Introduction
Dr. Alison Kitson, a Ph.D. holder is a former Nursing Executive director at the Royal College of Nursing. In her career, Dr. Alison has managed to enjoy a prosperous and blissful career in the field of nursing and has been working nationally and internationally for the last 20 years in clinical practice and lecturing at University. Her role at RCN has been significant since her establishment of a team of 15 quality improvement facilitators and research personnel. Dr. Alison has assisted in setting up the Institute of Nursing which is the first practice development and research unit to be established in the UK (1989 – 1992).
In her quest, she has acted in the position of unit director from 1992 – 1996 where through success she has managed to the device and develop a significant amount of leading edges in research and development programs. During her tenure at the RCN, Dr. Alison has led the quality improvement team and assisted in the set up of the clinical Leadership Programme at RCN. Through these efforts, her hard work and determination have overseen the initiation of the RCN NICE collaboration center. This is the only NICE center location among other nursing organizations.
Dr. Alison’s Description
As a leader, DR. Alison describes herself as having characteristics of innovation with a visionary mind and also considers herself as an individual of high motivation. This advantage earns her reputation wherever she goes and has made her possess the ability to have multiple levels concerned with operations within a system. Her prowess and heroine attitude has enabled her to embrace complexity through resilience and have earned her courage and confidence which has helped her encounter enormous challenges in life.
Leadership Philosophy
As a leader, Dr. Alison employs the idea of vision which fully oversees the leadership philosophy. She reiterates that as a leader, one must put into consideration values that encourage patients hence helping them have the feeling that they are being attended to with care. In this perspective, through proper caregiving, nurses are able to gain respect hence their work is valued. Dr. Alison believes that good leadership skills emanate from a person long before he/she is assigned a role. This means that for one to be a good leader, one must be able to organize and ensure that events are well organized and executed; this allows space for improvement and success.
Learning Experiences that Influence Personal Development as a Leader
As a leader, Dr. Alison says that the best experience that influences one’s personal growth in the nursing field is the ability to learn the concept of being resourceful. Through this, it is necessary for an individual to learn to influence their personal development through the aspect of self-regulation as a factor of merit. As an expert in clinical nursing, the ability to coordinate events is vital hence possessing the right communication skills which are influential to the development of a leader. Leaders are also expected to embrace the fact that meeting other people who occupy the same leadership positions helps in the accumulation of knowledge in leadership governance.
This is considered a great learning experience that promotes the influence of one’s personal development. With these great leadership development factors to consider, Dr. Alison is of the opinion that learning experiences are important and influential to a leader’s personal development and by this, one is able to cope with patients hence giving them self-centered care. Through decision-making processes, a leader is then able to attain the set goals and objectives.
How Leadership is Evolving in Nursing
With the world experiencing changes in almost every sector of specialization, nursing leadership has been affected largely. Dr. Alison speaks of the need to have a system that will help decrease the tensions of dashing technological transformations, how leaders can help cope with the hesitation experienced in the global economy, and the period where there is the significance of educated consumers. This needs the attention of a leader with a strong sense of mind and is able to work through problems to come up with solutions which in turn help in overcoming responsibilities with an aim of developing nursing professionals of high potential through the tremendous challenges presented in nursing.
These factors are important for a nursing leader as he/she faces possibilities of answering tough and strict questions in a bid to come up with solutions that are long-term as compared to short-term solutions. Nursing leadership is packed with obstacles that have to be overcome. Does Dr. Alison talk of finding key solutions to questions such as the reason why potential colleagues may choose to get involved in the nursing profession? Are the faculties of aging able to succeed in replenishing a profession’s rank where graduates are equipped with knowledge of handling the increasing changes, the aging population, epidemics in occurrence globally, the increased rates of chronic diseases et cetera.
These questions have to be addressed and through this, a nursing leader is able to organize, restructure and downsize care management and other priorities involved in the health care organizations.
Challenging Issues in Current Position of Leadership
Dr. Alison speaks of leadership aspects concerned with the tidal changes which occur on regular basis. This means that leaders have the mandate to ensure that leaders are in a position to handle circumstances by devising methods on how to get collate guess work in reasonable atmospheres and are therefore required to employ tactical strategies on supervision. Good leaders should be able to handle challenges that come up in turbulent times thus come up with solutions that are widely accepted.
How Mentoring has affected Leadership Styles
Leadership is a skill that needs focus in everything done. Dr. Alison reiterates that good and aspiring leaders need to have role models whom they can follow up in their footsteps in a bid to achieve success through guidance as protégés. In healthcare, most leaders consider the transformation of the traditional healthcare setting, as new and advanced technologies, have resurfaced giving rise to new leadership styles. Through mentoring, aspiring leaders are due to experience the importance involved as one acquires more knowledge hence building strong mutual relationships.
Advice for Someone Aspiring Towards a Leadership Position
Leadership entails the individual ability to think and come up with viable solutions that are meant to assist in the planning and running of an organization. In this sense, aspiring leaders should have the skill, determination, and courage to practice good leadership to experience prosperous achievements.
Conclusion
Leadership is a skill that has to be nurtured from an early age. Dr. Alison views the ability to have leadership skills as an opportunity to handle problems through multitasking. In this respect, leaders are held accountable for the occurrences involved within an organizational setting and are therefore answerable for any mismanagement of events.