Combining nurse leader with advocacy

Nurse is a person who is dedicated to taking care of people in the health care field. Nurses play a role of leader in every step of their career. They use their skills, knowledge and experiences to take care of individual and communities. Therefore, every nurse should be aware of their leadership role within self as well as need to identify weakness which may be due to lacking knowledge and skills. Nursing is an independent profession of health science and has a great influence in shaping healthy work environment. Being A nurse for a few years as well as taking the position of charge nurse, I have found myself having the quality of the leadership traits. I feel that there are more rooms for me to do and learn, which will make me a reliable nursing professional. This paper discusses the weakness and strength of a nurse based on the nurse manager skills tools. The nurse manager inventory skill tool reflects my skills, behavior, and professional accountability, career planning, my journey disciplines and reflective practice reference behaviors. Personal and professional accountability When evaluating myself on personal growth, career development, continuing education and certification, I would rate myself in the average range. Despite of being enrolled in school for BSN degree, I still have more to do such as, medical/surgical and orthopedic certification are my area of interest. Currently working to achieve these along with my BSN degree. I am a stroke certified nurse and a member of the American Nurses Association since 2010. After completing my BSN degree, I plan to continue my nursing for a doctorate degree in nursing. I have not been active in the legislation in advocation my fellow nurses nor my patients. However, I rate myself high when it comes to the ethical act and nursing practices. I am highly influenced through the evidence bases practice to improve the quality of care and patient outcomes. It is important for me to demonstrate this behavior as well as show dedication to other fellow nurses to keep the culture of practice and improve the quality of care. Career planning With the evolution of health care industry nurses’ responsibility, role, education changes according to the healthcare demand. This evolving of the profession has created an atmosphere for nurses to regulator their career in futures according to the needs of society. According to NCBI “career planning and development provides nurses with a focused strategy to take greater responsibility for engaging in the ongoing planning process that is crucial throughout the major stages of their career (Rebecca Hendren, October 2010)”. Nurses should also continue to develop their knowledge, leadership skills, and competencies with other health care professionals as well. According to Institute of Medicine (IOM) report, sickest patient will only be admitted to hospital, but the less sick patient remains at home (Donner, G. J., & Wheeler, M. M. (2001, June). This indicates that nurses are not limited in one area or hospitals, but provides holistic care at all levels in our community. After reading the vision developed by IOM, the future of nursing report, I feel more informed about my job description and where to position myself for future adoption. I am planning to continue my education in doctorate in nursing, as the high turnover is taking place in the nursing profession along with health reforms. The high demand of the nursing workforce and aging population among nurses has provided me with an idea to advance my career in leadership roles and engage myself in a profession to practice nursing. In the meantime, I can be a mentoring, educating and facilitating new nurses with training to provide quality care. Personal journey We learn every day and there is always room to grow. Nursing has taught me how to grow and gained several experiences while taking care of patients and families. Communication, ethical and critical decision making are some important part of the nursing profession. Everyone has the opportunity to learn and ways to improve, action learning and reflective practice is not comfortable zone to me, but it gives me an opportunity to learn and practice healthy environment in the workplace. Patient teaching was a great deal for me when I was doing AND. I was scared if I could not answer the patient`s and family asked question, I knew I was not alone still was scared. As I become an experienced nurse, teaching communication and building professional relationship with patients and families gave me more confidence, responsibility and accountability into my profession. I developed more strength in solving problem, using critical decision making, knowledge and skills development in different situation. Speaking and advocating for is a journey of learning and a great way for improvement. Reflective Practice Reference Behaviors/ Tenets I considered myself to be a competent nurse. I have gained leadership skills throughout the journey of nursing and it has helped me shape my personality as well as my behavior. I have always maintained the virtue of honesty, respect, and integrity of the workplace. Team player, advocating for my patient and fellow nurses and staying current in the practice is important part of my personal behavior. Such behavior will help me to improve the quality of care and patient outcomes. Reflective practice is especially important in nursing because nurses “need to focus on their knowledge, skills and behavior to ensure that they are able to meet the demands made on them by this commitment”. I like to get feedback for my action and share information to others, this will help me to develop new skills and ideas and help plan my future action. Conclusion, I have faced many challenges and accomplished many things during my nursing journey. Nurse is a leader, educator and care provider. It is important for nurses to advocate for her patient, family as well as own self. Nursing is an independent profession of health science and has a great influence in shaping healthy work environment. Keeping up-to-date in knowledge and staying current with practice is an important part of nursing. Today nurses are the front line in the health care system, therefore we should be evolving with the transformation of the healthcare system for the future of nursing professions. Achieving the highest degree of education and training will help nurses stay strong within the profession as well as can provide affordable, seamless and quality of care to all people in the nation with low cost and improve health outcomes. References: Donner, G. J., & Wheeler, M. M. (2001, June). Career planning and development for nurses: the time has come. Retrieved October 22, 2017, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11407466 Health and Medicine Division. (2015, October 05). Retrieved October 22, 2017, from http://www.nationalacademies.org/hmd/Reports/2010/The-Future-of-Nursing-Leading-Change-Advancing-Health.aspx Rebecca Hendren, October 2010 IOM report offers glimpse of nursing's future. (n.d.). Retrieved October 22, 2017, from http://www.strategiesfornursemanagers.com/contentprint.cfm?content_id=257764

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