Nursing Leadership Interview Paper
Abstract
This paper presents interview feedback from Maurice Berry; the Director of Nursing for Surgical Centre Inc. Maurice Berry is the boss of a three-nurse clinical team comprised of PACU, OR, and Pre Op. The interview questions ranged from leadership philosophy, inter-personnel relationships, leader career path, and the organizational information. Maurice Berry, the Director of this healthcare organization; responded to all interview questions in the most suitable manner. In this report, an interview response reflection will be provided in terms of leader characteristics, career path, and relationship with colleagues, and organizational information. Also, the response reflection paper will discuss the theories and concepts learned in respect to this interview response context as well as the entire course.
Interview Lessons
In this brief, I will provide the lessons learnt about leader attributes, career path and growth, organizational information, and relationship with colleagues based on Maurice Berry responses from the questions that I interviewed him.
Leader Characteristics
From the interview response, Maurice Berry embraces a participative leadership approach in which aspects of democracy are built through consensus and participation (Northouse, 2016). In his leadership approach, Maurice prefers collaboration with his three-man clinical team (OR, Pre Op, PACU), in which all their opinions and input get considered during decision-making processes. Maurice Berry believes in integrity, honesty, respect, objectivity, and professionalism values as a leader. From the interview feedback provided by Maurice, the following are the most suitable leader characteristics;
Effective delegation of duties
As a leader, Maurice Berry is a believer of duties delegation to his team members. Maurice says that he regularly calls for meetings with his three-man clinical team to discuss how best his surgical department can offer best services to patients (Cherry & Jacob, 2016). In these discussions, the team is able to share ideas about their best positions and roles in the hospital. Open group discussions have been helpful to the Director in understanding the strengths and weaknesses that each nurse have.
Respectful
Maurice Berry values respect to his colleagues. From his response to the interview, he argues that what defines his current success and followership from his team is respect to their personalities, ideas, and opinions (Porter-O’Grady & Malloch, 2015). I learned that empowering of team members by a leader enables his/her command a great sense of respect from the subordinates.
Team builder
According to Maurice, collaborative efforts create a thriving participative environment. As a leader, one guides the team in producing an enterprise that results from a group’s accomplishment (Cherry & Jacob, 2016). For Maurice to achieve, he has melded a mix of diverse team in the OR, Pre Op, and PACU departments. A good leader supports all co-workers, hence success.
Trust
Maurice argues that, trust for other team members and ability to win trust from followers makes a good leader. As a leader in the health care sector, Maurice thrives from follower trust that he has from the three-man nurse team (Porter-O’Grady & Malloch, 2015). The three nurses admire and respect him. He is influential to these departmental heads, and this is why they show trust and consider his decisions valuable.
Relationship with Colleagues
From Maurice’s response on the question about his relationship with colleagues, I learned that mutual inter-personnel relationships lead to effective achievement of the set organizational goals. Success in nursing management is found to be adaptable and flexible in a variety of complex health care situations only if the leader understands his team’s reasons for actions.
Excellent inter-personnel relationships
According to Maurice, maintaining excellent employee relations bolsters organizational performance and profitability. As a leader, one is entitled to respect his subordinates and co-workers in order to succeed and achieve the set goals. Also, the aspect of teamwork creates followership in which all employees work towards one direction.
Excellent communication
In respect to Nursing for Surgical Centre, Maurice believes that their success is determined by the manner in which he as the Director communicates, links, and networks with the other clinical team members. I learned that a good manager is the one who possess excellent communication skills such as understanding the context before raising any concern to the team (Northouse, 2016). In this leadership approach, each member’s voice is listened and considered in decision making.
Career Path
In his journey to professional success, Maurice has encountered numerous challenges that through endurance, hard work, and determination; was able to fight. I learned that a career path entails;
Career requirements
In the Clinical Nursing profession, one needs to complete a Bachelor’s degree program in the field. This degree program takes four years to finish and majors course that focus on nursing practice, nursing management, patient care, and clinical procedures.
Earn a license
After obtaining a nursing degree from a recognized nursing university, it is mandatory for one to pass the National Council Licensure Examination and also earn any additional state-specific certificates required in completing nursing license process.
Acquire experience as a registered nurse
Before becoming a nursing director, one must begin his or her career as a registered nurse. After gaining the required experience, they work their way up to secure the positions of director.
Gain experience in a leadership role
According to Maurice, a nursing director utilizes communication and leadership skills to manage a large number of practicing and registered nurses, where they freely interact with doctors and patients, thus previous team leadership experience is mandatory.
