Leadership Roles and Management Functions, Essay Example

The leader in my nursing practice that has demonstrated some of the leadership attributes and role delineation is the current director of my perinatal unit. I have worked with her for eight years now and in that time she has mentored by development as a nursing practitioner (NP) and enabled me to develop and expand essential critical thinking  skills necessary to perform my daily duties.

When I first started working at the perinatal care unit, there were many learning curves I had to overcome. While I was well trained in the standard protocols of nursing practice, I had little experience in a clinical setting. My director helped me overcome apprehensions I had over my lack of experience, by having me shadow her, demonstrating diagnostic and critical reasoning skills first hand, and asking me questions along the way to test my own capacity for the job. By the end of my first week with her, I felt confident to work independently in the unit, and I was less apprehensive about playing my role as a reliable team member for the unit.

In the National Council of State Boards of Nursing’s (2007), report on findings from the role delineation, they note that, three of the most important skills a nurse must have are the ability to demonstrate diagnostic reasoning skills, critical thinking and clinical decision making. Marquis et al. (2009) expand on this notion as the authors point out that leadership is also reliant on this skill of critical thinking but that many lack the ability to assess problems from multiple points of view to find a resolution. They suggest case studies provide an excellent source of clinical setting experience to supplement critical thinking.

My director demonstrated leadership by showing me first hand cases in a clinical setting, but she also demonstrated that she was well versed in case study material, citing cases to provide alternative example and generate my own train of thought. She managed schedules and rotated me to handle different aspects of daily operations until I knew the job well enough to even train another. In this way she demonstrated leadership attributes and role delineation.

References

Marquis, B. L., & Huston, C. J. (2009). Leadership roles and management functions in nursing: Theory and application. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins National Council of

State Boards of Nursing. (2007). Report of Findings from the Role Delineation Study of Nurse Practitioners and Clinical Nurse Specialists.