Introduction
The Nurse Manager Skills Inventory is a useful assessment form that helps nurses understand their strengths and areas for improvement. The division of practices and qualities of a nurse provides a clear overview of skills that a nurse needs to acquire or reflect upon.
Personal and Professional Accountability
The identified strengths relate to personal growth and development and ethical behavior and practice (competent experience/skill). As I pursue education advancement in order to make my career planning more relevant and possible, the development of my skills and expertise is a crucial aspect of the path to becoming a professional. I believe that not only annual but also bimonthly self-assessments are necessary to track one’s progress. Ethical behavior is an integral part of my practice and approach to patients; I do not only fully integrate it but also pay attention to new methods researched by nursing professionals in ethical practice to understand how I can improve mine.
Professional association involvement and certification are the weaknesses I identified (novice experience/skill). Involvement in professional associations and the acquisition of memberships is difficult for nursing professionals with little experience in the field. Both these areas require a significant investment of time, finance, and experience. Nevertheless, I aim to improve my expertise in these areas by adding them to my development plan.
Career Planning
The identified strengths relate to knowing your future and positioning yourself (competent experience). I understand that with the aging population in the USA, the need for nurses will continue to increase, and as some rates of diseases are growing steadily (e.g., cancer, mental illnesses, etc.), my task is to acquire skills necessary for competent practice in these areas. I do not exclude scenarios that involve a narrower specialization because it guarantees flexibility in the ever-changing healthcare environment. Knowing your role is more difficult as core competencies remain the same from hospital to hospital but little specifics of practice might change. Thus, I need more expertise in this area to understand how my skills related to job requirements and whether I would benefit from additional talents.
Personal Journey Disciplines
Action learning and reflective practice often depend on each other; I use both in my practice to evaluate and reflect on decisions I make and forecast what impact they will have on the team and the patient (competent experience/skill). Shared leadership and council management are difficult to develop as my experience in leadership and communication with other leaders is relatively scarce (novice experience) (NMLP, 2006). Additionally, I have not yet engaged in the promotion of shared leadership.
Reflective Practice Reference Behaviors/Tenets
The majority of skills outlined in the content area are essential for competent nursing professionals. I actively support diversity, use multiple perspectives on a case or issue (and share them with others), discover the potential in myself and colleagues, use reflective learning at work, and therefore can conclude that my expertise in these skills in closer to competent. However, it is difficult for me to cope with ambiguity and create a constant state of learning in it as it interferes with the translation of experience to practice. In such an environment, both the development of the emotional self and the creation of balance becomes almost impossible (novice experience).
Change in the Workplace and Personal Goal
As a highly reflective person that sees potential in others and relies on ethical behavior, I will draw the management’s attention to changes in practice that are necessary to improve patients’ satisfaction with services (e.g., provide additional training about the prevention of hospital-acquired infections to nurses, emphasize the importance of patient-centered approach, etc.). Small changes are often based on personal reflections, but they can significantly improve the system as a whole (Morton, Fontaine, Hudak, & Gallo, 2017). I plan to advocate for better appreciation of different professionals and stress the need for opportunities for them to develop their potential. This potential development will not only increase their commitment but also positively influence the hospital, resulting in better patient outcomes and the reduction of burnout rates among staff. Action learning is useful in addressing urgent issues and translating this experience to others for the overall practice improvement in the organization.
A personal goal for my leadership growth is the ability to accept and work in the ambiguity of our environments (NMLP, 2006). Although I understand that healthcare professionals cannot control every aspect of their work, it would be easier for me if it was possible. To develop this skill and flexibility, I aim to learn to accept the lack of control over the workplace environment and base my decision-making on available information, using the lack of details as an opportunity rather than a barrier (Broadbent, Moxham, Sander, Walker, & Dwyer, 2014). I also plan to evaluate my professional plans more often to understand how flexible I am and what changes these plans might require (even if I do not aim to change them). Learning to be flexible is the best skill one can use when addressing workplace ambiguity. Listening to the advice of others is also an option as it requires changes and adaptation.
References
Broadbent, M., Moxham, L., Sander, T., Walker, S., & Dwyer, T. (2014). Supporting bachelor of nursing students within the clinical environment: Perspectives of preceptors. Nurse Education in Practice, 14(4), 403-409.
Morton, P. G., Fontaine, D., Hudak, C. M., & Gallo, B. M. (2017). Critical care nursing: A holistic approach. Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
NMLP. (2006). Nurse manager skills inventory. Web.