Graduate Nurses’ Required Leadership Attributes

Graduate nurses need certain attributes to perform optimally in their work. These attributes include self-awareness, accountability, time management, and social awareness (Finkelman & Kenner, 2010). Self-awareness means the proper understanding of one’s emotions and their effects on oneself and other people. Graduate nurses need to understand their emotions in order to deal with situations in the right manner without interference from feelings of anger, disappointment, disgust, or irritation (Finkelman & Kenner, 2010).

Accountability is critical for graduate nurses because their decisions and actions have consequences. Owning one’s actions and being accountable is a necessary leadership attribute. Nurses deal with many responsibilities on a daily basis. Therefore, it is important for them to manage their time properly by organizing, planning, prioritizing and scheduling their activities (Finkelman & Kenner, 2010). Graduate nurses who are socially aware care about other people’s needs and respond to them because they understand their needs, pain, and suffering.

Nurses deal with patients with different personalities, ailments, and cultural backgrounds. In order to provide quality care that embraces diversity, nurses need to be compassionate. Nurses need to show compassion toward patients and their families and tend to their physical and emotional needs (Kelly, 2011). Empathizing with patients is one of the most effective method of gaining their trust and confidence.

References

Cherry, K. (2016). What’s Your Leadership Style?

Finkelman, A., & Kenner, C. (2010). Professional Nursing Concepts: Competencies for Quality Leadership. New York, NY: Jones & Bartlett Publishers.

Kelly, P. (2011). Nursing leadership & Management. New York, NY: Cengage Learning.