The nurse leader selected for the interview is E. G., a nurse supervisor at Thrive Skilled Pediatric Care. This nurse leader’s position is two levels above my own one since I work as RN skilled nurse at the same organization. The interview with the nurse leader is scheduled for November 19, 2022, and will be held from 3:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. on that day.
The first leadership task to be observed is effective communication and task delegation. Since nurse leaders are well-positioned to insert influence within the healthcare system, they have to possess strong communication skills to be able to improve patient experience and population health (Bowles et al., 2019). Therefore, it would be beneficial for me to observe how nurse leaders utilize their communication skills to delegate tasks efficiently and achieve better patient outcomes. I plan to observe the nurse leader’s meeting with clinical team members, where the nurse leader is expected to interview, educate, and manage the performance of team members. At the meeting, I will have the role of an observer. I will record my observations by taking notes on how the nurse leader approaches the task delegation process and what specific features make the supervisor’s communication effective. This activity is scheduled for November 21, 2022, at 9 a.m.
The second leadership activity to be discussed is educating and advocating for patients. Patient education means informing patients about their health condition and providing guidance about what to do next after discharge. Advocacy means ensuring that multiple patient needs, such as safety and patient rights protection, are met. Nurse leaders serve as role models for patient advocacy and population health improvement in healthcare (Bowles et al., 2019). I plan to observe this activity as the nurse leader engages in communication with the patient. I am going to be an observer and take notes about how the nurse supervisor delivers information to the patient. However, it is still not clear whether there will be an opportunity to be present at the nurse leader’s meeting with the patient. Therefore, I plan to discuss this activity in detail during an interview with the nurse supervisor, which will be conducted at 3:00 p.m. on November 19, 2022. I plan to ask the nurse about what language should be used when educating and advocating for patients, the content of patient education, and the nurse leader’s specific role in this process.
The third leadership task to be discussed is keeping up-to-date with the most recent developments in treatment, healthcare research, and testing. Nurse leaders are responsible for promoting and aligning evidence-based practices, developing new metrics, and adopting early research findings into practice (Bowles et al., 2019). In order to perform this task, nurse leaders should first get access to recent research, then appraise the novel healthcare approaches and develop strategies on how to promote and integrate these advances into practice. My role in exploring this leadership task will be to take notes about how nurse leaders perform this activity. Since this task is difficult to observe, I plan to discuss it in the interview with the nurse leader, which is scheduled for November 19, 2022, at 3:00 p.m. I am going to ask questions about where nurse leaders get the most recent research findings about treatment and testing and what specific strategies they use to facilitate the adoption of new practices.
Reference
Bowles, J. R., Batcheller, J., Adams, J. M., Zimmermann, D., & Pappas, S. (2019). Nursing’s leadership role in advancing professional practice/work environments as part of the quadruple aim. Nursing Administration Quarterly, 43(2), 157-163. Web.