Leadership skills can significantly help you in your nursing career. Other than that, just about every other profession appreciates these leadership traits. These skills and characteristics have a unique ability to set you apart and distinguish you from the rest of the workforce. Nurses, in particular, can benefit significantly from leadership skills. Not only does it help them deal with their patients daily, but with the rest of the nursing staff as well.
Setting oneself apart with leadership qualities doesn’t necessarily mean that they have career success waiting for them in the future. It means they are capable of helping other employees traverse through professional obstacles if they ever need help.
Now let’s look at some of the common characteristics of strong nursing leaders and the importance.
The Motivation To Learn
Continuation of learning is a great trait that radiates in most leaders. It takes a fair deal of motivation and determination to continue studying and expanding your education once you are a professional. It shows that you have your priorities straight and understand the importance of education even later in your life.
Especially for nurses, the need for constant upgrading yourself professionally is crucial. They need to have the latest knowledge related to medical practice to ensure that they treat every patient to the best of their ability. Many of them choose to pursue the online post master’s certificate nurse practitioner programs alongside work.
Learning throughout your career shows employers and the rest of the staff that you are determined and ready to perform at your best. Improving your qualifications is always crucial for your professional development.
The Desire To Help Others
The difference between a boss and a leader is that a leader guides you through the process and helps wherever you need it. As a nurse, it’s always a great idea to lend a helping hand when you can.
Helping others in the nursing industry is so fulfilling. The more significant and more profound effect of altruistic behavior is that your guidance could help save lives in the long run.
If fresh nursing school graduates need a little bit of assistance, help them out. You’re both working together for the exact cause, saving lives.
Empathy
In the nursing industry, the way you behave with patients never goes unnoticed. Ensuring that patients are comfortable, well-cared, and hearing their voices can make a huge difference in their lives. Empathy in regards to leadership isn’t just related to the patients. Lend an ear to a co-worker who might want to convey their emotions to someone. Giving someone a safe space to talk is a great way to encourage them and bring them into a better mental space.
In a nursing career, Holistic empathy has great importance. Both patients and other co-workers may look up to you and someone they can talk to and understand what they are trying to convey.
Effective Communication
The ability to communicate effectively is one of the most important leadership traits that nurses can practice. The ER, ICU, and surgery are all places where you need to communicate clearly and concisely. Keep your speech short, clear, and audible.
Not being able to communicate efficiently as a nurse could have dire consequences. Inaudible speech can be a big issue when time is of the essence. Misunderstood speech can be even worse as the implications could upset the patients.
A nursing leader knows how to get their point across in the most efficient way possible. Assertiveness, clarity of thought, and sound logic are all essential aspects of effective communication. A nurse should be able to practice all of these when communicating in the workplace.
Values
When taking the Nightingale Pledge or the Hippocratic Oath, the values you hold as a medical professional become clear. Nurses and other medical professionals have a responsibility to give their best every day. They need to make sound decisions or ensure that the patient receives the best care possible.
The values which you hold as a nurse drive you every day. You make most of your decisions based on said values. As leaders, your values speak for themselves. Working according to your beliefs keeps you driven and motivated. Motivation is contagious in the workplace so staying true to your ideologies is likely to spill over to others. Lead by example.
Conclusion
Showing strong leadership skills as a nurse isn’t always easy. Nursing is one of the most stressful career paths but results in fulfillment. Nurses have slow days, too; they feel hopeless when they lose a patient as well. The entire gist of leadership is to be there for others and give them a shoulder for support.
For all the nurses out there, support your colleagues and do what you can to ease the burden. It would be a shame if you had all these leadership skills in theory but never applied them.