Leadership Journal: Serving

Leadership Journal: Serving

Grand Canyon University

NUR 670

Leadership Journal

Leadership experience

In this week’s clinical hours, a portion of the day was spent with the leadership team of the hospital or leaders with higher positions and titles than my preceptor. Once a month, a director of another department goes to a different department to reach out to staff and patients in other units to aid in improving patient care as well as staffing concerns. We met with the chief of pediatric medicine for the hospital and her goal for this month’s encounter was to meet with patients to inquire about their overall experience in the perioperative department. We started in the post anesthesia care unit (PACU) where we were able to ask the few who were ready to leave about their experience. Every patient asked replied with positive remarks and no issues concerning their process, from preop to PACU.

In other activities, I contributed to the placement of the new “time-out” visual aides in each of the eight operating rooms. These new posters included the participation of the scrub person to indicate the location of the “safe zone” on the surgical field. The use of the “safe zone” or the hands-free technique was part of my evidence based research project and the department was in the pre-planning phases of utilizing this strategy for sharps safety. In the beginning of this course my preceptor read my research paper and thought it was a perfect fit to use in her department to implement the practice change they were already moving towards. Having this organization utilize my practice change proposal is an honor because they found my information relevant and credible based on the resources and references used.

Service

Working as a traveler, my contact with staff is short lived at 13 weeks at a time and sometimes longer with contract extensions. With this short period, I am able to influence in one form or another a few members of that facility. Many of these facilities I travel to have new nurses orienting in the operating room where I have an opportunity to professionally influence them with my experience with my service upon them. To some of these nurses, they may view my service upon them as a contribution to their success as a nurse in the operating room. I could also consider the service I give as a traveling circulator in the operating room at these facilities displays to the nurse managers the value I add to their department by filling in for the staffing shortage and relieving the strain on the current staff. The orienting nurse may have had a professional goal to become competent in the surgical arena and the nurse managers of the facilities may have the goal of maintaining sufficient staffing for their operating rooms. Both are goals I may have participated in achieving.

Issues of servant

A few takeaways from the video about the “Issues of Servant” to which I am intrigued with are how the greatest among you will be your servant as well as the concept of how the leader shall be your slave. These two concepts are and have been part of the foundation of Christ’s teaching and having a true understanding of these concepts is committing one’s life to the Lord in service (Vhumani, 2015). The “greatest among you will be your servant,” statement I believe has a connection with who among your network of people you interact with will work or serve others and in return be the bigger or better person. Conversely, the leader is the one who serves others or is the slave to all. The one willing to step forward to do the work will be viewed in God’s eyes as a leader.

Servant leadership is a concept of both serving others as well as being a leader to followers (Greenleaf, 2004). The ones who are served may unwillingly know they are being served and showing or being appreciative of such service by another may go unrecognized. A true servant leader will accept their place despite the lack of recognition by others. As nurses, we commit to serve others, primarily our patients but also those we work with and work for. It may be challenging to understand how one receives or accepts being served as much as one who chooses to serve others first. Selfish act or selfless actions can define a person’s character and leadership abilities. Ideally leaders bring integrity, strong communication skills and problem-solving abilities to the organization (Delgado & Mitchell, 2016). Making an impact on those you serve in nursing is critical to the future of nursing by creating a culture of serving others through servant leadership. (McMurray, Henly, Chaboyer, Clapton, Lizzio & Teml, 2012).

Concluding this week’s topics, learning about the issues of service and what makes a person accept being served is a thought I often have. There are many different motivations for leaders and individuals serving others or leaders and individuals serving themselves. The greatest leader to us is the Lord, when we submit to him as the greatest we understand we are less than He. As “He must become greater, I must become less” (John 3:30, NIV) this is an ongoing process of submission to the Lord and learning to ourselves be less by serving him, becoming like him, eventually as a leader influencing others. For many of us, nursing may not be our primary service, but as a nursing leader we may have the ability to positively influence fellow nurses with the use of servant leadership and this may be our calling. Investing in my education with time, energy and effort I believe this is my path God has laid before me.

References

Delgado, C., & Mitchell, M. M. (2016). A Survey of Current Valued Academic Leadership Qualities in Nursing. Nursing Education Perspectives (National League For Nursing), 37(1), 10-15. doi:10.5480/14-1496

McMurray, A. M., Henly, D., Chaboyer, W., Clapton, J., Lizzio, A., & Teml, M. (2012). Leadership succession management in a university health faculty. Journal Of Higher Education Policy & Management, 34(4), 365-376. doi:10.1080/1360080X.2012.689198

Vhumani, M. (2015). God-image of Servant King as powerful but vulnerable and serving: Towards transforming African church leadership at an intersection of African kingship and biblical kingship to servant leadership. HTS Teologiese Studies/Theological Studies, Vol 71, Iss 2, Pp E1-E9 (2015), (2), e1. doi:10.4102/hts.v71i2.2907