Nurse Leader Pre-Interview Reflection

I chose my nurse preceptor as my nurse  leader. I chose her because she was only a few years older than me and had already accomplished so much in her career relating to the leadership aspect in nursing. She was newly appointed as charge nurse and was also her first time volunteering to be a nurse preceptor. Taking on two leadership roles at the same time can be very difficult, especially for a young nurse. Her leadership role as charge nurse was a formal position that she trained for prior to my arrival to preceptorship. She was still learning the ins and outs of being the charge nurse all while having me to teach. I believe her position as my preceptor was also considered a formal position, because she was responsible for ensuring I follow proper protocols, administer medications, and patient safety was protected at all times. I was lucky enough to stay on the floor during my whole preceptorship and learn many hands on skills whereas other peers had to use virtual preceptorship assignments. By having hands on experience during the COVID-19 pandemic, I believe I was able to see a lot of leadership skills from everyone on the floor. My preceptor possessed many leadership skills such as delegation, time management, and respect to colleagues. During preceptorship, there were various challenges that came up that I was able to see how my preceptor used her leadership skills in handling. The issue of COVID cases on the floor was a huge issue my preceptor had to handle. Many nurses didn’t have the proper PPE to enter into the designated COVID areas so sorting patient assignments to ensure that people with the proper PPE were always working each shift to take care of the COVID patients was very difficult and required some nurses to work overtime every week. Being the person responsible for creating the shift assignments posed stress to my client because it was difficult to make sure everyone was being treated fairly, however, my preceptor never became overwhelmed and was very open and honest with her coworkers when creating assignments and tried her best to allow everyone’s input. I definitely am interested in learning about how my nurse leader is able to manage work and life balance. As a future nurse I believe that understanding that balance will be very important when starting out to help prevent burnout.