The two nurse leaders that were interviewed hold the charge nurse and the chief nursing officer positions. The role of the charge nurse involves overseeing departmental activity within healthcare facilities depending on shift assignment. The position holder executes various duties including the delegation of nursing assignments, overseeing discharges and admissions as well as ensuring that supplies and medicines are available. Additionally, depending on the nature of the shifts that a charge nurse is assigned, they may also participate in healthcare activities by directly caring for the patients.
Similarly, the chief nursing officer position requires the holder to play a variety of roles that can be categorized as administrative, nursing, leadership, and advisory duties. However, the chief nursing officer is also required to perform a liaison role to ensure that the nurses and physicians within a facility operate collaboratively to facilitate the successful delivery of services to patients. Based on the findings of the interviews, I see the chief nursing officer role as a career goal because its requirements seek mastery of skills that I believe can impact both my professional and personal endeavors positively. Most of all, the position offers the opportunity to directly change service delivery by encouraging inter-professional collaboration, a duty that would allow me to impact the lives of patients through the delivery of top-notch services that enhance both their health and well-being.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
Qualifications
The response offered by the charge nurse indicated that to qualify for the named managerial position, an individual requires to possess both academic and skill competence. The same was echoed by the chief nursing officer, who insisted that without the combination of the right skills and academic qualifications, it is unlikely that an individual can successfully execute their assigned role. Both leaders agreed the requirements for their positions might vary depending on the institution but insisted that there are basic requirements that cannot be overlooked, without which an individual may be incapable of fulfilling the job requirements thereof. Moreover, the named holders of the managerial positions insisted on the necessity for experience for effective responsibility handling.
Type of Training
According to the charge nurse, before she got the management job, she had to undergo training to become a registered nurse and is required to maintain the certification’s relevance. She pointed out that she also needed a practical nurse license, which she must renew periodically. The bachelor’s degree in nursing gave her an advantage over other prospects, although it was not a requirement. However, the institution she works for asked that she provide credentials ascertaining that she can handle cardiopulmonary resuscitation as well as proof of managerial training or experience. The responses offered aligned with the requirements outlined on nursing websites indicating that apart from the importance of skills in the successful execution of charge nurse duties, professional certification is crucial as it creates a knowledge base that is essential for effective handling of tasks ("Charge Nurse | Requirements," 2019). Thus, a charge nurse is first qualified by their professional training rather than their skills.
Similarly, the chief nursing officer also emphasized on the necessity of education for a position holder in her role. She explained that she had to undergo professional training, including acquiring a Bachelor’s Degree in Nursing and getting certified as a registered nurse (RN), for the eligibility of the position mentioned above. The nurse leader emphasized that both the degree and RN certification were mandatory for her to become a chief nursing officer. At the time of applying for the position, the organization she works for required that she provide evidence of five years’ experience in leadership and management. Moreover, the institution she heads also demanded that she possess either a Nurse Executive or Advanced Nurse Executive certification to depict that she had been developing herself professionally after her graduate education. The interviewee highlighted that her interest in business paid off while she was applying for her current position because her Masters of Business Administration boosted her eligibility for the job by highlighting her superior managerial skills. In an increasingly complex healthcare environment, the expansion of the administrative roles of the executives has necessitated the broadening of the professionals’ knowledge base by acquiring specific degree combinations to ensure that the quality of service delivery does not suffer under the dynamic conditions (Black, 2016). Therefore, chief nursing officers must possess professional expertise that goes beyond the nursing field to successfully execute their responsibilities.
Overcoming Challenges
Both nurse leaders agreed that challenges in the workplace are a daily occurrence because of the differences that characterize individuals in terms of their professional and personal affiliations. The charge nurse talked about a conflict between two of the nurses in her department over the interpretation of the results of a physical exam they have collaboratively performed on a patient. The two subordinates could not agree on whether the rash on the patient’s skin was a disease symptom or a result of bodily reaction to heat. By the time the issue had come to the charge nurse’s attention, the affected parties were not on speaking terms. The explanation of the conflict resolution approach employed indicated the incorporation of both compromising and accommodating strategies that sought to enable the conflicting parties to understand each other’s viewpoints and realize a collaborative decision on the matter (Saeed et al., 2014). The charge nurse indicated that the conflict resolution method that she used sought to encourage teamwork, without which the effectiveness of her role would be diminished.
The chief nursing officer indicated that most of the challenges that she faces in the execution of her duties regard decision making. She spoke about an instance where she was expected to decide whether the organization she works for required to outsource or insource to fill a head nurse position that had opened up. Faced with the dilemma, she explained that she ‘went back to the basics’ of what she was taught while undertaking her graduate program. Her decision was based on the application of clinical decision-making principles, specifically the implementation of the rational model of decision making. Therefore, the steps applied to resolve the issue involved problem identification, the generation of solutions, selection of the best alternative, and the implementation and evaluation of the solution (Johansen & O'brien, 2016). The chief nursing officer determined that in that case, the organization needed to insource as the candidate thereof would be better suited for meeting the institution’s specific needs.
Building an Effective Healthcare Team
The charge nurse said that the methods she uses to ensure that her team remains effective include the implementation of an open door policy, the determination of relational boundaries and the delivery of clear instructions. According to the named leader, the open door policy creates a free flow of communication within the team, easing the problem resolution process. The boundaries that govern workplace relations create clear reporting links, and well-outlined instructions to mitigate confusion and misunderstandings. The chief nursing officer’s strategies differed but also focus on encouraging collaboration within the team she leads. She said that she gives her team members autonomy to decide how best to execute their duties, provided the quality of the outcome is not distorted. Additionally, the chief nursing officer ensures that she resolves the issues within her team to establish and maintain good working relations that are crucial to the realization of team goals.
Relevant Skills
The charge nurse expressed that in her position, the critical skills include the ability to manage administrative and clinical tasks, a blend that would be essential for the successful fulfillment of her job requirements. She also insisted on the necessity for communication and interpersonal skills, without which the coordination of nurse teams is impossible. Specifically, the named nurse leader highlighted the need for emotional stability for a position holder, which is necessary because of the pressures that come with the job. The chief nursing officer also stressed the importance of the named traits and stated that management, critical and analytical thinking abilities are crucial to effective role management. She expressed that management is part of the job, and a position holder cannot do without it. Similarly, critical and analytical thinking are vital for the enhancement of the decision-making processes that characterize the duties she is required to execute.
Conclusion
Talking to the nurse leaders named above enabled me to assess nursing leadership at different levels and understand the requirements thereof. I indicated that my interest lies in the chief nursing officer position because by aspiring for that, I am sure that the journey to career goal realization will begin at the charge nurse level. Possessing the knowledge I acquired from both interviews, I am confident that I am better equipped to shape my career path in the management or leadership direction. I cannot wait to inspire a nursing student, as both leaders did me, upon the realization of my career goals.
References
Black, B. (2016). Professional nursing-E-book: Concepts & challenges . Elsevier Health Sciences.
Charge Nurse | Requirements | Salary | Jobs | EveryNurse.org. (2019). Retrieved from https://everynurse.org/careers/charge-nurse/
Johansen, M. L., & O'brien, J. L. (2016, January). Decision making in nursing practice: a concept analysis. In Nursing forum (Vol. 51, No. 1, pp. 40-48).
Saeed, T., Almas, S., Anis-ul-Haq, M., & Niazi, G. S. K. (2014). Leadership styles: relationship with conflict management styles. International Journal of Conflict Management , 25 (3), 214-225.
