Nurses are also leaders.

Although it is quite an uncommon idea to the public, all nurses

must be leaders in the design, implementation, and most especially for the ultimate contribution
to patient safety and quality of care. Nurses should be able to develop leadership skills and
competencies in order to serve as full partners with physicians and other health professionals in
the efforts to deliver high-quality care to patients.

Two important leadership skills that Registered Nurses must possess and bring into their
role as health professionals are: sense of communication and the willingness to listen to
clinicians. Communication is a very important element of care in all aspects of the nursing
profession. This is the indispensable tool in the exchange of concerns from patients and ideas
between health professionals. Leadership has often been considered in the context of
management of crises and more recent research has scrutinized the exercise of communicative
skills during such crises (Gigliotti 2016; McGuire et al. 2020). Particularly in the hospital setting,
it is important that nurses have excellent communication skills in order to deal with these crises.

In a study conducted by Vasconcelos et al. (2017), it was underscored that the use of
effective communication as a management tool is essential for sharing critical information and
creating a work climate. When nurses in the field, both the leaders and the subordinates, have a
developed communication skill, there is a great possibility on the overall effectiveness of the
services and care being offered to patients. Andrade et.al (2017) also emphasized that ineffective
communication between healthcare team staffs can lead to damage of the quality of care. Hence,
it is important that nurses, especially nurses’ managers, create an environment that promotes
good communication and helps nurses to develop their communication skills formally and
informally (Timmins, 2011).

Relative to the concept of communication is the aspect of listening. These two are closely
intertwined with each other that the deficiency on one could jeopardize the efficacy of the other.
Cohen and Eimicke (1995) noted that when leaders allocate time to listen actively, they build
trust and commitment in their work. It was said that supervisors with better listening attitudes
and skills enhance their communication with subordinates, which could result in the
subordinates’ perceiving that they have more support, causes them to feel better about their work
and their supervisor (Mineyama et.al, 2007). Burns (1978) and Frandsen (2014) also explained
that leaders who have the proficiency to inspire confidence, staff respect and communicate
loyalty through a shared vision resulted an increased productivity, strengthen employee morale,
and job satisfaction within teams.

Ultimately, aptitude of staff and satisfactory results in the quality of care given to patients
will be accomplished if a healthcare professional has mastered a two-way communication
process that involve speaking and listening combined. This does not only improve interpersonal
relationships between nurses and other healthcare professionals. It will also afford a better
environment for joint problem solving and information-sharing within the organization.

For my part, I believe that supportive communication climate and the ability to
understand others are the skills that I want to develop further. In my opinion, proficiency on
these aspects is essential particularly in nursing because we initially accommodate the patient’s
needs before a physician could. Eventually, we are also the one who will execute the physician’s
instructions in relation to the patient’s condition and concerns. As a soon to be practicing nurse,
being able to communicate and comprehend the patient and other clinicians is imperative for the
successful accomplishment of my tasks. Kourkouta and Papathanasiou (2014) pointed out that in
order for the nurses to be successful in our work, we have to study communication and
interpersonal relations in our education with special courses and internships. Evans (2003) also
explained that it is not only based on an innate ability that varies from person to person, but also
on the necessary training and experience that one acquires during long term exercise.

In other words, actual practice with patients and other health professionals themselves
will help me develop these skills alongside what I learned in my formal trainings inside the
classroom. With these learnings, I will be able to assess on what points to strengthen and what
weaknesses to improve. I can accomplish my goal of achieving effective communication climate
and understanding others if I apply both what I have learned in classroom and the knowledge I
learned in my internships. After all, communication and understanding are so entangled with
each other that can only be mastered through assiduous as well as constant learning and practice.
References:

Andrade Vasconcelos R.M., Caldana G., Cantarella Lima E., Marques da Silva L.D., Bernardes
A., Silvia Gabriel C. Communication in the Relationship between Leaders and Lead in
the Context of Nursing. J. Nurs. UFPE/Rev. Enferm. UFPE. 2017;11:4767–4777.

Burns J.M. Leadership. Harper & Row; New York, NY, USA: 1978.

Cohen S, Eimicke WB. The new effective public manager: Achieving success in a changing
government. Jossey-Bass; San Francisco, USA: 1995

Evans RG. Patient centred medicine: reason, emotion, and human spirit? Some philosophical
reflections on being with patients. Med Humanit. 2003 Jun; 29(1):8-14.

Frandsen B. Nursing Leadership Management & Leadership Styles. AANAC, American

Association of Nurse Assessment Coordination; Denver, CO, USA: 2014.

Gigliotti, Ralph A. 2016. Leader as Performer; Leader as Human: A discursive and retrospective
construction of crisis leadership. Atlantic Journal of Communication 24: 185–200.

Kourkouta, L., & Papathanasiou, I. V. (2014). Communication in nursing practice. Materia

socio-
medica, 26(1), 65–67. https://doi.org/10.5455/msm.2014.26.65-67

McGuire, David, James E. A. Cunningham, K. Reynolds, and Gerri Matthews-Smith. 2020.

Beating the Virus: An examination of the crisis communication approach taken by New
Zealand Jacinda Ardern during the Covid-19 pandemic. Human Resource Development
International 23: 361–79.

Mineyama S, Tsutsumi A, Takao S, Nishiuchi K, Kawakami N. Supervisors' attitudes and skills

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