In every workplace and management, there are different styles of leadership. Anyone who attends a coaching training program in London will understand this and see how your leadership styles may differ.
Leadership is crucial in nursing management for it involves role in managing the staff as well as the entire nursing facility. If you don’t feel confident enough to be able to lead a team and oversee what goes on, that is nothing to worry about. Even if you don’t feel ready just yet, knowing that you can get a leadership coaching certification online after completing leadership courses could be the motivation you need to work on this. The skills needed to be a good leader are very important, as they’ll come in handy sooner than you think.
A nursing leader is chosen either be a nurse manager who is assigned the obligation of handling one unit or a nurse executive who is responsible for the operations of all in-patient nursing units. Generally, an effective nurse leader already has experience of leadership and managerial skills and he/she are capable of managing problems or issues that are faced by the health care facility.
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How to Become One?
After a nurse graduates from a nursing school and gets the Registered Nurse (RN) license, one normally possesses some fundamental leadership skills to apply to direct patient care. As one gets more experienced and advances in the post then he/she would be required to learn more on leadership.
There are actually many leadership courses offered in colleges and universities, professional education facilities, and even large public and private hospitals. It is advisable for a nurse to seek for advice, mentoring, and coaching from a senior nurse leader who would render honest feedback regarding his/her leadership style.
What are the Leadership Styles in Nursing?
There are two types of fundamental leadership styles, the democratic type and the autocratic. For the democratic, a nurse leader would engage his nurses in decision-making and let them carry out work in an independent manner. This can also be referred as positive leadership. In this type of leadership, the nurse leader tries to ensure that the whole unite works as a team to get the tasks done. In positive leadership, incentives and positivity are usually used as tools.
Whereas, for autocratic, a nurse leader would provide instructions without looking for inputs and superintend his nurses in a close manner, also be referred as direct leadership. In autocratic leadership, the nurse leader would direct all the nurses under his command as to what to do, staff’s duties and responsibilities and see to it that everything gets completed accordingly.
Now, nurse leader who has a considerable amount of work experience would select a leadership and management style that would work best in any circumstance. For instance, he/she might play a democratic kind of role when it is time to purchase new equipment for his nursing section. He/she can arrange to buy equipment that is required by nurses, and then allow them to utilize it individually as needed. But from the other point of view, he/she might act as an autocrat when dealing with less experienced nurses, giving only one-sided instructions, while closely oversees their work.
It is important to note that the role of nurse leaders needs to be very stress and tension-free while managing things, as they work in a critical life and death situation where every moment counts, and where temperamental or emotional behavior is not accepted. They definitely need to be able to fully concentrate on what they do, as it may be a question of someone’s life and health.
For those who want to become one in the future, it is imperative to choose, under what circumstances to be democratic and/or directive in managing nursing staff and facility.
