Nursing Leaders Faced with Challenges

Beginning with recognizing the obstacles, the emerging leader can identifying the obstacles and assist the nurse with implementing a plan to reach the goal of becoming a leader.

Today's nurse is faced with many challenges which ten years ago was not posed as a threat to the emerging nurse leader. The nurse whom chooses to advance oneself is limited to administrative and leadership roles today. Difficult situations such as limited job opportunities, cost reduction plans for health care facilities, economic struggle and governmental and health insurance issues are causing such havoc on the advancing leaders. These restrictions make the leader or potential leader face obstacles for advancement that were not considered challenges a few years ago.

Job opportunities have been decreased for new leaders due to health care facilities necessitating "cut backs" and preparing for what is occurring and what will continue to occur with the reduction of Medicare reimbursement and preparing for financial distress.

Facilities are faced with financial difficulty operating on a day to day basis with continual challenging economic struggles as well as daily operational status census. Patient admissions and ER visits have been reduced since prior years. Patients are greatly affected by the financial impediment and are unable to pay for office visit co-pays, as well as ER and urgent care visits.

At the current time emerging nurse leaders are not as able to expand their nursing careers as in prior times. The economic struggle has placed restrictions on salaries and wages and growth within the field. As a nursing shortage once occurred, now there nurses who are being laid off and unable to find employment. Health care facilities have combined nursing leadership roles and reduced the amount of opportunities to advance one's self.

With diminishing opportunity for nursing leadership roles and advancement, there will also be fewer advocates for nurses, patients, community health care, as well as nursing research, education and growth. The emerging nurse leader is faced with these challenges and is given a lack of opportunity to grow within one's own community and stand up for our patients and their care. The reductions and combining roles of the nurse leader as well as lay offs is creating an unpleasant work environment for many nurses and even nursing students.

When looking into the future of nursing and leadership expansion, it is unclear how it will unfold. It is up to the emerging leader to take pride in the nursing role and continue to build upon the very basic principle of nursing, caring. From this starting point the nurse must excel in their role as care taker, educator, advocate, as well as community involvement. Nurses must stand up and fight for our profession as well as each other. This is only the beginning of the current struggles emerging nurse leaders are being faced with.