Leadership skills are necessary for building a successful nursing career, providing high-quality health care, and developing a culture of improvement at a facility. Future professionals explore their strengths by studying, practicing, and following the inspiring examples of their teachers or senior colleagues. Self-assessment is another valuable strategy for identifying potential gaps to address for becoming a practical nurse leader. Furthermore, awareness of competencies to seek and develop can help DNP-prepared practitioners create their own leadership improvement goals and tactics to achieve them (American College of Healthcare Executives, 2017). Indeed, influential, communicative, team-building, and executive skills are considered essential for nurses of all types of organizations. This paper aims to conduct a self-assessment in relation to nurse leadership, identify potential strengths and gaps, and set development goals.
Nursing leadership competencies address effective communication skills, high-quality healthcare providence, rational decision-making, and the ability to be responsible for extended groups of people. Indeed, aspiring DNP-prepared practitioners can assess themselves by identifying if they have sufficient skills to influence others, knowledge of their working environment and safety, and utilize critical thinking (American Organization for Nursing Leadership [AONL], n.d.). Communicational competencies can be expressed through solid organizational expertise, engaging others in specific behaviors, and facilitating discussions (AONL, n.d.). Knowledge of the working environment and the ability to operate in it can be viewed through actions taken to improve the clinical practice and education of others.
I had various opportunities to explore my leadership skills, enhance them, identify the gaps, and reveal my strengths throughout my education and nursing practice. Indeed, at school, I was a team leader of volunteering projects we created to conduct systematic support for homeless people in my local community. Participating in the projects as one of the executives felt normal to me because I have always encouraged people to follow me on any mission. That strong quality of my character was released through the ability to craft speeches and develop empathy for individuals I interacted with. Communicational skills are also crucial for leaders as they help tailor the important messages correctly and build trustworthy relationships in a team (Feldman et al., 2019). My strength of encouragement is valuable for my future DNP-prepared career because I would be capable of making positive changes for my organization and community.
Leadership is also revealed in challenging situations, and stress resistance is one of the vital personal skills to develop and maintain throughout the working experience. My practice at the acute care facility revealed that I could rationally think and react in critical situations, and I consider it a strong trait worth describing in the self-assessment. The skill of managing stressful occasions is necessary for leaders not only for proper decision-making but also for giving the team an example of proper behavior (The Joint Commission, 2017). Besides, my experience in emergencies suggested that the ability to maintain calmness helps solve conflicts and decrease the overall level of aggressiveness if it takes place in a situation.
In stressful work moments, I embrace what is happening, analyze if someone needs assistance, and identify panicking people. The latter is necessary because a leader must maintain a healthy environment around the team even in critical times, and helping the anxious ones first is the right action to take (Johannessen et al., 2019). Remaining calm in a challenging situation is my leadership strength, and I always find situations to improve and teach others to develop proper responses to stress.
Although stress tolerance and the ability to encourage others can be considered sufficient skills for being a leader and accelerating my DNP-nurse career, there are still several gaps I must work on to achieve better results. Indeed, such aspect as risk management is complex for me to address because I frequently miss essential details which can severely impact my decisions. To work on decreasing the influence of that gap, I need to increase my expertise in systems development, where all the threats would be addressed in the initial stages (Feldman et al., 2019). Being a leader means minimizing risks, and I think that pre-assessment of possible problems for my team and me is necessary as I will recognize and anticipate the details.
Moreover, I experience difficulties in self-related competencies management, such as career planning and personal accountability. In the organization where I had my first nursing practice, my mentor shared their observation that I lost my initial goals and values in pursuing a result. The attitude of moving yourself to a background and prioritizing a facility’s mission or group aim is incorrect even if it seems appropriate for a leader. To fill the gap, I need to identify my own goals related to career building and work on them in a balanced manner so that they do not disrupt my leadership responsibilities (AONL, n.d.). Furthermore, having well-developed personal accountability is helpful in decision-making and priories settings, not only in the workplace but also in normal life.
