Leadership Reflection

The leadership style that I got at was Team Leader, Entrepreneurs and my second was

Shepherds. Over the last 12 weeks of mental health and medical surgical clinical at Straub I feel I

really developed into these roles. For being change oriented, this clinical rotation was much more

intensive than any other rotation that I had before. In taking care of multiple patients, knowing

their workup, and planning my day was very difficult at first to do in such limited time, but I

quickly adapted and developed in to this pace. This change was positive and I was able to really

utilize important nursing skills such as critical thinking, time management, and prioritizing. My

ability to empathize and develop positive relationships with my patients, clinical

instructor/students, and nurses I followed really improved. We had professional conversations

and created a positive learning environment for myself and the patient through teamwork,

collaboration, and staying on track with each other. This contributed to a harmonious

environment where I was able really enhance my skills as a team leader. I have always been open

to constructive criticism and areas of needed improvement and during this rotation I felt that I

was able to have quality reflections and take in the input from my instructor to change and grow

on my weaknesses. In my practice I tried to utilize the qualities that make a leader, such as being

honest to my peers, nurses, and clients, having a strong ethical code in practice and procedures,

being consistent in my care, and always keeping my ear open to areas of needed improvement. In

Leadership and teamwork in medical emergencies, showed that RN and student teams who were

willing to speak out and be assertive performed best (Endacott, Bogossian, Cooper, Forbes, Kain,

Young, & Porter. 2015). This not only proved to be effective in practice but I feel much more

empowered as a soon to be new grad. A way that I showed my ability for speaking out and being

assertive was through advocating for my patients. One particular example that comes to mind

was a patient who was pretty much “gone” due to a history of chronic methamphetamine use,

had a four point restraints, a sitter and was slowly becoming more and more contracted. The

main priority for this patient was finding placement due to being a ward of the state but they

were having trouble in doing this. While finding a place for placement, I noticed that care was

pretty minimal for this patient. Like I said she was slowly becoming more and more contracted

and the sitter, the aides, and the nurse weren’t providing very good ADL care and ROM. After

talking about this with my instructor we planned for any student who gets this patient is to

provide quality ADL care and do ROM at least three times during the shift. Providing this not

only improved this patient’s condition but also decreased the further deterioration that was

occurring. In this way I was able to advocate for my patient, improve her quality of life to some

extent, and collaborate with my clinical group. For my other leadership of being a shepherd, I

found that it was a great style to focus on as a student. Being people-pleasing, sharing and

participating, and accommodating, all contributes to being a student and open to learning. I feel

that since I was still getting into the groove of things, that this style really helped in getting to

where I am at now. I was able to build good interpersonal relationships, participate hands on, and

learned side-by-side with my nurse. I asked plenty of questions and consistently looked up

information that was vague so that I could develop a good understanding of my patient’s

condition.

Overall I feel that I really was able to develop as a team leader, a Shepherd, and an

Entrepreneur during this clinical rotation. I learned so much about being a quality nurse and the

importance of being flexible, good listener, and assertive, while incorporating critical thinking,

time management strategies, and developing positive relationships with nurses, students, and my

instructor. This leadership forum really gave me a great sense of who I am, how to improve, and

where I can go in my future career of nursing. In an article about nurse leadership said that the

more experienced nurses were better at working as a team, indicating the need to provide explicit

opportunities to develop team working skills in the undergraduate curriculum (Endacott,

Bogossian, Cooper, Forbes, Kain, Young, & Porter. 2015). I couldn’t agree more that this is what

I received. 

Endacott, R., Bogossian, F. E., Cooper, S. J., Forbes, H., Kain, V. J., Young, S. C., & Porter, J.

E. (2015). Leadership and teamwork in medical emergencies: performance of nursing

students and registered nurses in simulated patient scenarios. Journal Of Clinical

Nursing, 24(1/2), 90-100. doi:10.1111/jocn.12611

Cherry, B., & Jacob, S. R. (2014). Nursing leadership and management. In B. Cherry & S. R.

Jacob (Eds.), Contemporary nursing: Issues, trends, & management (6th ed., pp. 285-

308). St. Louis, Mo: Elsevier Mosby.