The healthcare landscape is evolving at a rapid rate, and this means that more competent and skilled leaders are required than ever before to navigate these changes. As a result, there is a growing demand for nurses and other healthcare professionals who not only have plenty of hands-on experience but also have taken the time to upskill and gain additional qualifications. As a result, they can step confidently into leadership roles.
In nursing, leadership is multi-faceted, combining many different skills with the flexibility to adjust to changes and the resourcefulness to suggest new and innovative ways of doing things. While working in a nurse leadership role is demanding, it can bring many benefits for patients and the entire healthcare environment. It also offers exciting career opportunities to aspiring nurse leaders and provides them with the satisfaction of knowing that their expertise is helping to work towards better healthcare for the future.
This article will explore successful nurse leadership and its many benefits, as well as uncover the route that individuals can take to gain employment in this fulfilling area of work.
What does successful nurse leadership look like?
A nurse leader combines many personal and professional qualities to lead a team or project towards the goal of better patient care. This complex task requires many attributes and skills. Some of these may come naturally to a nurse who shows leadership qualities, while others may need to be learnt, encouraged, or nurtured.
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These are some of the components and characteristics that make up a successful nurse leader, which are essential attributes for this demanding role.
Clinical competence
Clinical competence rates highly as a desired characteristic for successful nurse leadership. The most effective nurse leaders will have a proven track record and a wide variety of clinical skills, as well as the willingness to continue to learn more and gain a deeper understanding of existing competencies. This skill enables nurse leaders to advocate confidently for safe, high-quality patient care as they are familiar with exactly what is needed from a clinical and practical point of view.
Continued professional development
A successful nurse leader also understands the value of consolidating their existing practical and theoretical skills with learning new ones and applying these to their day-to-day practice. They know that by continuing to educate themselves and learn new concepts, they have a better chance of keeping up with a constantly changing work environment, using evidence-based practice. Education and knowledge also help nurses to understand healthcare systems, giving them a broad view of how the various elements of healthcare work together so that they can effect change for the better.
Communication skills
A great nurse leader must be able to communicate with people of all ages and statuses – it is just as important to know how to converse with patients and their families as it is with colleagues and superiors. Communicating well with patients is part of a nurse’s duty of care, while being able to speak clearly and purposefully to co-workers means that important decisions can be shared effectively. This instils a feeling of togetherness and reiterates that all healthcare workers are working towards the same goals.
Critical thinking
Critical thinking is the ability to analyze and question many different pieces of information from various sources and come to a measured and rational conclusion. So, in the case of a nurse leader, they will have access to information from many areas, much of which will be complex and require a certain level of education to understand. It is essential that the nurse leader can keep a cool head in the face of this information, extracting from it the points that enable them to make beneficial recommendations or decisions about patient care.
An understanding of ethics
Successful nurse leaders have a deep understanding of ethical practices. This understanding helps guide decisions related to patient care and serves as a firm foundation for the many other decisions they will make as part of their leadership role. Not only will they be familiar with the American Nurses Association’s (ANA) Code of Ethics for Nurses, but they will live and work by these values so that they underpin everything they do.
Creativity and innovation
To drive change, nurse leaders need to think creatively and embrace new ideas and technology to ensure that healthcare continues to develop and innovate. This requires nurses to recognize the limit of their current knowledge and experience and be willing to learn new and unfamiliar ways of doing things. They should call on all resources available to them to come up with fresh perspectives – whether that is enlisting the help of their teams, reaching out to healthcare professionals in other areas, or undertaking research to identify best practices that they can learn from.
Team skills
A nurse leader is a cog in the complex machine that delivers healthcare, made up of many senior and junior colleagues and other health professionals. As leaders, nurses must understand the value of teamwork and working towards a common goal, as well as the importance of defining roles and expectations while being accountable at every step of the way.
Mentorship
Successful leadership is also about acting as a teacher and mentor to staff and helping to pass on skills and insights to the next generation of nurses. A successful nurse leader will therefore be aware of the need for continual training, development, and improvement and will embed learning at every level of their practice and leadership. They have insight and a conviction that helping other professionals reach their full potential is key to improving healthcare as a system, with excellence at its very heart.