Self-assessment revealed my strong and weak skills, and, based on the competencies’ analysis, I can now describe the goals to enhance my nursing leadership development. The initial aim is to improve my influencing behaviors strategies necessary to enforce my ability to encourage others. Indeed, creating effective systems and actionable plans for others combined with proper communication can help execute large groups efficiently and timely address behavioral deviations or challenges. A DNP-prepared nurse needs to be capable of analyzing and noticing the changes in the responsible group or unit’s work because, as leaders, they might need to create solutions quickly and effectively. To improve the tactics for influencing behaviors, I need to keep inspiring people around me and analyze their values and reactions to my assumptions about work, life, and career (AONL, n.d.). Developing this leadership competence is beneficial for the acute care facility I practice because, in challenging moments, I would be a reliable person capable of taking responsibility.
The second goal is to improve my risk management attitude because it is crucial for my practice as a DNP-prepared nurse and as a leader of the team where I work. I want to enhance my decision-making and strategic thinking necessary for developing appropriate strategies for optimizing work and life. Moreover, competence is crucial for identifying areas of liability at an organization, and the skill is essential for timely noticing and managing staff’s knowledge gaps (Johannessen et al., 2019). I also need to improve my systems development skill which would help me foresee the risks and correct my own aspirations and activities. Risk management attitudes development is required for all practitioners of my organization because it would enhance the overall awareness of deviations (The Joint Commission, 2017). Indeed, when each employee frequently evaluates the possibilities of threats or upcoming issues, the solutions will be found more quickly and efficiently.
The third objective for me is to explore the practical communicational approaches and identify which require closer attention. Nursing requires constant interaction with colleagues, subordinates, and patients; thus, being well-skilled at empathy, active listening, and body language understanding is beneficial for a DNP-prepared practitioner (Feldman et al., 2019). Besides, I tend to feel unconfident while speaking to over-emotional people, and addressing that issue can also be performed through communication abilities improvement. As a nurse leader, I must have enough knowledge to select the proper approach for tailoring a message or raising attention to an emerging issue. Developing the communication-related leadership competence will also support my practice in an acute care facility, as working there requires me to talk to diverse individuals.
The last goal for accelerating my leadership development is to select the literature to explore and use at work and in daily life. Indeed, reading the recent books about managing people, influence, or team building can help me find sufficient information and discover competency gaps I might be unaware of. Continuous education must go beyond the literature given by professors, and enhancing the skills through self-education is beneficial for achieving success (Johannessen et al., 2019). Implementing the current leadership strategies can support my nursing practice by sharing what I found out and encouraging my colleagues to strive for new knowledge.
Well-developed leadership skills can help DNP-prepared nurses accelerate their careers and make their work environment thrive. Consequently, competencies such as communication, high-quality care, decision-making, and the ability to take responsibility are critical for future professionals. Self-assessment helped me reveal my strengths and areas where development is required to make me a more efficient leader. Achieving the goals set based on the knowledge about my leadership capabilities will help me improve my competencies and obtain new ones.
References
American College of Healthcare Executives. (2017). The healthcare executive’s role in ensuring quality and patient safety[Policy statement].
American Organization for Nursing Leadership. (n.d.). AONL nurse leader competencies.
Feldman, S. S., Buchalter, S., Zink, D., Slovensky, D. J., & Hayes, L. W. (2019). Training leaders for a culture of quality and safety.Leadership in Health Services, 32(2), 251–263.
Johannessen, T., Ree, E., Strømme, T., Aase, I., Bal, R., & Wiig, S. (2019). Designing and pilot testing of a leadership intervention to improve quality and safety in nursing homes and home care (the SAFE-LEAD intervention). BMJ Open, 9(6), 1–12.
The Joint Commission. (2017). The essential role of leadership in developing a safety culture. Sentinel Event Alert, 57, 1–8. Web.