Should All Nurses Be Considered Leaders?

Leaders are significant for every organization because they make decisions, motivate others, and lead to positive changes. When it comes to health care organizations, such people can also save lives and lead to better patient outcomes. The paper’s principal aim is to demonstrate that all nurses should have particular skills, including conflict management and motivational abilities, to be leaders in their organizations and collaborate with other professionals.

Firstly, one should explain that all nurses should be considered leaders. It is so because their priority includes “the completion of patient care as well as directly leading and managing the provision of safe patient care” (Westwood, 2019, para. 4). Secondly, it is reasonable to comment on what characteristics make nurses a leader. Grubaugh and Flynn (2018) address this issue and mention that these characteristics are conflict management, supporting others, and managerial abilities. In addition to that, leaders should be skillful in motivating others to achieve shared goals. Thirdly, being a leader does not mean that a nurse does not collaborate with other health care professionals. Doctorally prepared advanced practice nurses cooperate with the doctor of philosophy-prepared nurses to promote the translation of research into practice and “development of interventions to improve health outcomes” (Lusk & Marzilli, 2018, p. 327). Furthermore, doctorally prepared advanced practice nurses should also cooperate with physicians to make quality improvements.

In conclusion, all nurses directly influence patient care quality, meaning that they need leadership qualities. They include conflict management, providing others with support, motivational skills, and others. When a nurse has these characteristics, they can be considered a leader. These qualities also lead to the fact that doctorally prepared advanced practice nurses effectively collaborate with other health care professionals, which leads to positive outcomes for the whole organization.

References

Grubaugh, M. L., & Flynn, L. (2018). Relationships among nurse manager leadership skills, conflict management, and unit teamwork. JONA: The Journal of Nursing Administration, 48(7/8), 383-388.

Lusk, M. D., & Marzilli, C. (2018). Innovation with strengths: A collaborative approach to PhD/DNP integration in doctoral education. Nursing Education Perspectives, 39(5), 327-328.

Westwood, G. (2019). All nurses are leaders – they are leaders at the point of care. Nursing Times. Web.