Clara Barton Research Paper

The introduction

Clara Barton is one of the nursing leaders that shaped history (Kerfoot 1998). Clara Barton will be the main focus of this assignment as she was a remarkable woman who started off as an educator and then a clerk and then a nurse and then one of the founders of Red Cross in America. In a time when women were not educated and were not even offered jobs she worked side by side with men. She was from the Not for Profit Sector. Her field was Nursing and she tackled with providing healthcare to those in natural disasters or war.

1861 civil war began and Clara was present in 26 camps in 4 years of war (Harper 1912). However, after the war she wanted to identify and count thousands of bodies of soldiers who died during the war

Clara had experienced leadership in different parts of her life. She opened a school and used to be in charge of that whole school. Aftr managing the school she worked in the senate when no women could think about working. On the side she used to help people in the community. Hence Clara Barton had not just witnessed leaders she had also practiced leadership before becoming the founder of Red Cross. (Kerfoot 1998) (Evans, 2003). The Personality traits for good leader are activity level or energy, adjustment, dominance, assertiveness, emotional balance and emotional control, self- confidence, originality, intelligence, tolerance of stress, personal integrity, independence, achievement motivation, sociability, responsibility, initiative, and diplomacy (NYSTEDT 1997). Furthermore, Agreeableness and conscientiousness is perceived as a trait for transformational leaders (ARTOG2 et al 2005). Clara proved to be Conscientious when she wanted to reply back to concerned families of soldiers after the

This also adds to the importance of knowledge on developing personality traits that can help become a better leader.

The second question is, would Clara Barton have helped more people as a politician?

Clara Barton had issues with bureaucrats who failed to understand the importance of her vision. As a Bureaucrat Barton would have more power but with the patriarchial society of the time would she be able to benefit more from a more powerful position like becoming a bureaucrat?

The third question is, even with less resources, if nurses had more knowledge about cause of diseases would it help more at the time?

This question stems from the question is prevention really better than cure? If more knowledge was provided about what causes diseases and their prevention would health issues in army camps full of wounded soldiers have been reduced?

Lessons Learnt for health leadership in other contexts

Health leadership is influenced by many factors including culture, resources, personality traits and bureaucratic assistance.

In Clara Barton’s case the Patriarchal system of the time adversely impacted Barton and added more obstacles in her work (Evans, 2003). However, these obstacles also made her stronger and a more assertive