This chapter showcases the preparation phases necessary to apply for and accept different nursing leadership positions. It explores the components of lifelong learning that are needed to foster new career endeavors. The chapter helps the reader to distinguish between a resume and a curriculum vitae. It provides more in-depth skills to enhance this application process as the nurses continue to move forward in their nursing career. Nurses have so many opportunities within healthcare, but it is up to each individual to best position himself or herself for those opportunities. Nurses who take ownership of their professional development will be able to revaluate their careers at different points to determine where there may be gaps in professional development. Nurses who address an identified gap in their professional development will position themselves in the best possible light for future potential promotional opportunities.

Nurses do not feel comfortable with the concepts of power and politics. Most likely, they feel this way because they equate the terms with dominance, coercion, and corruption. Nurses may fear that power and politics are not compatible with caring. This chapter talks about how the reader can use power and politics to improve their role as a nurse leader. " Power" refers to your influence and authority over others to mobilize them to accomplish a goal. It can be an effective tool that can lead to positive outcomes in organizations. The chapter describes types and sources of power used in nursing leadership. The chapter then examines how one can effectively use power to accomplish patient safety goals. It helps the reader to formulate strategies to enhance the development of one's personal power and political skills. The chapter describes how politics can be used to improve nursing leadership skills.

This chapter reviews patient and nursing care models, patient classification systems (PCSs), staffing and scheduling models, leader and manager staffing and scheduling responsibilities, and ways to make self-scheduling a positive experience for nurses. The primary/total patient care delivery model is the oldest model with its origins coming from the work of Florence Nightingale, and echoed in patient care provided by nursing students. PCSs are used to provide a quantitative measure of workload for the determination of staffing needs by measuring the amount of care a patient requires using objective measures such as vital signs, treatments, and number of medications. According to the American Organization of Nurse Executives competencies for nurse managers, the responsibilities of the manager include the following: staff selection, evaluation of staffing patterns, matching staff competencies to assignments, defining the role of the staff members within their scope of practice, and completing and evaluating the orientation process.

Providing the highest quality of care to clients, and keeping them safe, is a priority for all nurses. This chapter presents an evolving case scenario that will follow a nurse's exploration of quality and safety on her patient care unit. It helps the reader to define quality improvement and safety in healthcare. The chapter describes approaches that nurses can take to evaluate the quality of care through measurement and benchmarking. It helps the reader to explain the influence of variation on the quality of care and apply a framework to improve reliability. The chapter differentiates prepatient events, safety events, and serious safety events and describes how human factors contribute to events of harm. It defines the culture of safety and its elements, including event reporting, event disclosure, and accountability in a just culture. The chapter finally explains the process for determining actual and potential failures in processes.

Stress is a common phenomenon in today's rapidly changing world. Healthcare workers are under enormous pressure to do more with fewer resources. As the largest group of healthcare professionals, it is imperative that nurses understand the physiology of stress, sources of stress, symptoms of stress, and strategies to prevent and alleviate stress and burnout. This chapter provides a framework for the professional nurse to understand the causes and consequences of stress and develop an affinity for stress management strategies to bridge the gap between home and workplace. The benefits of strengthening personal resilience include lowering vulnerability to adversity, improving well-being, and achieving better care outcomes and a safer work environment. With reflection and careful planning, one can learn to handle workplace adversity by enhancing one's personal resilience. Building resilience as a protective factor can heighten self-awareness and help nurses value both their personal and professional identities.

This chapter presents a review of the foundations of effective leadership—ethical, spiritual, legal, and professional advocacy. Knowledge and behaviors related to ethical practice, spiritual awareness, legal requirements, and professional advocacy are core dimensions of an effective nurse leader. Ethical nurse leaders are responsible with regard to their practice to be aware of the organizational work environment, to establish systems to enhance nurse's knowledge of ethics within their practice, and to facilitate discussion of ethics in the day-to-day practice environment. The chapter provides case studies and reflective questions to provoke self-assessment and awareness of one's professional practice with regards to ethical dilemmas that one may have encountered or experienced in the work environment. The goal of these reflective exercises is to stimulate a greater understanding of one's role as a nurse leader and as an advocate for both patients and nurses.

This chapter explores several key concepts in regard to the nurse's role as a contributing member of the nursing profession as well as healthcare systems. It explores the advocacy for the profession and promotion of a healthy workplace. The chapter explains the influence of professional organizations as well as ways in which one can engage in active involvement and benefit from being a member. It discusses mentoring and volunteerism challenging one to partake in opportunities to grow and develop personally as well as strengthen one's own nursing profession and leave an everlasting legacy for future generations of the nursing profession. As a professional nurse, it is important to contribute to the profession of nursing. The chapter depicts relevant quality and safety education for nurses competencies nurses should possess and develop as contributing members to the nursing profession as well as collaboration in inter-disciplinary healthcare teams.

This chapter reviews personal attributes of effective leaders and discusses ways to promote their level of self-awareness. It explores the topic of emotional intelligence (EI) as an ability that can enhance one's leadership effectiveness. The chapter focuses on the ability-based model by Mayer, Salovey, and Caruso who define EI as the ability to reason with emotions to enhance thinking. In this model, EI encompasses four abilities: to accurately perceive emotions, to use emotion to facilitate thoughts, to understand emotions, and to manage emotions. This model is measured by Mayer–Salovey–Caruso emotional intelligence test. The chapter presents a box that will help us to put this into practice with questions to consider and a case scenario. An essential personal attribute that is critical to effective leadership is self-awareness. The chapter discusses sources of information to promote self-awareness as well as obstacles to gaining self-awareness.

Leadership is a fundamental component and core competency of nursing practice. This chapter describes four key leadership theories that are particularly applicable to nursing, meaningful in today's organizational environments, and can remain relevant throughout the constantly evolving landscape of healthcare. Transformational leadership focuses on producing revolutionary change through a commitment to the organization's vision. Servant leadership are servants above all else. They put serving others, including employees, customers, and community, as the number one priority. Situational leadership theory examines the interplay of three specific dimensions: task behavior, relationship behavior, and the readiness of the follower. Authentic leadership refers to developing a personal leadership style that is consistent with one's own personality and character. The chapter discusses a leadership self-assessment tool that can be used to identify leadership strengths in addition to areas with room for growth. Finally, it differentiates leadership and management.

This chapter discusses how delegation is a core competency for the nursing profession. It describes the principles of accountability applicable to effective delegation. The chapter then explores the key principles and four steps of the delegation process: (1) planning and assessment; (2) communication: "secret ingredient; of delegation"; (3) surveillance and supervision; and (4) evaluation and feedback. It discusses common pitfalls/challenges and both positive and negative outcomes resulting from delegation errors. Through reflective thinking and delegation activities using guidelines and algorithms, the readers can further strengthen their confidence and skill set. Further development and proficiency in delegation will continue throughout their commitment to lifelong learning and experiences. The "Five Rights of Delegation" are a guide for registered nurses to use to clarify the key elements of the delegation and decision-making process. The five rights are right task; right circumstances; right person; right direction/effective communication; and right supervision/evaluation.