Running head: A LEADERSHIP ROLE ANALYSIS

A Leadership Role Analysis: Meeting Nurse Executive Competencies

Kelsey Spranger
Ferris State University

A LEADERSHIP ROLE ANALYSIS

A Leadership Role Analysis: Meeting Nurse Executive Competencies

Leadership is a characteristic or a personality trait that everyone has a little bit of. It can
be shaped into something great or masked behind a timid personality. Leaders have a lot of the
same qualities and help empower others to do great things. Nurse Managers in leadership
positions are responsible for smoothly running their units, staffing, and making sure their nurses
can provide safe and competent care. The American Organization of Nurse Executive (AONE)
Nurse Executive Competencies (NEC) help provide framework for understanding what is needed
of a good leader. Using this framework, I hope to analyze my current nurse manager and point
out how her leadership impacts patient care.
My manager, Michele Hurd, is highly qualified for her position as nurse manager and has
some great experience. She graduated from Saginaw Valley State University in 1992 and started
her career at Saginaw General Hospital, which is now Covenant Healthcare, in their critical care
unit. She transferred to our current facility, Midmichigan Medical Center, in 1995 and spent
approximately 10 years as a staff nurse, 2 years as a clinical specialist for the cardiac population,
and approximately 9 years in management including progressive care, oncology,
medical/surgical, and medical intensive care. Other certifications include BLS, CCRN, and
ACLS. This clinical experience, education, and certifications makes Michele qualified for her
role and nurse manager of the medical ICU.
The medical ICU manager must possess strong leadership skills and interpersonal skills
for communicating to their team. Furthermore, the manager of the unit must have a complete
understanding of every aspect of the day-to-day operations of the floor. The manager is
responsible for directing all patient care activities within the unit, including on-going evaluation,
treatment, and discharge planning. She is also responsible for the hiring, disciplining, and

A LEADERSHIP ROLE ANALYSIS

discharging of employees, all job performance reviews within the unit, staffing and scheduling.
The manager is also responsible for collaborating with physicians and other department
personnel, nursing management in planning and coordinating services related to patient care
budgeting, customer service responsibility, involvement in process improvement, quality
measures, staff development, and compliance with JCAHO and more.
As a manager, organization is a big part of being able to do the job well. Sellars and
Mayo (2013) state that Nurse managers are key drivers of organizational performance, playing a
key role in aligning strategic goals and nursing practice (p. 14). It is important to stay organized
to uphold the philosophy we have at Midmichigan Health. Michele is in agreeance with the
philosophys we have set in place and strives to meet them on a day to day basis. Our values at
Midmichigan Health include excellence, integrity, teamwork, and accountability. As a manager,
Michele uses these values when looking for people to hire. She looks for people that she thinks
will meet and contribute to these values as well as keep up good team moral on the unit. Not only
does she look for these qualities but helps to keep them in her staff with staff meetings,
continuing education opportunities, and evaluations. If there ever were to be a problem on the
unit, the staff report to the manager. The manager then reports to Tammy Terrell who is the
director of nursing as we follow a laddered reporting system.
While the role and responsibilities of the manager is very inclusive, the leadership skills
are there. The AONE (2015), identify the common core set of competency domains for health
care leadership: communication and relationship management; knowledge of the health care
environment; leadership; professionalism; business skills and principles (p. 2). These five core
competency domains are evident in Michele as a manager and a leader.

