Personal Reflection on Nurse Manager Skills

Introduction

Effective management skills are critical in the field of nursing. As the position requires the ability to successfully lead interdisciplinary care teams, work with patients and their families, and perform an array of administrative duties, developing management skills is central to most effectively meeting patient needs. The purpose of this paper is to reflect on my own nurse manager skills. Drawing on information gathered from a management skills inventory, this paper will first consider issues related to personal and professional accountability. Career planning factors will then be described, followed by personal journey disciplines and plans for managing stress. Finally, reflective practice behaviors will be discussed. This paper concludes with a brief summary and outline of key points. 

Personal and Professional Accountability

Information used in the current reflection is based on the American Association of Critical Care Nurses' (2006) Nurse Manager Skills Inventory. This inventory is designed to identify strengths and weaknesses related to the four content areas described above. In the area of personal and professional accountability, I found that I excelled. For example, in the personal growth and development item, I considered myself to be an expert. As I currently work in a neonatal intensive care unit (ICU), I like to attend as many conferences related to this specialty area as possible. In doing so, I continue to seek out new information related to treatments, disease, recruitment and retention, and patient care skills. I also belong to the Academy of Neonatal Nursing (2013), an organization that provides continuing education opportunities and conferences for professionals within this nursing sub-discipline. Through the combination of these efforts, I feel that I have aptly developed my management skills related to personal growth and development, ethical practice, association with professional organizations, and maintaining relevant certifications. 

Career Planning

In the area of career planning, I feel that I have also performed aptly in terms of continuing to develop my nurse manager skills. Although I have only been employed for three years as a neonatal nurse, I continue to seek out new career opportunities and consistently attend conferences within my specialty area. Through attending these conferences, I have established numerous professional networks and contacts that will likely impact my future career opportunities. As the field of nursing has made a movement to become more evidence-based, I have also made efforts to stay apprised of research and literature within my field. According to Dyess and Sherman (2011), one of the most critical determinants of the future of nursing is the ability to read and disseminate current evidence in applied scenarios (Dyess & Sherman, 2011). Therefore, I believe that have successfully developed an in-depth understanding of my professional role, sought out numerous career opportunities, and effectively positioned myself for success within my field. 

Personal Journey Disciplines 

The American Association of Critical Care Nurses' (2006) "personal journey disciplines" item is designed to assess individual skills and strengths as a leader. In this component of nurse management, I believe I have some improvements to make. While I have continued to seek out professional opportunities and learn as much about my field as possible, my relative inexperience as a neonatal nurse has prevented me from fully exploring my own leadership strengths. I have not been granted sufficient leadership opportunities from which to identify and improve weaknesses. Therefore, I believe I am a novice in this particular aspect of the Nurse Manager Skill Inventory. With more experience, I will seek out leadership opportunities and engage in more action-based learning. Reflective practice is one strategy for improving leadership behaviors, and I intend to utilize this method throughout my career (Melnyk, Fineout-Overholt, Stillwell & Williamson, 2010). 

Reflective Practice Behaviors

Finally, in gauging my own reflective practice behaviors, it is clear that I have some room for improvement in this area as well. While I attempt to conduct myself in an honest fashion and draw on integrity as a key guiding principle in my work, I have not had sufficient time from which to reflect on how I can improve these skills. Furthermore, I have not fully considered my own potential within the field or the degree to which I nurture my intellectual and emotional self. As with the "personal journey disciplines" item, I feel that I still possess just a novice experience level with respect to "reflective practice behaviors". One of my current goals is to utilize reflective practice more in the workplace to improve my leadership and management skills. According to Dyess and Sherman (2011), reflective practice is essential for understanding one's own weaknesses and developing targeted strategies for improvement. I believe my current leadership skill set is sufficient for helping to improve the level of evidence-based practice utilized within my unit, and I intend to advocate for an increasingly evidence-based work environment in the near future. With the combination of my professional development skills, use of evidence to guide practice, and my goal of relying on reflective practice to a greater extend, I believe I will experience numerous leadership and management opportunities in the future. 

Conclusion

The purpose of this paper was to explore personal leadership and management skills within the workplace. Drawing on a current nursing leadership inventory, strengths and weaknesses were identified, and strategies for improving these weaknesses were outlined. Although my inexperience has prevented me from fully exploring my own leadership abilities, I believe these opportunities will present themselves with more time and continual efforts to improve myself professionally. 

References

Academy of Neonatal Nursing (2013). Welcome to our community. Retrieved from http://www.academyonline.org. 

American Association of Critical Care Nurses (2006). Nurse Manager Skills Inventory. Retrieved from http://www.aone.org/resources/leadership%20tools/PDFs/NMSL_BrochureFINAL.pdf.  

Dyess, S. & Sherman, R. (2011). Developing the leadership skills of new graduates to influence practice environments: a novice nurse leadership program. Nursing Administration Quarterly, 35(4), 313-322.

Melnyk, B. M., Fineout-Overholt, E., Stillwell, S. & Williamson, K. (2010). Evidence-based practice: step by step: the seven steps of evidence-based practice. The American Journal of Nursing, 110(1), 51-53.