Leaders in Healthcare: How to Work Your Way Up as a Nurse

If you’re an ambitious nursing professional who’s aspiring to become a leader in your field, there are several ways you can make yourself stand out in the industry and work your way up into a leadership position.

Employing strategies such as attaining the relevant qualifications in healthcare leadership, for instance - like completing clinical nurse leader programs - can take you far. As well as formal education, training, and development, however, it also pays to develop the specific personal qualities that are required of nurse leaders. It must also be acknowledged that all of the study and personal development in the world will mean nothing if you don’t make moves to have yourself recognized and acknowledged professionally by networking with industry contacts.

Let’s explore these career-propelling strategies in further detail.

Attaining the Requisite Qualifications

The benefits of formal education for achieving lofty leadership aspirations - particularly in the healthcare industry - are multifold. Some of these benefits include, for example;

Acquiring Industry-Relevant Knowledge

There’s no way around it: one of the best ways to acquire formal, industry-relevant knowledge - especially relating to the field of medicine - is to complete a formally-recognized accreditation. Obtaining your medical licensure is not just about having the right piece of paper, you’ll also be formally trained on the requirements of your future healthcare profession.

Learning to Communicate Persuasively

As a student who is completing an academic qualification, you’ll also acquire the skill of persuasive communication. This is an essential skill to develop when aspiring to become a leader - in healthcare or otherwise. Your formal studies will help you develop the ability to communicate your points effectively, as well as how to back them up with supporting evidence.

Mastering the Art of Time Management

Finally, who indeed knows how to manage their time better than a time-poor student? As experts in juggling assessments, assignments, and university coursework with their personal lives and other commitments, students completing further schooling almost always pick up time-saving hacks that can serve them in later life.

Developing the Relevant Skills and Attributes

Some of the key skills a nurse leader needs to develop to succeed in their career include:

Communication

Communication skills are vital to leadership roles, especially in healthcare leadership. In an industry where patient safety and duty of care are paramount, nurse leaders must be able to communicate effectively and accurately with staff members, colleagues, and patients alike.

Critical Thinking

Strong decision-making and critical thinking abilities are also central to success in healthcare leadership. Nurse leaders must often make difficult decisions regarding patient outcomes. For this reason, they must be able to think critically and calmly under pressure.

Collaboration

Who is a nurse leader without their team? Leaders across all industries, but in the medical industry in particular, need to be able to collaborate with team members to meet mutually beneficial outcomes. Yes, nursing is a highly collaborative profession, and as a nurse leader, you must lead your teams by example.

Networking with Industry Contacts

You’ve done the hard yards - attaining the requisite formal qualifications and also, developing the necessary personal skills to become a healthcare leader. Next, you need to get your name out there professionally. How? By networking with like-minded peers within the medical industry.

So, what is the key to effective professional networking? Some would say being able to identify and promote your strengths to others. It’s one thing to acknowledge your own achievements, but another entirely to have others recognize them. By networking with industry contacts, you can make peers aware of your accomplishments and also make yourself known to potential employers.

As discussed today, there are several routes you can take to propel your healthcare career to new heights.

If you’re aspiring to become a nurse leader, for instance, one of the most important steps you can take involves obtaining the necessary formal accreditations. But just as important, is to develop the personal qualities required of a nurse leader - skills like, for example, communication, critical thinking, and collaboration.

Having done all this, however, the truth is that it still may not be enough. So, how to get your leadership career to really take off? A vital step is to get yourself out there professionally by networking with your industry peers.