Assignment Combining Nurse Leader with Advocacy
Details:
Rate yourself using the results from the “Nurse Manager Skills Inventory”
Write a
reflection of 750-1,000 words in which you identify your strengths and weaknesses related
to the four content areas below:
- Personal and professional accountability
- Career planning
- Personal journey disciplines
- Reflective practice reference behaviors/tenets
Discuss how you will use your current leadership skill set to advocate for change in your
workplace.
Identify one personal goal for your leadership growth and discuss your implementation
plan to achieve that goal.
Combining Nurse Leader with Advocacy
After rating myself as a nursing supervisor using the nurse manager inventory tool, I
found out that my experience/skill is competent (Chafey et al, 1998). I also analyzed the
weaknesses and strengths in the personal and professional accountability, career planning,
personal journey disciplines, and reflective practice reference behaviors/tenets. These strengths
and weaknesses can be used to analyze my nursing practice because they are generally reflected
in the rating that I carried out earlier.
Strengths and weaknesses
Personal and professional accountability
This section tackles the personal growth and development, ethical behaviors and practice,
professional association involvement, and certification. All these ranged at competent experience
showing that I needed to do something in order to improve my nursing profession (Chafey et al,
1998)
I found out that accountability was strength for me as the nursing supervisor since the
ratings were very high (Chafey et al1998). Accountability involves doing your work well and
COMBINING NURSE LEADER WITH ADVOCACY 2
maintaining work coordination in your area of work. Managing such a wide area of the nursing
profession that includes the nurses themselves and other organizations and other staff that works
together with them in the provision of health care is not easy but I was able to manage that
workforce (Chafey et al, 1998)
I am competent in the management of the nursing association so as to build a trustworthy
relationship among those working with me. I am also able to communicate effective with the
workers to facilitate good behaviors, etiquettes, developing effective communication, providing
quality health care in a professional manner and involving every person in decision making.
Career planning
Career planning involves analyzing my own knowledge about my roles in practice,
planning my future in relation to the nursing care in the future, and placing myself in the
development of my career (Titzer, 2011). As the nursing supervisor, I offer sessions whereby I
guide individual nurses on how they can develop their own careers in the future so that they can
survive the nursing environment and competition in the future. I also help them identify their
weaknesses and strengths so that they can improve their nursing practice. This is strength for me
because it helps me to help others that I work with and also plan my own career development. I
also understand my roles as the nursing supervisor and this has helped me to reach my targets
and goals in my career and practice (Titzer, 2011).
Personal journey disciplines
Personal journey disciplines are skills that help a nursing professional in improving
themselves as leaders. These skills are shared leadership, action learning, and reflective practice.
These discipline skills are important in order to be able to translate active practice as a behavior.
They facilitate shared leadership which I have participated in a number of times. Problem
COMBINING NURSE LEADER WITH ADVOCACY 3
solving skills are necessary in order to be able to carry out the supervision well because one is
mostly faced with problems that they are expected to solve. This is the strength that has enabled
me to ensure good coordination of those I work with. Effective problem solving also indicates
that the skills have worked to improve the work environment and my practice as an individual
(Titzer, 2011).
Reflective practice reference behaviors/tenets
Personal reflective on individual behaviors is assessed through looking for integrity in
leadership, appreciation of ambiguity of working environments, leader’s diversity, ability to use
different perspectives in decision making, identifying the potential within oneself, willingness to
learn, developing the intellectual and emotional self, having balance in the nursing practice
(Titzer, 2011). These can also be considered to be leadership skills that can be used to advocate
for change in the nursing sector. The tenets and behavior guidelines are developed for the
purposes of guiding personal reflection of individual leadership behaviors. This is a weakness
and a challenge for me as a nursing supervisor. I find personal reflection difficult because it is
difficult not to be biased in one area or the other. I am not able to handle things like
environmental ambiguity with ease and in the other hand; I am able to exercise integrity and
appreciation of diversity (Titzer, 2011).
Application of skills to advocate for change in the workplace
Some of the skills that I posses and can use to advocate for change include effective
communication skills, planning skills, leadership skills, interpersonal relationship skills, problem
solving skills, negotiation skills and networking skills (Nagelkerk, 2005). These skills are
necessary in rallying the workers behind a change project being advocated for. The interpersonal
skills can be used to collect the views and ideas of the different workers and decision making
COMBINING NURSE LEADER WITH ADVOCACY 4
skills will help me to reach at the best decision considering these views. Negotiations skills will
help me to sell ideas for change to others in the organization and in the external environment.
Networking skills helps to coordinate the internal and external environments to facilitate change.
Planning skills help to structure a change strategy that is realistic and achievable. These skills
facilitate success in the nursing career and develop the health care sector in general (Nagelkerk,
2005).
Personal goal for leadership growth
My personal goal is becoming a senior nurse manager after acquiring the supervisory
skills and me experience as a nurse supervisor (Nagelkerk, 2005). To attain this goal, I will be
required to advance my studies in the field of nursing management before getting into practice.
This will help me to get up the ladder easily and become a senior nurse manager. Advancing my
studies will enable me to fit into the dynamic nursing environment which has many requirements
for nursing managers. Through this plan, achieving my goal is easily attainable (Nagelkerk,
2005).
COMBINING NURSE LEADER WITH ADVOCACY 5
References
Chafey, K., Rhea, M., Shannon, A. M., & Spencer, S. (1998). Characterizations of advocacy by
practicing nurses. Journal of Professional Nursing, 14(1), 43-52.
Nagelkerk, J. (2005). Study guide for leadership and nursing care management. Elsevier Health
Sciences.
Titzer, J. (2011). Nursing Leadership Development and Succession Planning. In 41st Biennial
Convention (29 October-2 November 2011). STTI.