A LEADERSHIP ROLE ANALYSIS

The medical ICU (MICU) relies heavily upon clear and concise communication and
relationships within the unit. Michele contributes greatly in this area in communication with staff
as well as patient and these relationships. The day starts in the report room where she sits in on
the report of all the patients in the unit. She leads daily multidisciplinary rounds where they see
every MICU patient and family with compliant of services. She attends frequent meetings
throughout the day which are designed to improve patient care. Michele states, Maintaining
open communication with patients, families, and staff improve the overall experience and trust at
MidMichigan Medical Center. As manager, Michele is responsible for the quality of patient
care as well as the overall safety of our patients and she takes this very seriously. Having the
appropriate, qualified staff to care for our patients involves much staff development, coaching,
and mentoring. This helps deliver excellent patient care each and every day.
Communication and relationships are developed and maintained through open
communication by creating a trusting relationship, assertive communication, and leading by
example. Good communication helps in providing safe care to our patients and their families. We
evaluate this monthly with surveys that evaluate how we are doing areas such as nurse-patient
communication, cleanliness, noise level, and the overall environment. Yoder-Wise (2013) states,
Whether a nurse is a leader, a manager, or a follower, effective performance requires excellent
communication skills (p.343). To have good relationships in the healthcare system, the manager
has to be knowledgeable about what is going on.
Knowledge of healthcare environment is evident by involvement in daily shift report,
meetings, and relationships with staff, physicians, and other supervisors and personnel of other
units. She meets all of the qualifications of the AONE NEC outlined in the overview. She is
involved in patient safety and risk management meetings as well as process improvement

A LEADERSHIP ROLE ANALYSIS

meetings. She also works with the nursing shared governance committee and shares evidencebased practice articles with staff. These examples provide great evidence that Michele is
knowledgeable of the health care environment.
When it comes to leadership style, Michele uses more of a democratic leadership style.
She states:
I prefer the staff making decisions to improve patient care or in changing the work
environment. There are decisions that must be made by the manager that are mandated
and non-negotiable but these are far less throughout the year. Valuable feedback obtained
by discussing various issues or concerns with the staff. Also helps build teamwork. I
believe in transparency and sharing of knowledge.
This leadership style helps to improve the quality of care and safety on the unit. Yoder-Wise
(2015) states that, An effective leader knows that the most effective and visible way to
influence people is to lead by example (p.41). Michele leads by example on a daily basis and
helps her nurses in any way that she can. This leadership style helps to improve the other core
competencies by empowering the nurses on the unit.
Professionalism is evident by Michele in attitude, manor, dress, and functionality in the
workplace. She is very approachable with helps make open communication so easy. She is
willing to help, answer question and work with staff about solving any issues. She dresses the
part with always looking professional in dress clothes with neat and cleanly appearance. Her
attitude and appearance help with the flow of things on the unit. She is also able to direct her
staff professionally with assertive authority. Yoder-Wise (2013) states, Nurse managers must set
examples of professionalism, which includes academic preparation, roles, and function, and

A LEADERSHIP ROLE ANALYSIS

increasing autonomy (p.65). With a professional attitude and look, Michele does all of these to
empower her staff.
On the business side of things, the medical center where we work offers leadership
classes throughout the year, every year. Some of these include a more business focus and are
group sessions, others are one-on-one. These include budgeting and finance. Additionally,
Michele has taken accounting classes which she recommends to other newer managers. Budget
management, meeting JACHO standards, and numerous quality improvement meetings are
evidence meeting the business core competency.
Something that ties in with providing excellent and safe care to our patients is having
staff that are satisfied with their jobs. Michele helps create this environment with the 5 core
competencies to help keep staff moral and in turn patient safety. Anthony (2004) explains how,
Theorists such as Herzberg (1966) and McGregor (1960) championed employees as an
organizations most important asset encouraging organizations to invest in employee motivation
and growth. Thus, practices such as autonomy, empowerment, involvement, and participation in
decision making were advocated (para 3). These qualities and characteristics all contribute to
meeting the nursing executive competencies of communication and relationship building,
knowledge of the healthcare environment, leadership, professionalism, and business skills.

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7
References

American Organization of Nurse Executives. (2015). Nurse executive competencies. Retrieved

from http://www.aone.org/resources/nec.pdf.
Anthony, M. (2004). Shared governance models: The theory, practice, and evidence. Online
Journal of Issues in Nursing. 9(1). Retrieved from
www.nursingworld.org/MainMenuCategories/ANAMarketplace/ANAPeriodicals/OJIN/T
ableofContents/Volume92004/No1Jan04/SharedGovernanceModels.aspx
Sellars, B. B., & Mayo, A. (2013). Transforming care through leadership and research alignment.
Nursing Management, 44(12), 12-15.
Yoder-Wise, P. S. (2015). Leading and managing in nursing (6th ed.). St. Louis,
Missouri: Elsevier Mosby.