Organizational Information
Maurice Berry is the Nursing Director at SCA, a health care organization majoring in health, wellness, and fitness. Nursing for Surgical Centre information includes;
Product, Mission, Goal, and Objectives
Product: SCA offers nursing care services that range from wellness, body fitness, and health.
Mission: To provide consistent, excellent, and accessible nursing services to patients regardless of their status and payment abilities- exceptional care with no exception (Maciosek et al., 2010).
Goals and Objectives: The goals and objective of Nursing for Surgical Centre include:
- Provision of high quality patient health care services
- Education of patients and families
- Promotion of exceptional care and safe environment
Number of Employees
Maurice leads a team of three clinical nurses (OR, Pre Op, PACU) in their endeavor to offer top health care services to patients.
Accreditation, Licensure, Regulatory Requirements
- Successful completion of a Nursing program from a recognized medical institution in the country
- Experience with Regulatory and Accreditation Survey (CMS) and also Join Commission Accreditation is desired.
- Knowledge in OSHA, Accreditation, CMS, and AORN standards is mandatory.
Applicable Statistics
All nursing and health care statistics for patients are properly recorded and filed for future reference and review by the management. Approximately 400 patients are attended to by the nursing on daily basis, and these range from children to mature people. Over 80 percent of patient reviews depict that Nursing for Surgical Centre provides top quality care services, and thus its success and increased reputation recognition in the country.
Leadership Theory
From this course and interview feedback given by Maurice, various leadership concepts, models, and theories have been put forth. The main leadership theories learned in this lesson include: trait theory, participative theories, and management theories. The trait theory is manifest in the context where a nursing leader is required to possess certain qualities such as ability to delegate, respect, team leadership, and trust from followers (Kane & Patapan, 2012). Based on Maurice’s leadership style, participative theories of leadership have also been presented in this course. In this leadership model, great leaders are made and nor born; this is why Maurice consults other nursing leaders in the decision making processes to teach them the aspects of good leadership (Kane & Patapan, 2012). Lastly, management theories of leadership have been presented well in this course. As a leader, Maurice focuses on teamwork, group performance, and followership.
Relationship to Interview Lessons
In relation to the interview questions, a good leader is defined by his attributes which are clearly explained by the trait theory (Kane & Patapan, 2012). In this context, a good leader must should be respectful, able to consult, able to delegate duties, and flexible to consider colleagues opinions in decision making.
For participative theory, leaders are taught the importance of exhibiting and embracing democracy in an organization where every employee’s input gets considered and is valuable in decision making.
In management theories, no leader can succeed if he or she does not recognize the efforts of his employees (Maciosek et al., 2010). Maurice recognizes the hard work of his nurses through rewards and bonuses. Any modern leader must embrace this in fullness.
New Leadership Ideas Discovered
From the leadership theories and concepts of this course, new ideas of nursing leadership have been discovered. These ideas include:
- A good leader is the one who listens to subordinates, and corrects them with humility.
- Leadership is a process in which people inherit the best traits for management.
- Good leaders are not born; they are made through a participatory leadership style.
Application of Interview Lessons in Leadership Context
In a leadership context, people seeking for jobs must be keenly screened in the HR processes to ensure that they meet all job requirements (Buble, Juras, & Matic, 2014). From the interview lessons, leaders need to involve all team members in critical decision making matters since this is the only sure way to success. Maurice’s response indicates that employees are the most important and valuable asset of any company whose input contribute greatly to the success of an organization. Further, a leader needs to clearly understand the strengths and weakness of his/ her team members in order to assign the right duties to them during delegation.
Conclusion
In conclusion, participative leadership approach creates an excellent environment for better decision making and organizational success. Modern leaders need to embrace this aspect of democracy in their leadership approaches in order to motivate their team members and other colleagues.
References
Buble, M., Juras, A., & Matić, I. (2014). The relationship between managers’ leadership styles and motivation. Management: Journal of Contemporary Management Issues, 19(1), 161-193.
Cherry, B., & Jacob, S. R. (2016). Contemporary nursing: Issues, trends, & management. Elsevier Health Sciences.
Kane, J., & Patapan, H. (2012). The democratic leader: How democracy defines, empowers and limits its leaders. Oxford University Press.
Maciosek, M. V., Coffield, A. B., Flottemesch, T. J., Edwards, N. M., & Solberg, L. I. (2010). Greater use of preventive services in US health care could save lives at little or no cost. Health Affairs, 29(9), 1656-1660.
Northouse, P. G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and practice (7th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage
Porter-O’Grady, T., & Malloch, K. (2015). Leadership in nursing practice. Jones & Bartlett Publishers.