Fay W. Whitney School of Nursing

College of Health Sciences

Leadership in Nursing Series:
Nurse Leader in Direct Patient Care

NOTE: On September 15 each fall, the University of Wyoming Fay W. Whitney School of Nursing mails out the school's annual Alumni Newsletter magazine/publication. The theme of the 2016 issue: Leadership in Nursing. The following spotlight is taken from that publication, where the goal is to recognize nurse leaders in diverse roles. Return to the web weekly for spotlights on other nurse leaders in their respective roles.

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Danielle Johnson, RN, BSN

Nurse Leader in Direct Patient Care:

Danielle Johnson says, "Leadership in direct patient care is absolutely crucial. To be a leader in direct patient care, you must be a teacher, an advocate, confident in your knowledge, and be willing to promote change in practice."

Johnson develops her thoughts:

Teacher:

"If you cannot teach your patients how to succeed when they leave your care, you have not been a leader."

Advocate:

"Being an advocate means standing up for your patients' safety, even if that means you will be getting push back from others."

Confident in Knowledge:

"Leaders are confident in their knowledge, yet know their limits and know where to find the answer if they don't know it right away. Being confident allows you to make sound judgments that will ultimately benefit your patients, and influence others around you to do the same."

Promote Change in Practice:

"Finally, promoting change in practice is a huge aspect of leadership. There is not just one way to do things, and being creative and innovative gives you the ability to create an environment that is always changing to become better. If you promote evidence based practice, and encourage those around you to look at why they are doing things the way they are, amazing changes happen in the environment in which you are doing your best to heal people."

Wrapping it up:

"My position in direct patient care allows me to do all of these things. I am constantly learning how to make my practice more efficient, and be a better advocate for my patients. I am learning to be confident in my skills and my knowledge, and to encourage the people I am working with to do the same. By being in direct patient care, I am experiencing patient care at its best and at its worst, not only creating new ways of taking care of patients, but learning how to be a leader to my peers and fellow treatment teams in a hospital setting. By looking at it this way, change is possible. It just takes one person with a good idea and passion to put this into practice, which will eventually influence advancements and change in health care at a bigger scale."

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Story posted 9/02/2016