PART 1: Reflection on Learning

Part 1 of the portfolio includes discussions on self-awareness and self-efficacy to foster understanding of my beliefs, values, attitudes, knowledge, skills, and attributes for leadership development. According to Choperena et al. (2019), to become an effective leader, it is essential to understand your personality, motivation, and the values that drive me to maintain my curiosity about others and myself. In addition, reflection helps in emotional intelligence development; therefore, this part of the portfolio critically explores the contemporary management and leadership styles that I follow, impacting the inter-agency team relationships, organisational culture, and nursing practices, using Rolfe’s model of reflection (Salem, 2021).

What?

I work as a student nurse, and to develop myself as a registered nurse, I work in an acute care area for cardiac care in a hospital setting. While practising as a nurse, I have observed specific weaknesses that could pose several threats in my nursing practice. However, I also possess specific strengths that, based on the findings of Shaughnessy et al. (2018), I can utilise for developing more learning opportunities to become an influential leader in nursing practices. My strengths as a nurse include dealing with uncertain situations because I am adaptive to uncertainties. In addition, while dealing with uncertain situations, I have developed a capacity to think effectively.

Further, I am a good learner and tend to seek assistance and guidance where required. The mentioned qualities make me adaptive to gather information and involve myself in multidisciplinary teams, according to Krepia et al. (2018). I have also observed that I am calm and can track constant evolving situations. On the other hand, my weaknesses include a lack of confidence and skills that I have learned, making it challenging for me to deal with uncertainties in practice.

So What?

Based on my experience working in a cardiac care unit in a hospital setting, I have realised that I must follow a transformational leadership approach as it aligns with my strengths of being calm and communicating with a multidisciplinary team. Poghosyan and Bernhardt (2018) state that the transformational leadership style can develop followers into leaders because this leadership style allows enough space to raise concerns and beliefs. The idea of Poghosyan and Bernhardt (2018) is supported by Liukka et al. (2018) claiming, transformational leadership style helps bring a positive change within an individual or a setting. In addition, I have realised the importance of peer review for my development as a nurse, with the help of team feedback and updating my knowledge from research published in the area. In addition, in my practice as a nurse in the cardiac care unit, I have realised the importance of CQC as a quality improvement guide based on their inspection reports.

Now What?

 To develop myself as a nurse, I follow the transformational leadership style to enhance my ability to communicate with the team members. Based on the findings of Boamah et al. (2018), following the transformational leadership style, I will be able to use my quality to communicate to increase my confidence level by collecting constant feedback and learning outcomes from my colleagues. In addition, I will update my knowledge regarding healthcare and effective practices with the help of effective feedback, which will also be helpful for the juniors as they will be sharing their concerns, leading to better care outcomes in my nursing practice. Finally, based on the CQC inspection reports, I will respond to the care concerns of the patients and develop an action plan to improve my techniques for a better setting. All in all, my core focus is on to learn stress management skills, as stress is the one that can burnout and puts the negative impact on the overall delivery of care. Therefore, once I will be able to develop resilience, I will be better able to manage stress at work that will allow me to make less mistakes and learn from the past experiences by ensuring better quality of care is delivered to the patients.