Nursing leadership and nursing management are healthcare fields that require a high level of knowledge and expertise. Although these two fields may seem to be similar, individuals working in these fields have very different roles and responsibilities. If you want to pursue any of these fields as your career but you don’t know their difference, this guide will explain the role of nurse leaders and nurse managers in nursing practice. This comprehensive guide will focus on contrasting and comparing nurse leadership and nurse management.
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What are nursing leadership and management?
Nursing leadership and management are the roles of nursing professionals who direct nursing staff, oversee the organizational structure of medical processes and lead nursing teams in providing patient care.
What is nursing leadership?
Nursing leadership is the practice of leading initiatives that improve nursing practices and outcomes. A leader is someone who can influence others through effective communication and insight.
What is nursing management?
Nursing management is the process of directing teams and nursing departments to maintain best practices and organization when providing care to patients.
Nurse managers are responsible for directing the daily processes and routines of the medical facility they work in and instructing nursing staff through hands-on approaches to ensure the efficacy of patient care and treatment plans. They also oversee hiring, staffing, and performance reviews of their teams.
Nurse managers need strong communication and leadership skills. They should be able to coordinate resources and personnel and meeting goals.
Roles of nurse leaders and managers.
Nurse leaders and nurse managers perform the following duties:
- Staff management.
- Case management.
- Treatment planning.
- Recruitment.
- Budgeting.
- Scheduling.
- Discharge planning.
- Mentoring.
- Developing educational plans.
- Records management.
Characteristics of a successful Nurse manager.
Nurse managers require skills varying from clinical care, budgeting, communication, management and possess leadership qualities. These skills required to be an effective nurse manager are summarized below:
Effective communication skills – In order to become an effective leader, nurse managers must be able to communicate needs and listen to nursing staff and patient concerns. This requires nurse managers to be able to build rapport with the other healthcare staff in the organization.
Advocacy – Nurse managers should be able to voice their opinions to ensure that there are a safe work environment and patient safety.
Participation – Nurse managers should be able to balance management roles, business concerns, and patient care.
Mentoring – Nurse managers should be able to boost the creativity and mindfulness of their staff by encouraging, empowering, and mentoring them.
Maturity – They should be able to think critically and avoid being controlled by their emotions.
Professionalism – Nurse managers should maintain their moral values and ensure all aspects of their profession are met with honesty and integrity.
Supportive – They should coach and mentor their employees and set challenging goals to motivate them.
Characteristics of a successful nurse leader.
In order to achieve high performance as a nurse leader, you must have this set of personal qualities:
- Integrity – An effective nurse leader is one who is honest and makes sure that all aspects of their profession are met with honesty.
- – A nurse leader should be courageous to take on even bigger challenges and to solve problems affecting patient care in the organization.
- Initiative – An effective nurse leader should be able to take charge before others do.
- Ability to handle stress.
- Critical thinking – Critical thinking is the ability to think clearly and rationally, understanding the logical connection between ideas. In order to become an effective nurse leader, you should be able to engage in reflective and independent thinking. This requires you to use your ability to reason thus becoming an active learner. This will help you in problem-solving and handling difficult situations.
- Good communication skills – Nurse leaders should be able to listen to the nursing staff and communicate what should be done.
- Collaborative and ability to set SMART goals – A good nurse leader should be able to set challenging and realistic goals to motivate the healthcare staff.
- Resilience and determination – A good nurse leader should be determined to solve problems and handle challenging situations. This is because you serve as an example to the staff under your leadership. A leader who lacks determination cannot lead people.
- Willingness and ability to learn.
