I learned a lot from my interview. I talked with my charge nurse from home and she was able to give me a great insight into not only her day to day operations but also the training necessary to be in her position. We started by talking the behind the scenes of climbing up the ladder on the unit and what was there for them to utilize throughout the journey. She said that they took leadership classes in order to start the training. The classes included “conflict management and resolution, how to operate scheduling systems, how to be a leader, communications, moving from staff to leadership (which was extremely helpful being that I was a staff nurse prior to becoming a nurse leader on the same floor), modeling high performance and leading change.” She said these classes really made the transition easier. When I think about the move to a leadership position, I used to think that the floor would take the most qualified person, and stick them into that position trusting that their experience and skills would provide sufficient training. It was refreshing to hear that for these individuals, anyone can really become a leader and these classes help with the transition of it. We then started talking about the physical role of leadership. She told me that when dealing with conflict, she finds it important to allow the individuals to speak for themselves and I really resonated with that kind of thinking. “I am VERY big on accountability. Nursing and healthcare in general are generally made up of adults, and I try to encourage individuals to have courageous conversations and talk it out themselves.” I think that this style of leadership is a great style because the leader in this case is not taking sides but instead facilitating a respectful conversation between two individuals. The biggest issue she found with her role in the hospital is the work/life balance. She said that a lot of the time the work follows her home and it can be frustrating at times. She shared the example of “on weekends, or days off, I will get phone calls and texts regarding their (the staff) schedules, things they aren’t happy with and whatnot which is technically not my responsibility as we don’t have 24/7 accountability. I find it hard to say no at times, and will typically fix problems when I am not there which I know is my fault, but it leads me to become frustrated when I’m not even working.” I think if I was in this position, this would be my hardest struggle too and when talking with her about this aspect of the position we related well about it. I find typically that I am always willing to help out fellow coworkers with little things they may need from time to time. This leads me maybe doing more than I should be doing but if I don’t do it I feel guilty. After discussing this, we then talked about ways that this can either be avoided, or worked around and ways that she has been trying to alleviate the stress of this. This I think was crucial to talk about because I will take this knowledge to my future assuming this will be my biggest tribulation as well. After conducting this interview with this leader, I felt much more comfortable talking with this person. I also gained a deeper understanding and respect for her work knowing it was a tall task before our interview but then knowing now even more after the interview about the truly hard work being a leader in our hospital system is. I will use this person as a resource for the future if I do decide to pursue a nursing leadership position and I will go forward remembering everything we talked about during our interview. This will help shape my leadership style in the future.
Whew…ignore my comments on the actual interview which I read first. I didn’t realize there were two sections to your positing, but this is exactly what I was looking for…what you learned from the interview! This was an excellent reflective piece in which you clearly identified what you learned and how you will use it. I will have to take off some points as it was uploaded after the deadline, but great work!