I appreciate the recently published Maryville University Infographic, ‘The Role of Nurse Leadership in Today’s Health Care Industry,’ and offer the following comments for your reflection.
I am a Baby Boomer, and proud of it! When I started my career in health care, I thought I would work until I retired from the health system where I worked for 27 years. However, it is 2017 and times are different. My change in employment status and the opportunity to join HealthLinx became one of the gifts of my professional career. Why, you might wonder? Because I have an opportunity every day to interact with exceptional leaders across the country as they seek to fulfill their own personal mission of healing body, mind, and spirit. Our clients understand that they must accelerate and increase the quality of their improvement efforts, which includes investing in having the best nursing leaders in place.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, job openings for medical and health service managers are growing 22% faster than expected. Why are there a growing number of nurse leadership openings? Great organizations are ensuring that good to great leaders are successful and that poor performers are moving on. I suspect that organizations that are struggling, as evidenced by subpar VPB, Employee Engagement, or HCAHPS scores, may not have a defined or supported leadership development program that fills their succession pool.
This section of the report reminded me of a recent webinar presented by my colleague, Mary Clarke, that focuses on ways to keep nurses happy, engaged, and excited about coming to work – ‘Strategies to Increase Staff Retention.’
5 Tips for Leading Staff from Four Different Generations. While the number of leaders representing the Traditionalists is shrinking, nursing leadership crosses each generational group. What is your strategy for effective leadership across the generations? With age and years of service represented in the Traditionalist and Baby Boomer generations, there is a wealth of experience and wisdom, and perhaps even a bit of “things are good” or “this has worked well for me” mindset, which poses a risk to an organization’s continued success. With Gen X and Gen Y, there is energy and an indestructible spirit and courage to “give it a try.” The future of nursing leadership relies on an organization’s ability to honor the history, learn from past mistakes, and lead into the future. Mentoring, coaching, and leadership development is key to the future success of care delivery, nursing leadership, and the financial success of your organization.
At HealthLinx, we are about saving lives through Operational Excellence. I invite you to review the resources available throughout our website.
If you would like to view the full infographic, please do so here – ‘The Role of Nurse Leadership in Today’s Health Care Industry.’
