Sample Leadership Self-Reflection Journal

Leadership Self-Reflection Journal

Reflection is usually an efficient teaching plan in undergraduate nursing teaching. It enhances the student’s critical thinking and futurity application of current understanding. This reflective paper defines and addresses the design, execution, assessment and usefulness of a reflective task in helping undergraduate nursing learners with emerging nursing leadership expertise. This thoughtful clinical essay is grounded on an incident of care that I was engaged in managing during a public placement. This event of care will be evaluated using clinical procedures and appropriate models. Matters and concepts involving leadership qualities and managing styles will also be dug into, taking into deliberation any legal, moral, and political features that have a major influence on patient care. Care provision, delegation, and the arrangement may be scrutinized along with team working, risk evaluation, and patient welfare. I will embark on my role as a student nurse and examine the roles and duties of other health professionals, and what influence this has on my exercise. These matters will be discussed and explicated through leadership and management concepts.

Description of the Circumstance

To employ leadership decisions for my reflection, the patient will be referred to as Mrs. A. In this task, privacy will be upheld by the engagement of pseudonyms, this is to preserve confidentiality. As a field nurse, midwife, or health visitor, one must safeguard private data and treat information concerning patients and clients as confidential while only employing it only for the purpose for which it was given. Beginning a lengthy practice engagement as a nursing student allows the learner to enhance his/her understanding and abilities in supervision and leadership in preparation for one’s role as a competent full-fledged nurse. During my continued practice engagement, there were many chances to advance such skills and manage my personal caseload of patients while organizing many composite features of their care. During this engagement, an 84-year-old patient, Mrs. A, was to be released from rehabilitation center following regular falls, matters with security at home, and self-negligence; the recommendation had been made by a related General Physician. Mrs. A had spent the last seven weeks acquiring complete multidisciplinary care, containing concentrated physiotherapy, professional therapy, and nursing care. The patient had made abundant enhancement and was able to manage her particular medicament securely.

Student Judgment

One of the physical therapists had pointed out in a handover that Mrs. A had appeared bedeviled in their session together, and inquired if the nurses would go in and assess her. On visiting Mrs. A, it was apparent that she was not herself, and looked discombobulated. Similar to the way a nurse would do, as a student, I had a conversation with the patient and found that Mrs. A was not safe to oversee her medication. Since a student cannot undertake overall care of the patient, I appealed to the patient to allow the doctor in-charge to manage her medicament. Mrs. A agreed to this, hence decreasing a great danger of her causing self-harm. If I had been the nursed caring for the patient, I would have requested a urine test. If established that Mrs. A had a urinary duct infection, I would recommend antibiotics. The squad leader at the rehabilitation center was updated of Mrs. A’s contagion and strategy to hand over the management of her medication to the doctor. She was pleased with this judgment and delighted that I had updated her. The nurse affirmed that the choice I had made was correct as it helped Mrs. A. She even informed me that she would have made such decision, if the issue would have been reported to her.

Leadership and Communication Skills

The discussion amid the student, nurse, and other team members established effective care of the patient. My communication with the patient to establish her unfitness to manage medication clearly shows that a nurse student can make substantial leadership decisions, which may at times be different from what nurses recommend. From our discussion as a team, we established that a change in diet was vital in the course of the patient’s recovery. The inability of a student to address all the concerns of a patient like a nurse does is triggered by a student’s inadequacy of quality leadership skills irrespective of proficient communication abilities. Inclusion of other team members enhances leadership and communication skills and makes resolution of the problems at hand easier and faster.

Strategy for Professional Growth

As a nurse, the beginning will be a discourse on the significance of self-awareness and how this consciousness empowered a more certain and confidant method to be made to handling patient care. I proved that, self-awareness must be deliberated as the basis for management, which is a substantial talent, and quality wanted in leadership. If one desires to deliver care that is of a high standard and enhance individual performance as an experienced medical expert, one requires managing the reasoning, emotion, and behavior to involve therapeutic dealings excellently. According to my learning in the course of leadership clinical experience, I will seek to employ self-awareness to facilitate the comprehension of my personal principles, opinions, incentives, prejudices, and boundaries, and identifying how they influence the care and services delivered.

Lack of self-awareness, identification of individual and cultural principles, and comprehension of relational strengths and bounds makes it difficult to start and uphold good association with fellow-workers and patients. I believe that there is a necessity to maximize potential and attain a sense of individual fulfillment and skills. Being aware of my strengths and flaws and mindful of any restrictions will play a major role in my professional growth. Self-awareness aids in the exploitation of strengths and handling of weaknesses. In conclusion, when consolidating and scheduling patient care, it is substantial to have operative managing and leadership skills; this is part of all nurses’ role, and includes planning, providing, and assessing patient care.