Nursing Leadership: What Is It

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LEADERSHIP IN NURSING
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Leadership and Management
Leadership in the nursing profession does not always have to be accompanied by prestige or title.
Some nurses possess some qualities that enable them to be leaders. In this context, leadership
refers to a combination of leadership skills that are learned, personality traits, and characteristics
of the situation. In the nursing field, a leader should have the skills and capacity to encourage or
direct others towards achieving a desirable outcome (Giddens, 2018). In the pursuit to
understand leadership in nursing, I interviewed Mr. Brown (senior registered nurse) who is a
registered nurse who works at Bethesda Hospital. The reason for choosing Mr. Brown as my
interviewee is because I had an encounter with him when I was a student nurse and he has
demonstrated a lot of leadership skills. As a student nurse, I had worked with him for four shifts
and his leadership skills were inspiring, eye-opening and exemplary. Also, the close relationship
we had with Mr. Brown made it easier for me to approach him and interview him. During my
encounter with Mr. Brown, he had portrayed some aspects of a good leader. He had outstanding
communication skills and he had a passion for his nursing career as evident since he played his
roles as a nurse effectively and the dedication he portrayed while caring for the needs of a
patient. He possessed brilliant clinical know-how and the attention, time and capability to cater
for his patients needs even in situations that seemed stressful (Pedersen et al., 2018.)
Key attributes and characteristics of Mr. Brown
I considered Mr. Brown as a leader since he provided support in helping my growth as a nurse
student. I remember during one of my shifts, I had an encounter with a patient whose health
condition was deteriorating quickly, and hence I became flustered and anxious and forgot all the
protocols on how to care for such patients. The family members of the patient where present and
hence the pressure was intensifying and Mr. Brown intervened and acted in a calm way and

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swiftly and he explained the procedures to undertake and he took part in the intervention. He also
cared about the wellbeing of the patient’s family since he kept reassuring them everything will
be okay. The kind reaction of Mr. Brown and his interest in supporting me on how to tackle
real-life circumstances portrayed him as a good leader. Research indicates that a good nurse
leader should be guiding, supportive and encouraging as portrayed by Mr. Brown (Regan,
Laschinger and Wong, 2016). While conducting the interview, since I reminded Mr. Brown of
the incident, he kept on strengthen me and empowering me. He reminded me that a good nurse
leader is the one who puts in practice leadership skills since it aids in forming the basis for
interaction with other professionals especially in the medical field and also assists in improving
and promoting desirable health outcomes of a patient. During the interview, Mr. Brown kept on
insisting that providing growth to other people is essential especially for a leader in order to
achieve positive outcomes (Fallatah and Laschinger, 2016).
Another key attribute of leadership characteristic that Mr. Brown demonstrated is the ability to
influence other nurses and healthcare professionals in their line of duty. I remember one day, as
I was on shift, a certain nurse let’s say Mr. Bat (not real name) had not done all his tasks
perfectly, and the handover was approaching. Mr. Bat was a junior comparing to Mr. Brown. Bat
seemed more uneasy and wanted to make sure that he had completed all the tasks before handing
over to Mr. Brown, Bat did not want to disappoint Brown with any loose ends. Mr. Bat informed
me that Brown usually worries too much and makes inquiries a lot during the handover, it was so
impressive to see how Bat behaved and the positive influence that Brown had on other nurses
(Cable and Graham 2018). According to the available literature, a good nursing leader is the one
that assists in motivating, empowering and influencing other nurses. This situation portrays how
good leadership skills can help in achieving positive outcomes. The leadership skills that Brown