Leadership Competencies

1. Leadership Competencies

Huston (2008) purports that to successfully lead in today’s healthcare environment, a nurse needs to exhibit the following competencies:

• Global perspective or mindset regarding healthcare and professional nursing issues
• Technology skills
• Expert decision-making skills rooted in data and evidence-based practice
• Ability to create organizational cultures that permeate quality healthcare and patient/worker safety
• Understanding and appropriately intervening in political processes
• Highly developed collaborative and team-building skills
• Ability to balance authenticity and performance expectations
• Being able to envision and proactively adapt to a healthcare system characterized by rapid change and chaos

To effectively lead in a changing healthcare environment, nurses need to be aware of the multitude of factors that trigger disruption. They must be able to utilize valid and reliable data to create a sense of urgency to address a patient safety or quality issue. Data is also collected to monitor a change in practice, process, or people. Nurses have a responsibility to monitor organization, state, and national measures and use evidence-based practice as a foundation for justifying the implementation of interventions to improve patient outcomes and organizational performance. Successful nurse leaders are both people- and process-focused and able to approach challenges using the power of their competencies.

Authored by Anne E. Lara, Ed. D., MS, RN, CPHQ, CPHRM

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