Leadership in nursing can sometimes be defined by a job title, such as charge nurse or nurse manager, but it transcends official designations. Nurse leaders are strong role models who inspire their coworkers to work toward better standards of patient care.
No matter the career field or organization, influential leaders are needed to establish a vision of success and motivate their teams to achieve it. With competent leadership, organizations can better fulfill their mission, establish a positive workplace culture and push team members to work toward their true potential. This is undoubtedly true in nursing, particularly as the healthcare landscape rapidly evolves and teams look to their leadership for guidance on navigating those changes.
What is leadership in nursing, exactly, and why is it so crucial? Let’s take a closer look here. As you reflect upon your nursing career options and consider whether you could become a nurse leader one day, it’s worth exploring non-traditional degree paths. For example, Utica University’s Accelerated Bachelor of Science in Nursing (ABSN) program is designed to graduate future nurse leaders who can tackle emerging challenges in the healthcare field.
Explore the basics of the ABSN program and discover whether it could be right for you.
What Is Leadership in Nursing?
Nurse leaders can often be identified by their job titles. Charge nurses, nurse managers and chief nursing officers are all examples of leaders within their organizations. These professionals ensure high patient care and safety standards and supervise, develop and inspire their teams.
Yet, any nurse can possess leadership skills in nursing and exercise them in ways that benefit the entire team and their patients. So, what is leadership in nursing? Leadership isn’t limited to one’s job title. A leader serves as a positive role model to others, maintains high standards of personal conduct and integrity and inspires those around them to strive toward nursing excellence.
In a nutshell, leadership is a matter of behaviors and actions rather than titles.
Why Is Leadership in Nursing Important?
So, what is the importance of leadership in nursing? In every organization, leadership is the glue that holds teams together by defining a shared objective and motivating individuals to put forth their best effort to achieve it.
Effective nurse leadership can:
- Nurture a positive and supportive workplace culture
- Establish a shared mission and vision
- Serve as a model for nursing excellence, professional ethics and integrity
- Encourage team members to behave professionally and maintain exemplary personal conduct in the workplace
- Inspire and motivate individuals to live up to their true potential
- Provide pathways for professional development and continuing education
Leaders within healthcare organizations aren’t only concerned with productivity and organizational finances; they strive to improve the standards of care to encourage better patient outcomes.
Types of Nurse Leaders
As previously mentioned, leadership in nursing isn’t dependent on one’s job title. Serving as a leader within your department without ever pursuing promotions is possible. However, if you do aspire to step into an officially recognized leadership role, you may wish to consider the following options:
- Charge nurse: A charge nurse oversees a nursing department. They provide clinical care at the bedside and professional guidance to their fellow nurses. Charge nurses also handle the department’s administrative tasks.
- Nurse manager: Unlike charge nurses, nurse managers fulfill a predominantly administrative role rather than one split between administrative work and the bedside. They are responsible for personnel decisions, shift scheduling, budget decisions, training etc. They ensure smooth daily operations and report to nurse administrators and executives.
- Nurse administrator: A nurse administrator typically supervises the nursing staff in an entire department, clinical area or facility. They are responsible for departmental policies and procedures, reporting functions, human resources and strategic plans. They generally work with and report to executives.
- Chief nursing officer: This executive-level position is the most senior nursing title within healthcare organizations. The chief nursing officer shapes the mission and vision of the organization, manages financial responsibilities and oversees organizational operations, all while focusing on excellent patient care.
- Advanced practice registered nurse (APRN): While not officially a leader — at least in the administrative or managerial sense — an APRN is at the pinnacle of clinical practice. APRNs set a high standard of clinical care and can serve as mentors to RNs. Clinical nurse specialists, a type of APRN, also typically take an active role in evaluating healthcare systems and recommending improvements to care delivery methods.
What’s a chief nursing officer? Learn about the duties and education required for this essential nursing leadership role.
Styles of Leadership to Consider
All leaders in this field need to draw upon leadership skills in nursing. However, not every leader goes about their duties in the same way. Just like in other organizations, healthcare facilities have a variety of leadership styles.
Some leadership styles include:
- Autocratic: Leaders have the primary authority to make decisions and delegate tasks to team members with limited autonomy. This style can work well in ERs and trauma centers but may be less effective elsewhere.
- Democratic: A democratic leader is highly collaborative, making decisions with team members’ input.
- Transformational: Transformational leaders focus on empowering their teams through mentorship, professional development and continuing education.
- Laissez-faire: This leadership style is hands-off, conferring a great deal of autonomy to team members. It’s ideal in settings like home health agencies.
Key Leadership Qualities in Nursing
No matter the leadership style, certain essential leadership qualities in nursing benefit both the leader and the team members.
Communication
Communication is at the top of the list for a good reason; nurse leaders can’t expect their message to get through or their delegated tasks to be executed if they can’t communicate clearly. All aspiring nurse leaders need excellent verbal and written communication skills, including strong active listening and a good command of non-verbal communication cues (e.g., body language and facial expressions).
Interpersonal Skills
Interpersonal skills are essential for effective leadership in nursing. Leaders in the nursing field need to work well with various personality types and people from all backgrounds and walks of life.
Empathy
All types of nurses need strong empathy — the ability to imagine yourself in another person’s shoes. Empathy provides the foundation for a competent bedside manner and developing rapport with patients. It’s also essential for leaders in this field to connect with their team members.
Teamwork and Team Building
Teamwork and team building are essential for creating a positive workplace culture in almost every nursing environment. When nurses can effectively work together and trust each other’s decisions, they can operate better as a unit. Consequently, this supports better patient care. (There may be some exceptions in highly autonomous nursing specialties, such as home health nursing.)
Cultural Competence
Effective nurse leaders are those who genuinely respect other people and accept their differences. Leaders must never forget that people from varying walks of life and backgrounds may view situations differently.
Get your complete planning guide to your nursing career path.
Mentorship
One key responsibility of a leader in the nursing field is inspiring and encouraging others to reach their potential. Mentorship is an essential tool for accomplishing this.
Prepare for a Nursing Leadership Position at Utica University
Utica University is a private nonprofit school known for academic excellence and highly supportive faculty members. With a nursing philosophy rooted in ethics, integrity, community service and honest communication, our ABSN program thoroughly prepares students to succeed as professional nurses. We strive to instill in graduates the leadership qualities and foundational skills necessary to confidently pursue a career as a future nurse leader.
If you qualify for our ABSN program, you could graduate with your nursing degree in as few as 16 months. Plus, because we offer three start dates each year, we can accept and educate more nursing students than other institutions. Our hybrid learning model offers exceptional flexibility; work through online coursework and participate in in-person, hands-on learning activities.
Ready to get started working toward a meaningful career as a registered nurse? Contact an admission representative today and take the next step.