What are the benefits of successful nurse leadership?
There are many benefits to having nurses in leadership roles, not least because by practicing leadership every day in the workplace, they can inspire their colleagues to achieve the best for their patients.
Another reason why nurses bring benefits as leaders is because they lead from the ground up. Their early training and accumulated clinical experience mean that they are ideally placed to understand the changes that need to be made to systems and practices to ensure excellent patient care for the future.
Using their leadership skills, they can help create a positive working environment where their colleagues enjoy spending time and working toward the common goal of delivering excellent care to patients. Nurturing an environment where people enjoy working has the added benefit of improving retention rates and attracting new nurses to the workplace.
Successful nurses will already have a wide range of interpersonal skills enabling them to communicate and collaborate with colleagues, patients, and families with ease. When it comes to leadership, these skills translate easily into roles involved with transforming healthcare policies, strategies, and systems, which require the ability to negotiate, persuade, and convince varied audiences.
From the nurse’s perspective, pursuing a career in leadership brings many benefits. It is a chance to apply experience gained ‘on the frontline’ to influence the health policy of the future, shaping systems and how healthcare is delivered based on real-life experience and scenarios.
A career in nurse leadership is rewarding, giving the satisfaction of seeing change take place for the better. It is also a path that offers many opportunities to improve a nurse’s career and work in a variety of settings, enabling them to progress up the career ladder. Financially, it’s worth noting that nurse leaders are rewarded appropriately for their skills, education, experience, and commitment to advocating for better patient healthcare.
With the healthcare needs of the US growing and developing at a steady rate, it is clear that nurse leaders, highly educated and experienced in the day-to-day delivery of healthcare, are a much-needed resource to take patient care to the next level.
How nurses can develop leadership skills
A career in nursing brings many opportunities and the chance to follow a variety of different routes. As this article has explored, one of the most satisfying of these is leadership. A nurse leader can be at the forefront of change, pioneering new ways of delivering healthcare to create a lasting and meaningful legacy.
One of the key requirements of a successful nurse leader is a willingness to engage in continued professional development. So, any nurse who is passionate about education and has already gained a master’s degree in nursing could consider a Doctor of Nursing Practice qualification or DNP. A DNP will offer the skills and understanding to steer healthcare policy and systems to lead multidisciplinary teams with a goal of improving care.
Of course, for a busy professional it can be hard to find the time to commit to formal study. But that’s where online DNP programs come in. These programs are designed for individuals who are already committed to their working lives, giving them the flexibility to study from a venue and at a pace that suits them.
The Marymount University MSN to DNP online program is accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE) and offers the highest level of education for nurses, preparing them to take on leadership roles in healthcare. The course is taught online which is a timesaver for busy professionals, meaning that there is no long commute to campus or juggling lectures with shift work. It offers nurses the ability to work at their own pace, balancing their current commitments with study. And while it requires the completion of 1,000 clinical hours, 500 of these can be transferred from previous work. Above all, students will feel supported every step of the way with personal attention and encouragement offered by course staff.
The MSN to DNP program will position nurses to transform healthcare by identifying quality outcomes, advocating for change, leading confidently, and applying the theoretical knowledge they have learned to real-life scenarios.
It’s a must for any aspiring nurse leader who wants to effect change and the improvement of care for patients from every walk of life.
Study towards the future of healthcare
Nurse leaders are the future of healthcare. Their wealth of experience combined with the additional education they have taken make them the perfect choice to guide healthcare through the changes needed to make it fit for the future.
For any nurses considering the next step in their nursing career, an online MSN to DNP program could be just what they are looking for, offering the chance to study while continuing with professional commitments.
The MSN to DNP online course offered by Marymount University is the perfect fit for aspiring nurse leaders. With a high pass rate and the chance to complete the course in as few as seven semesters, it could help nurses step confidently into leadership roles sooner than they may think possible.
By signing up, nurses will be pledging to act as a driving force for the future of healthcare, moving it forward for the generations to come.
