Are you a great nurse leader?

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I recently came across a great article on emotional intelligence in nursing. It listed 5 attributes of successful nurse leaders. I ticked four of them.

How many of the five boxes did you tick?

  1. Self-awareness
  2. Self-regulation
  3. Motivation
  4. Empathy
  5. Social skills

Is this list comprehensive though? What would you include?

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Specializes in Peri-op/Sub-Acute ANP.

I would be interested in reading this article. Would you please post full citation/link?

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Specializes in Behavioral Health.

This feels eerily like some BSN homework I vaguely remember doing. The skills I look for in a nurse leader are:

- A Stephen Hawking-esque knowledge of EMRs, including answers to questions like, "How come when I chart this blood sugar over here it doesn't automatically appear over there?" or, "*** are all these buttons for?"

- An intense, piercing stare

- A grasp of labyrinthine jokes, the best of which take hours to tell

- Their non-dominant hand should be replaced, Swiss Army-style, with an O2 monitor, a doppler, a bladder scanner, a barcode scanner, and a nozzle that sprays Sierra Mist

- They should carry a portable Pyxis on their back, stocked with the top 30 meds used on their unit

- Immune to C. diff and norovirus

- Don't sleep, work all three shifts

- Able to lift, turn, and reposition patients of any size, even the sweaty ones

... those are the things I can think of off the top of my head.

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Specializes in Critical Care, Education.

Love Dogen's list!!! I can add a couple

A poker faced ability to deal with clueless bottom-line-oriented executive types who see absolutely no connection between patient satisfaction, quality of care, patient safety and nursing workload..... without one single eyeroll.

Nuclear powered moral compass - to remain absolutely focused on the 'true north' of patient care and the wellbeing of nursing staff despite the near-continuous barrage of blame-storming toward nurses whenever anything occurs.

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A powerful stride. A purposeful stance. The ability to raise one's eyebrow. (Preferably the left one!) Eyespeak. Great shoes. (See "stride")

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Specializes in Critical Care.
....

Nuclear powered moral compass - to remain absolutely focused on the 'true north' of patient care and the wellbeing of nursing staff despite the near-continuous barrage of blame-storming toward nurses whenever anything occurs.

This.

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Specializes in Behavioral Health.
This.

Don't get me wrong, having a NM made of steel who stands between me and administrators who think I have all this free time to add new responsibilities would be great...

... but a NM who shoots Sierra Mist and dispenses sandwiches would save me at least 10 miles of walking every week and raise HCAHPS scores.

Oh, and checks CBGs. A NM should always check CBGs, and chart interventions...

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Your perfect NM doesn't have a built in coffee machine in that whole rigmarole?

Fie!

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