Running Head: NURSE LEADER INTERVIEW 1

Nurse Leader Interview

Erin Keim

Old Dominion University

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Nurse Leader Interview

I work in the Post-Anesthesia Care Unit (PACU) and wanted to learn more about our

Assistant Director, Valerie Campbell. She came to the hospital shortly after I started, last

September from Brooklyn, New York. Valerie always seemed very organized, calm in any

situation, and approachable. She loves to teach us and have in-services to help us become better

PACU nurses. Most of the current employees came from other backgrounds other than a

previous PACU including Intensive Care Units (ICU), Emergency Departments, and one or two

from a telemetry floor (like me!). Valerie has been a nurse since the 1980s and has experience

working in neuroscience units, plastic surgery, critical care units, Interventional Radiology, and

numerous PACU units, both in New York and California. She also has experience as a Clinical

Nurse Specialist and a Legal Nurse Consultant.

Valeries Leadership Traits and Styles

When interviewing Valerie, I asked her what strengths as a leader she felt she had and

she replied that she was humble, fair, encourages strengths, loves to mentor others, a go-getter,

and is always trying to improve. Her goals as a leader are to be fair, compassionate to both

patients and nurses, be professional, a role model and to encourage shared governance within the

unit.

Valerie describes her style as Transformational. According to the article, Are You a

Transformational Leader, the key characteristics are: charismatic, engaging, inspirational,

stable, optimistic, encouraging, honest, motivational, respectful, positive, team oriented,

effective communicator, empowering, reliable, trustworthy, empathetic, mentor, and visionary

(Smith, 2011). I believe Valerie possesses many of these characteristics and is on her way to

achieving more. Numerous times throughout the interview, she used the term shared
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governance. This term means that nurses and staff have voices and can help make positive

changes throughout the unit. It is not just the manager or director making the calls. Each nurse

has a say and equal vote. (Sullivan, 2017)

CJW Medical Centers Healthcare Model

At CJW Medical Center, the philosophy of nursing is based on elements from the

Watsons caring moments, Leiningers transcultural care model, and AACNs Synergy Model

for Patient Care. Nursing is practiced by providing safe and quality patient care through

collaboration and an interdisciplinary environment; care that is respectful, compassionate, and

culturally diverse, using evidence-based practice within patient care, and empowering nurses to

advance in their education.

Challenges in Healthcare

Valerie likes to confront challenges using the acronym DMAIC (define, measure,

analyze, improve, and control) as well as fishtail diagrams. With the fishtail diagrams, she lists

all the issues that are preventing the end goal (the head of the fish). Each bone of the fish

represents a problem that is impeding success. She tries to look at every challenge from different

angles and how they affect the end goal. When Valerie first came to our unit, she saw the result

of a massive exodus. She came to us during a hard time, where many people were negative and

even more quit. She had to quickly learn hospital policies and learn how to effectively deal with

conflict with people she barely knew.

Conclusion

Valerie has inspired me to strive to obtain these qualities as a leader. Many of these

qualities should apply to any responsible and good worker, but also as an effective leader. I
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believe, to be a good leader, one needs to learn from others, never stop trying for the best and to

have respect for others.

"I pledge to support the honor system of Old Dominion University. I will refrain from any form

of academic dishonesty or deception, such as cheating or plagiarism. I am aware that as a

member if the academic community, it is my responsibility to turn in all suspected violators of

the honor system. I will report to Honor Council hearings if summoned." Erin Keim
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Resources

Smith, M.A., FNP-BC. (2011). Are you a transformational leader? The Magnetic Pull, 44-50.

Retrieved May 28, 2017, from www.nursingmanagment.com.

Sullivan, E. J. (2017). Effective leadership and management in nursing(8th ed.). Boston: Pearson.

Synergy Model. (n.d.). Retrieved July 02, 2017, from

https://www.aacn.org/nursing-excellence/aacn-standards/synergy-model
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% Comments Points
Grading Criteria
Describe the nurse leader you chose for the 10 good 10
interview and why you chose this person
Analyze and describe the nurse leaders 25
leadership traits and style. Support with good 25
references.
Describe the organizational structure, health 25
care setting or health care model where your
good 25
nurse leader practices. Support with
references.
Describe how your leader positively 20
addresses a challenge health care (as
good 20
described in Chapter 1 of your Sullivan text).
Give a specific example.
Correct grammar, essay writing, spelling and 10
ok 10
punctuation
10 Good job with headings,
page limits. Needed a
minimum of 3 references for
your paper. If you used an
inside source on your
Correct use of APA format including citations hospitals computer and
of references and reference page. couldnt document it, then
Adherence to page limit. Utilizes a minimum you need to find an
6
of three references to support paper. Include additional source and
the honor code and attach the grading correctly cite it in your paper.
rubric. Submit through Safe Assign. Dont write the reason why
you cant cite something as
explanation in your paper.
Where was your honor
code? Where was your
rubric?
Final Grade 100 96
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Correction made, include APA

APA or grammar error
page number

Font changed to Times New Roman,

Example: incorrect font
Page 228

Incorrect citing of reference Authors last name and year put

within the paragraph in parenthesis, Pages 171-173

Missing 1 reference Added Synergy Model

reference and included it in the
paper citation. No APA
correction.
Missing honor code and rubric Added honor code and
completed rubric from first
submission. No APA correction.
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