Reflective Journal: Nursing Leadership, Resilience, and Challenges

This reflective journal chronicles a nurse's experiences over twelve weeks, focusing on leadership, resilience, and the challenges encountered in various healthcare settings. The journal entries detail the nurse's responses to stressful situations, including difficult colleagues, demanding workloads, and transitions between public and private sectors. The author reflects on the use of personal strengths such as perseverance, humor, and leadership to navigate these challenges. Key themes include the importance of resilience in patient care, the impact of supportive leadership, and strategies for managing stress and fostering positive work environments. The journal also highlights the nurse's efforts to adapt to new roles, embrace change, and develop conflict resolution skills. References to relevant literature on nursing leadership and practice are also included, providing a comprehensive account of professional growth and adaptation within the healthcare field. The journal follows an appreciative inquiry approach and emphasizes the author's growth and development through difficult situations.

Running head: REFLECTIVE JOURNAL 1
Reflective Journal
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation

REFLECTIVE JOURNAL 2
Reflective Journal
Week 1 (23rd Jul - 29th Jul)
1. Each healthcare professional encounters various challenging situations when providing
patient care to ensure well-being. Therefore, resilience is imperative to the nursing
profession. It is the capability to adapt as well as bounce back even when different
scenarios do not provide the desired results. As a nurse, it is essential to utilize one of my
strengths, perseverance, to handle diverse patient situations. Notably, it is the right of
every person to have good health (Grossman and Valiga, 2016). Therefore, resilience will
help me strive to maintain patients' well-being. I will get a greater sense of satisfaction as
different people recover from their illnesses and get good health. Therefore, I will
encourage my fellow nurses to be resilient since the nature of our work is sometimes
stressful.
Week 2 (29th Jul - 5th Aug)
2. On account of various stressful encounters and after conducting a personal evaluation, I
decided to hand in my resignation. Diverse activities at my workplace posed various
challenges. Personal challenges like committing several preventable errors demoralized
me making me consider resignation. Therefore, having been unable to effectively provide
health care services to ensure that patients attain good health lead to the development of
high-stress levels. At this point, I failed to be perseverant.
Week 3 (6th Aug – 12th Aug)
3. From my own judgment, I felt that the Charge Nurse failed to be supportive. I felt
awkward working in such an environment. Furthermore, this created a stressful working

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setting. Nevertheless, I ought to have exercised my leadership skills. I should have shown
the Charge Nurse the way to effectively discharge daily duties as well as how to
cooperate with others. In future occurrences, I will focus on my goals and passions in
regards to my nursing career so as to steer clear similar stressful situations.
Week 4 (13th Aug – 19th Aug)
4. A difficult workmate can contribute to draining one's professionalism as well as
productivity. At my workplace, I did not have the feeling of belonging anymore. Notably,
I was just hardly getting by. I failed to work towards defusing my colleague's bad
behavior. I think I should have modeled the appropriate behavior which the Charge Nurse
could follow to improve cooperation, particularly during work. I will utilize one of my
strengths, that is, humor to talk to my co-worker concerning the unsupportive behavior.
Week 5 (20th Aug – 26th Aug)
5. Combining my leadership and perseverance strengths, I will be patient until I become
satisfied with regards to my nursing career. I will be resilient and apply several
techniques to deal with both stress events and unsupportive workmates. I needed to talk
to the Charge Nurse to evade the stressful situation. It is important to address any
uncomfortable feelings which make the nurse dislike working with others. I will,
therefore, convey what I expect in terms of feedback, direction, and support.
Week 6 (27th Aug – 2nd Sept)
6. From the previous week, I now feel relieved. On the other hand, I am anxious because I
am not aware of what will follow. To reduce feelings of anxiety, I had to get adequate

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rest, remain positive, communicate and develop achievable and realistic goals (Grossman
and Valiga, 2016).
Week 7 (3rd Sept. – 9th Sept)
7. After several stressful activities, I decided to rest for one week. The rest from daily
nursing undertakings was to regroup my thoughts as well as enhance positive thoughts.
Positive thoughts will help me spur creativity as I deliver my duties. My attention was
sharpened following the rest and I was able to diagnose different ailments and
consequently prescribe appropriate medication for my patients. Additionally, enough rest
helped me to improve memory significantly during the course of my work (Parker et al.,
2014). It also considerably reduced my stress and I was able to deliver my services better.
Week 8 (10th Sept – 16th Sept)
8. I have a different experience during the first day that I change my work from the public
to the private sector. Everything in the new environment is completely different. The
work setting is entirely unfamiliar. I have to adapt to the new colleagues. Moreover, I
have to change to a new-fangled Team Leader role. I was to start providing guidance to
my fellow nurses in a new department, the orthopedic theatre. Nonetheless, I have scarce
information on orthopedic theatre issues since I am an experienced Team Leader
precisely in Liver transplant. The situation is very problematic as there are many new
things I have to learn. Additionally, this will consume a lot of time since I have to
establish an appropriate strategy as well as gain the necessary support.
Week 9 (17th Sept – 23rd Sept)

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9. More importantly, this is the second week in my new work environment. I have to
transition smoothly. Contrariwise, I am fearful and therefore become frustrated. During
the same week, a sick baby is admitted. I become stressed as well as physically and
emotionally drained. Nevertheless, I strive to remain organized and calm to effectively
diagnose, treat and take care of the baby. I have to overcome these challenges by thinking
positively.
Week 10 (24th Sept – 30th Sept)
10. Notably, this is the third week of my new responsibility. I am attempting to assimilate or
adapt to the new working ways. I try to inquire about the things that have slightly
transformed since I left my former workplace. Furthermore, I try to cooperative with my
new co-workers. I study the workers' handbook as well as take notes. I find this to be a
great experience. Despite taking note of the various things that I would wish to enhance
or improve in the next few months I currently make no significant transformations.
Week 11 (1st Oct – 7th Oct)
11. As a nurse professional, I have to conduct interpersonal work for managing as well as
leading change. I have to learn to sustain the change. Consequently, I do this by being
patient and flexible to effectively comprehend my new environment (Grossman and
Valiga, 2016). I also plan to positive align my thoughts to steer clear any stressful
encounters. Therefore, I manage to develop a sustainable enhancement or improvement
culture.
Week 12 (8th Oct – 14th Oct)

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12. I have to be resilient and perseverant to manage challenging situations. I do achieve this
by clarifying any issues, being consistent, managing emotions and developing an inquiry
mindset. Moreover, I also manage problematic conversations by developing conflict
resolution skills and knowing the objective of the dialogue. I realized that it was vital to
influence other colleagues to provide better services through my leadership skills by
effectively utilizing negotiation. A disruptive innovation develops a contemporary market
and interferes with the existing one (Parker et al., 2014). In the new workplace, it was
difficult to understand various aspects related to diffusion and subsequent disruptive
innovations.

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References
Grossman, S., & Valiga, T. M. (2016). The new leadership challenge: Creating the future of
nursing. FA Davis.
Parker, V., Giles, M., Lantry, G., & McMillan, M. (2014). New graduate nurses' experiences in
their first year of practice. Nurse Education Today, 34(1), 150-156.