Determining Your Perfect Position

Running Head: DETERMINING YOUR PERFECT POSITION

Determining Your Perfect Position

Nursing is an ever expanding profession with many sub-specialties that require the clinical experience and learned knowledge of valued professionals to continually expand hospitals and skilled facilities. Children’s Hospital Boston is undergoing an expansion project to restructure its nursing units to allow for the increasing need of its services to patients who travel around the world. As a veteran employee, I have been afforded the opportunity to create a leadership position in which my experience and knowledge will best serve the hospital.

A leadership position, within the confines of the nursing profession, involves the oversight of other skilled professionals within a healthcare setting, taking into account patient care, financial responsibility, and regulatory oversight. Leadership, according to Yukl (2006), “involves a process whereby intentional influence is exerted by one person over other people to guide,

structure, and facilitate activities and relationships in an organization” (p. 3). It is important to have the necessary experience and knowledge to perform in a leadership position, as leaders are often looked up upon by employees and other management level staff.

There are various types of leadership styles, some involving a very hands-on approach and others in which management empowers employees and provides oversight from afar. The leadership position being created that will best suit the needs of the organization is that entitled “Clinical Nurse Leader.” This position will allow for oversight of a 25-bed inpatient unit in which there will be individuals in various roles assisting in the management of the unit, including education and charge roles. The method of leadership which best suits the needs of the unit in development is that in which the members of the team are able to perform on their own, they are empowered to make...