fraction of second. Effective undertaking of calculative risk can save a life of a patient during an emergency situation. Moreover, effective leading skills can enhance collaborative group work. In addition to this, a good leader has the ability to undertake effective future strategies to achieve organizational objectives. What learning experiences have had the most influence on your own personal development as a leader? Leadership is tough but quite interesting. An individual can avail effective leadership skill through significant work experience and continuous practice. Talent or skill is another important aspect that can transform a hardworking individual to a good leader. In my personal development as a leader, I had to work very hard on my expertise and talent. Sheer knowledge and continuous practice can help us to shape our leadership skills. I have learned a lot from my superior team leader. During my working days I have experiences several critical situations. Continuous practice and knowledge about specific field evolved my leadership ability. Effective group management, taking care of the patients and developing strategies based on the demand of objective influenced me to develop myself as a good leader. How do you see leadership evolving in nursing today? The role of the nurse leader has evolved effectively over the past decade. The healthcare industry is becoming complex due to increase of several managerial activities and well acceptance of the patients. Staff selection, budget maintenance, team coordination, team performance, policy development and project evaluation process have become highly complex. Now-a-days, the number of people in a workforce is significantly increasing. Moreover, it is difficult for the new staffs or the nurses to access modern machineries and technological tools without proper knowledge and training. Therefore, several training institutions are trying to educate the future nurses about several aspects of nursing leadership and clinical nursing management. What are the most challenging issues in your current position? Major objective of a nursing educator is to distribute sheer knowledge to the future nurses about the subject. It has been identified that, in this present era the number of trainees are decreasing. Moreover, inadequate leadership in healthcare organizations is not encouraging the individuals to make nursing as their career. On the other hand, poor leadership quality can create issue for several proposed project that can developed in near future. Several problems, such as inadequate budget control, poor resource allocation and violation of ethical standards are also creating issues in the education process. Therefore, it is quite tough for me to focus on my job responsibility. It is the responsibility for the institutional management to only focus on effective training and education facility for the future nurses. As a leader in your career, have you had a mentor? If so, how did this influence your leadership style? During my working days, I had my mentor. Initially it was tough to cope up with her views and mentality as I was new to this job role. Slowly and gradually my desire to learn has helped me to attain quite valuable knowledge about the clinical nursing. I observed her in several emergency cases. He taught me how to keep the mind cool in an emergency situation. A little panic can affect the situation. It may result a negative output. In addition, she always used to tell me about several positive things. A mentor is required for all the leaders to keep the situation cool. It can help a leader to take correct decision which can influence the leadership style of a good leader. What advice would you give someone who is aspiring to a leadership position? The healthcare industry is becoming so much complex that it will be hard to predict what strategy needs to be implemented. First of all, it is important for the young and new leaders to understand and realize the operational goal and objective. This understanding can help a leader to develop future strategies. Effective resource allocation and budget controlling is another key action that needs to be initiated. It will help to maintain operational cost and time. Effective team management and several support actions will motivate the entire team to accomplish the task. Behavior or attitudes of several individuals cannot be similar. Therefore, it is important for the leaders to implement different leadership style based on the nature of people. These strategies will help the leaders to utilize the skills and competencies of all the team members, ultimately, these processes will help the organization to accomplish the task successfully. Reference Maxwell, J. (2005). Developing the Leader within You. New York: Thomas Nelson. Read More