Running head: INTERVIEW REPORT 1

Nursing Leadership Interview Report

Student’s name

Instructor’s name

Course name

Institutional affiliation

Date
INTERVIEW REPORT 2

Nursing Leadership Interview Report

I conducted this face-to-face interview with M.H., who is the nurse supervisor at the

Ralph Johnson Memorial Center. I can most certainly say that it was an honor to talk to M.H.

because she provided great insights about the nursing profession and the importance of her role

as a supervisor in nursing leadership. The interview, which took place at her office at the

healthcare facility, lasted about 45 minutes. In this timeframe, M.H. managed to paint a clear

picture of her duties and definition of leadership.

First of all, M.H. describes herself as a transformational leader. According to Fischer

(2016), transformational leaders are the ones who inspire, motivate, and encourage employees to

innovate and implement change that helps to shape and grow the company's future success.

These leaders motivate and inspire their employees without having to micromanage them. They

encourage open communication and a horizontal style of decision-making where employees are

given an opportunity to air their opinions, ideas, concerns, and suggestions without fear of

prejudice (Fischer, 2016). M.H. asserts that she has exemplified this leadership style by trusting

her trained nurses to make decisions regarding their assigned duties. She tries to create a culture

of innovation, where she allows nurses and other staff members to come up with creative ideas to

ensure high quality standards of care for patients in the facility. M.H. further says that she

exercises transformational leadership through mentoring and training her employees. She

believes that the most important quality of leadership is empowering subordinates to become

leaders themselves (Stanley & Stanley, D, 2018). Training is the best method of ensuring that

employees perform their duties effectively and develop themselves to be able to handle tougher

challenges and responsibilities.

M.H. says that during her career, she has been fortunate to work with a fantastic team of

inter-professionals. In healthcare, inter-professional teams employ enhanced communication and

collaboration to improve the traditional roles of healthcare providers and to make decisions as

one entity that focuses on a mutual goal (Stanley & Stanley, D, 2018). At the Ralph Johnson

Memorial Center, the inter-professional team includes physicians, nurses, nurse assistants,

surgeons, and anesthetists, among others. M.H. observes that healthcare teams function best

when they have a mutual and definite purpose, and when they develop and implement

procedures and protocols.

Furthermore, M.H. says that she is proud of how the interprofessional team at the

healthcare facility work together to enact evidence-based practices to improve patient outcomes.

For instance, a recent change that has occurred in the facility involves giving oxygen to patients

suffering from Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease. Previously, the general assumption in

the facility was that giving oxygen to patients with COPD could create adverse problems such as

acidosis, hypercarbia, or even worse, death. However, through evidence-based practice,

healthcare professionals found that giving oxygen to these patients is the most appropriate

treatment for the condition because it helps prevent organ failure and hypoxia, which in turn,

improves their outcomes and enhance their quality of life.

In terms of roles and duties, M.H. says that her most significant role as a nurse leader

involves staffing and admission. She agrees with Murray, Sundin, and Cope (2018) that every

nurse leader has a chance to make a positive impact on the nursing profession through daily

advocacy for the profession and nurses in general. She states that nurse leaders must develop and

employ advocacy skills to address concerns at the workplace, advocate for the profession, and

foster a culture of positivity at the workplace. In terms of staffing, M.H. ensures that the facility
INTERVIEW REPORT 4

employs highly qualified and skilled nurses to cater to patients. She believes that the patient is an

essential part of the healthcare system. Therefore, the staff should be well trained and be

competent enough to ensure positive patient experiences and outcomes. The involvement of the

staff in the process of budgeting fosters an understanding of obstacles and challenges present in

the modern health environment (Murray, Sundin, & Cope, 2018). As such, M.H. fulfills her

advocacy role by ensuring that she protects nursing assets and resources during the work process

redesigning, budget scrutiny, and workflow change.

On a personal level, M.H. says that being a nurse has been among the most rewarding

experiences in her life. Her interest in becoming a nurse began when she was a teenager. She

remembers an incident where her friend fell into the pool and was drowning. However, the

nurses at her school ran to her rescue and gave her first aid, and she regained consciousness and

became well. The selflessness that the nurses and healthcare providers showed towards her friend

created a strong sense of admiration in her. From there, she aspired to pursue the profession and

eventually ended up studying nursing at the university.

Her highest and most challenging time in the career was when she helped an older

woman reveal the decision to not get any more treatment to her family. She was fragile and

weak, and her G.I. bleed was not being treated by blood transfusion. She knew that it would

break her family's hearts to know that she had opted out of treatment and so she continued to

suffer in silence. M.H. continued to take care of her, and finally, she advised her that she would

have a low quality of life if she continued to try out the treatment. She talked to her about life

after the death of a loved one and assured her that her family would become more relaxed with

time after her passing. That night she told her family about her decision, and they hugged and

said their goodbyes. The woman warmly thanked her and said that she was her angel. That night,
INTERVIEW REPORT 5

she died peacefully in her sleep. The situation was challenging because she had become so

attached to the patient, and it was the hardest decision advising her to opt out of treatment. At the

end of the interview, M.H. stated that nursing to her has had more blessings than challenges and

that she would never wish for a better profession.

References

Fischer, S. A. (2016). Transformational leadership in nursing: a concept analysis. Journal of

advanced nursing, 72(11), 2644-2653.

Murray, M., Sundin, D., & Cope, V. (2018). The nexus of nursing leadership and a culture of

safer patient care. Journal of clinical nursing, 27(5-6), 1287-1293.

Stanley, D., & Stanley, K. (2018). Clinical leadership and nursing explored: A literature

search. Journal of clinical nursing, 27(9-10), 1730-1743.