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Ten Essential Lessons in Nursing Leadership
Thoughtful guidance for nurses preparing to take the leap
If you’re an experienced bedside nurse, becoming a nurse leader involves a major shift in focus. Your priority is no longer just your own work and practice. Your biggest goal becomes ensuring that the people who work for you have what they need, both in resources and in environment, to ensure a safe healing experience for patients and families.
When nurses first move into leadership roles, they often find they are inadequately prepared for their new responsibilities. One reason is a lack of clear understanding of what leadership is and the most effective ways to move into that role.
Here are 10 crucial lessons I’ve learned about what it takes to succeed.
1. Communicate.
The first thing I tell prospective nurse leaders is that you have to be able to communicate effectively — and be prepared to listen as much you are to talk.
2. Learn to prioritize.
Prioritizing is the second essential leadership skill. As nurse leaders, we have 15 million things to do, and we have to be 100 percent on all of them. We have to be realistic about our goals and learn to prioritize what’s really important, on the business side as well as the clinical side.
3. Be self-aware.
As a leader, you need to be mindful of your strengths and areas for improvement. You’ve got to have enough confidence and humility to recognize that you’re not an expert in everything. It’s okay to surround yourself with people who know things you don’t know much about.
The best leaders are conveners. They bring experts together to achieve positive outcomes for their patients, staff, and the communities they serve.
4. Master the business side.
Nurse leaders are business managers. The leadership role requires not only our clinical expertise, but also a thorough understanding of strategic planning, resource efficiency, business management, finance and budgets, interpersonal relations, and employment regulations.
5. Give your team members what they need to thrive.
True leaders also understand that they are responsible for the wellbeing of the nurses they lead. If nurses must use their energy to battle a hostile work environment, unfair treatment, lack of resources, discord among colleagues, etc., then where will they find the energy to provide compassionate care and advocacy for patients and families?
As nurse leaders, we need to support our team members so they can support their patients.
6. Be available.
As a leader, you need to be available to your team — really available. Nurse leaders often say “we have an open door policy,” but what does that mean? Your connections with the people you lead must be meaningful. You need to not only be available to speak, but also to listen attentively and respond empathetically to what people are saying.
7. Be empathetic.
Being a nurse leader involves a lot more heart than other professions. Nursing requires compassion, emotional investment, and a significant element of emotional intelligence. This is equally true for nurse leaders. When people are facing a crisis, they need to know that the person in charge is connecting emotionally with their experience. If you can’t empathize, then you won’t be able to provide the needed support.
8. Give others the tools to grow.
Leadership is a unique opportunity to carve a path for the people who follow you. As a nurse leader, it’s your responsibility to lay the foundation for the success of others, and to use your experience and influence to prepare them for leadership.
9. Don’t fear change, but approach it the right way.
In healthcare, change typically means progress, and progress requires change. What we have to be careful about is unnecessary change. Often, leaders decide to implement a new process, only to abandon it or switch gears to something else when it doesn’t work out.
Unnecessary change can be exhausting, and doesn’t make things better. We need to make sure that we have all the key stakeholders at the table when planning and executing change.
10. Hold onto your passion.
Nurse leaders need to encourage their team to remember why they went into nursing to begin with. There’s always going to be chaos around us. But if we focus on our passion and what it was that drew us here, we can tap into that energy and excitement to care for other people and invest in nursing the way we should.
Becoming a nurse leader is challenging, but if you understand and embrace the responsibilities of the role, you will have an influential and rewarding career while enriching the lives of those you serve.
Kimberly C. Long, RN, DHA, MSN, FNP, FACHE, is the chief executive officer at Association of California Nurse Leaders (ACNL) and a Board-certified healthcare executive with over 30 years of experience.
In this Article: Career Advice, Leadership and Management
