Times have changed from when the serene environment, where everyone’s survival was almost guaranteed, to an era, where luck determines the survival at the workplace. This is an era full of challenges for the nursing and healthcare faculties due to the complex issues facing the human race, among them are shortages of human resources in the health industry, inadequate funding, and the ever increasing need for services for the aged population. In this light, effective planning and implementation of advanced practice of nursing programs in all healthcare settings may help address these issues. Leadership is a shared responsibility, particularly in the healthcare field. Nursing leaders play a crucial role in shaping the nursing profession to achieve more responsiveness to the changes within the healthcare system. They are not only leaders but also clinical experts, educators, researchers and union activists among other roles (Jgomulinski, 2012). A good leader is defined by how he executes roles, what makes him successful (his strengths), how he mobilizes the ones being led, how he inspires others and finally what draws him behind (his weakness) (Jgomulinski, 2012). Therefore, leadership is a process, where an individual influences others through personal and professional means towards the achievement of a common goal. This paper is a personal assessment that aims at identifying my strengths and weaknesses as a nurse leader in relation to my personality, career planning, personal discipline and reflective practice behavior. Since nurse leadership is not entirely exclusive to management, a nurse leader must have some qualities that make others want to assist in leadership (Studer, 2003). My strengths and weaknesses will be highlighted in this paper and then a discussion on how I will use the leadership skills set to advocate for change in my workplace will follow. My personal goal for leadership growth will be identifies in the paper along with the explanation of the measures needed to implement this specific goal.
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Nurse Managers, apart from fulfilling their daily responsibilities, must lead the change demanded, which eventually secures a better future for the health care in the society. Currently, the emerging nurse leader is faced with numerous challenges within the profession. Most of these difficulties are due to the hard economic times and cost reduction arrangements within the health care facilities and they prevent the advancement. In order to create a leader within oneself, an individual must first take into account his personal and professional accountability (NMLP, 2006). In ethics and leadership, accountability is answerability and blameworthiness, when a situation in the workplace requires (NMLP, 2006). Where accountability is concerned, my strength lies in my level of education, career planning, and annual self-assessment, action and commitment in both personal and professional goals. I understand that more education equals to more knowledge and therefore endeavor to advance my education and sharpen my skills. My weakness in this field is over-commitment and obsession to achieve my goals. When it comes to career planning, my strength is in the establishment and detailed development of roles that involve understanding the description of what I do and comparing it to the current level of practice. I also try to look forward into my future to ensure that the goals I set are met both in the short term and in the long term. I am well positioned in this aspect and therefore have flexibility to rectify a problem at an early stage. In my personal life order, I have very disciplined schedules, where my work and personal life is involved. Being social is strength in the field, especially where shared leadership is required. I also indulge in action learning in order to solve issues and personally reflect on the same. However, my weakness lies in establishing a balance between my career and personal life. In reflective practice reference tenants my strength lies in holding the truth, nurturing myself intellectually and emotionally, having a deep desire to learn more, appreciating diversity at the workplace and the ability to function amid an ambiguous environment. These values help in reflective practice and uphold values that ensure that leadership is executed well (NMLP, 2006).
In order to advocate for a change at my workplace, I will use my leadership skills set to make the rest of the staff, the board and the entire management team aware of the challenges that the health care business faces every day. To achieve this, leadership skills sets that involve the finances, economics, negotiation, communication, media relations, personnel and labour issues as well as prudent judgment will have to be combined. If employees are aware of the distribution of finances coupled with better economic management, then they will be able to understand some of the managerial decisions that involve cost reduction and other externalities (Jgomulinski, 2012). With this knowledge, I will advocate for a good system of communication through the chain of commands so that every member of staff will be aware of the decisions made by the management team. For my leadership growth, I aspire to improve relationships with my fellow employees, understand their goals and needs, become a better partner, and be able to work together to help achieve each other’s goals. This kind of collaboration will not only improve the communication but also help in cross-functional knowledge and perspectives. To achieve this goal, I will use my social skills and come up with social functions to facilitate integration with my peers. This will assist in getting to know each other while improving our relationship (Studer, 2003). This kind of situations will also help in my leadership presence and the ability to communicate in a manner that is authentic and that is also inspirational to my juniors.