Reflective Journal: Leadership

Reflective Journal

Meghan Adams

Nipissing University

Leadership

During my final clinical placement on D3 (inpatient medicine) this summer, I was given the opportunity to be a peer instructor and mentor to my group members. I was the only Registered Practical Nurse (RPN) to Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BScN) student in the group, and even in the first week I noticed that my groupmates would ask me to come with them during assessments or ask my opinion about their findings. As the semester went on, my instructor also allowed me to accompany classmates to perform skills, such as a simple dressing or removing an IV, if she was unavailable. Trigger Event

Initially I was surprised that my classmates wanted me to come in

It provided several strategies that I feel I can use now and in the future to enhance my leadership skills, as well as help others to develop their own skills.

I also do my best to provide both negative and positive feedback constructively (RNAO, 2013). I use a “sandwich” method to provide criticism; meaning I use a positive comment-negative comment with ways to improve-positive comment. I find that this method prevents people from focussing on all the bad and forgetting the positive, as well as only focussing on the positive. I plan to continue to use this method of providing criticism in the future.

Effective leaders combine caring with who they are (being) and how they act (doing). Being reflects a leader’s values, beliefs, assumptions, personality, character, sense of purpose and commitment, knowledge and ethics. Rolfe (2011) noted that transformational leadership is influenced by relationships, the environment, and qualities of leaders. These elements of “being” support that person’s actions; “doing” is how being is acted on. When caring is combined with doing, authentic leadership comes to life in action and leaders are capable of influencing the actions of others to create meaningful change (Rolfe,

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