Nurse Leadership and Advocating for Change

The assignment content discusses Nurse Leadership and Advocating for Change, highlighting personal and professional accountability, career planning, personal journey disciplines, reflective practice reference behavior, application of leadership skills to advocate for change, and personal goals and implementation plan. The author reflects on their strengths and weaknesses in these areas, including seeking education and training, being flexible with career plans, participating in reflective practice and problem solving, and leading by example. The text concludes with a focus on advancing education and networking to achieve the goal of becoming a senior nurse manager.

Running page: NURSE LEADERSHIP AND ADVOCATING FOR CHANGE
Nurse Leadership and Advocating for Change
Student’s Name
Institution Affiliation
Date of Submission

NURSE LEADERSHIP AND ADVOCATING FOR CHANGE 2
Nurse Leadership and Advocating for Change
Personal and professional accountability
According to the “Nurse Manager Skills Inventory” this entails personal development
evaluation through educational training, career planning, action plans and self-assessment
(American Organization of Nurse Executives,2012). One of my major strengths is that am
constantly seeking new ways to improve my abilities in the provision of the quality service to
patients in order to enhance clinical outcome. I am always looking for areas that can help me
increase my level of education and advance my career, this is vital as it will broaden my
knowledge and skills, which will enable me to deliver services effectively. This also includes
learning from senior nurses with more experience and knowledge. Also instead of making
excuses when I make mistakes, I strive to learn as much as possible from them to avoid a repeat
of the same in future. The main weakness I have is that I have encountered some setbacks in my
personal and professional development and I tend to blame some unconducive circumstances for
them. One should always find a way to maneuver through any obstacles that stand in their way
(Stefancyk, Hancock & Meadows, 2013).
Career planning
One of my key strengths in this area is that I always maintain and adhere to a future long-
term plan of where I desire to be in nursing. Further, I am flexible enough to make necessary
changes and adaptations to my plan as dictated by dynamic circumstances. My career plan
entails an incremental step-by step process in attaining nursing education that enables me to be
well prepared to take advantage of any career opportunities that come my way. The weakness

NURSE LEADERSHIP AND ADVOCATING FOR CHANGE 3
that I have in this area is that I lack key resources to pursue my career plan fully and prepare
myself for any future unforeseen changes.
Personal journey disciplines
These are skills that assist a nursing professional to improve themselves as leaders such
as shared leadership, reflective practice, problem solving and action learning (Harris, Roussel &
Thomas, 2016). I have participated in reflective practice, active learning and problem solving
which has improved my critical thinking skills. The problem solving skills that I have acquired
have prepared me in carrying out leadership and supervision roles where I will be faced by
challenges that require solutions. However, I have not participated in shared leadership and I
consider myself a novice in this area.
Reflective practice reference behavior
These are established tenets and guidelines that enable an individual to carry out an
evaluation of their effective leadership skills (Baxter & Warshwsky, 2014).One needs to be
tolerant and accepting of diverse practices and beliefs and where appropriate incorporate them
into care (Yoder, Scott& Sullivan, 2013). Where the beliefs or practices are unsafe, I educate
people on safer options while being sensitive at the same time. However, the lack of diverse
cultural groups poses a challenge but using reflective and active techniques helps one in handling
such a situation(Yoder-Wise, 2014). I can comfortably work with people from different
religions, genders, races, cultures and sexual orientations. However, I find it difficult to work in
areas with environmental ambiguity.For instance, I find it challenging when there are dissenting
voices of stakeholders holding different points of view in making decisions (Stefancyk, Hancock
& Meadows, 2013)..

NURSE LEADERSHIP AND ADVOCATING FOR CHANGE 4
Application of leadership skills to advocate for change
I possess leadership skills that will help me advocate for change in my workplace. For
instance, I will use the skills I have acquired over the years to rally other workers behind a
change project that I will be advocating for. Further, I will engage and involve fellow nurses in
advancing processes in their respective positions to advocate for realistic changes that serve both
the patients and staff effectively. According to Yoder, Scott & Sullivan (2013), a good leader
leads by example; therefore, I will lead by example and have confidence when faced with
confrontation, failure or changes. Lastly, I am striving to develop my interpersonal skills as a
leader so that I can accommodate and work with dissenting voices of stakeholders in making
change decisions.
Personal goal and implementation plan
My main personal goals are to become a senior nurse manager. One way to gain
leadership position is by advancing the level of education (Stefancyk, Hancock & Meadows,
2013). Therefore, in order to achieve this, I will need to advance my education in nursing
management which will equip me with supervisory skills. I will seek and gather new information
by reading more books, attending seminars and networking with higher professionals in nursing
leadership.

NURSE LEADERSHIP AND ADVOCATING FOR CHANGE 5
References
American Organization of Nurse Executives. (2012). Nurse manager skills inventory. AONE,
2013, 28-31.
Baxter, C., &Warshwsky, N. (2014). Exploring the acquisition of nurse manager competence.
Nurse Leader 12(1), 46-51.
Harris, J. L., Roussel, L. A., & Thomas, T. (2016). Initiating and sustaining the clinical nurse
leader role. Jones &Barlett Learning.
Stefancyk, A., Hancock, B., & Meadows, M. T. (2013). The nurse manager: change agent,
change coach? Nursing administration quarterly, 37(1), 13-17.
Yoder-Wise, P. S. (2014). Leading and Managing in Nursing E-Book. Elsevier Health Sciences.
Yoder-Wise, P. S., Scott, E. S., & Sullivan, D. T. (2013). Expanding leadership capacity:
educational levels of nurse leaders. Journal of Nursing Administration, 43(6, 326-328.