Why Leadership Skills Are Essential For People in Nursing
As the principal frontline workers in health care, nurse managers require both sophisticated management abilities and the skills to navigate complex situations.
“If you don’t have strong leadership skills in health care today, you’ll be lost. You will not know how to navigate the system,” says Stephanie Ferguson, Program Director of Health Care Leadership Essentials for Nurses, Professor of the Practice of Health Policy and Management at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in the Department of Health Policy and Management, and the Faculty Director for the Harvard Global Leadership Program. “You will not know how to communicate and work within the system, and as a result, that’s going to cause the quality of care to decrease, and you’re not going to be able to provide the care that the population needs.”
As pressing issues like infectious diseases and noncommunicable diseases like cancer and diabetes continue to affect vulnerable populations, the leadership skills of nurse managers serve an increasingly essential role.
Navigating the “Runway to Excellence”
An asynchronous program that combines expert instruction from Harvard faculty and leading health care innovators, Health Care Leadership Essentials for Nurses examines several of the most pressing topics currently facing nurse managers through the lens of leadership. Each specialist has focus areas, with Ferguson’s distinct modules honing in on performance management, quality improvement, and communication and negotiation skills.
“If you’re trying to be a leader, you need to understand how to be that leader, and in order to enhance your performance as a leader, you should understand what the vision, mission, and the strategy are for the organization you’re working in so that you can make sure it’s comparable to what you want to be and what your beliefs are as a leader,” says Ferguson. “Then, you can think about how you can strengthen your performance outcomes within the context of the vision and mission of the organization.”
The program will also explore the financial management skills necessary for nurses within any system, as well as the rising tide of artificial intelligence. While many nurses have excellent digital skills, learning how to use artificial intelligence to improve patient outcomes is an important new frontier, says Ferguson.
The final module of the program combines all the previously acquired knowledge and skills and focuses on writing a system improvement plan that applies to each participant’s specific role within their organization. By evaluating where they are on what Ferguson refers to as the “runway of excellence,” each participant can advance toward their desired destination.
Who Needs to Further Their Knowledge?
Professionals seeking to gain keen insight into where they are in their careers will find tremendous value in participating in the course.
“We’re giving people the opportunity to become the leader that they need to be, and then really think about their performance in the context of what the system must do to be an effective and excellent health system,” says Ferguson.
Specifically designed for professionals who are looking to step into the next level of their nursing career, the Health Care Leadership Essentials for Nurses program pulls from diverse roles, including:
- Clinicians
- Chief charge nurses
- Nurse managers
- Nurse navigators
- Academicians
- Nurses seeking a managerial role
- Public and school health nurses
- Advanced practice nurses working in primary health care settings
- Nurses in physician- and nurse-led offices
- Midwives
- Public health department employees
“It’s a great opportunity for nurses to have a self-paced program that touches on some of the best topics of the day that are related to health care and the essentials of being a leader,” says Ferguson.
The self-paced Health Care Leadership Essentials for Nurses, which focuses on helping mid-level nurse managers transform into leaders, is offered by the Executive and Continuing Education department of Harvard Chan School.
