Wound Care Nurses as Leaders in the Hospital and the Wound Clinic

How many wound care coordinators have walked into a patient’s room to check on a wound before the patient is discharged to find the same dressing or not even the dressing ordered for the wound. The patient and the family member are wondering what is happening and you need to explain.  When it comes to wound care, nurses think this is far from important in his/her day.  This happens to wound care nurse coordinators, wound care nurses, and clinical manager.  Being middle management, do management work as well as hand-on offers some unique challenge and many problems?  The common problem for those who love wound care, many do not.  The same is true of the many nurse specialties.   In this article, there will be a look at nurse leadership and how this can help bring nurses into being a team.  There is a large amount of research showing the need to increase nursing leadership.  Nursing leadership is different in many ways.  There are so many books being published talking about different leadership styles, how to lead and what it means to be a good leader.  According to Google, the definition is:

“A good leader takes the lead. A good leader has personality, courage, clear vision with ambition to succeed. A good leader encourages the team to perform to their optimum all the time and drives organizational success.

The definition of nurse leader would on Google changes to:

“A good nurse leader is someone who can inspire others to work together in pursuit of a common goal, such as enhanced patient care. An effective leader has a distinctive set of personal qualities: integrity, courage, initiative and an ability to handle stress.

This looks at the leader as one that has ambition, encourages and motivates.  Another definition that can even allow a better understanding from John Maxwell:

John C. Maxwell is one of today's top leadership thinkers. ... Being a great leader is all about having a genuine willingness and a true commitment to lead others to achieve a common vision and goals through positive influence. No leader can ever achieve anything great or long-lasting all alone

The nurse needs to understand the importance of leadership and how this will not only affect the world of wound care but also how it affects even those nurses feeling the effects of bullying.  The main important points of leadership to include: valuing the environment, valuing teamwork and adding value to each other. 

How to change an environment is to change yourself.  When walking into a room the wound care coordinator finds the same dressing on the patient from a week ago.  She walks into another room and finds a different dressing on the patient then the order states.  She keeps herself from screaming and becoming angry.  The better action plan is to value that nurse and realize it is the job in life to add value to those around.  Take the time to ask what I can do to make this happen better the next time.  Go to the nurse and work together on a plan of action, could be adding to shift report or simply printing out the order.  Wound care is a difficult thing to make important to all nurses.  By taking the time to ask how to help make things better, is the act of adding to the person’s value. With each person feeling more valued, there is an increase in the trust as well as the want to do better.  How many wound care nurse in every hospital, facility, and clinic, do not feel valued?  How many times have he/she felt, no matter how many lives I change or save, it is not important to the Administration?  There is little learning about leadership and the importance of leadership to the nursing world, those that move up often do not have the knowledge or skills to understand leadership.  As John Maxwell has said in many of his seminars, we need to quit microwaving our leaders and start raising them.  By helping to formulate answers to how to make things better for the patient, the hospital and those that we work with our value will shine. 

Teamwork in business is very important and in healthcare, it needs to be a prime order. Creating a team brings nurses together with his/her love and allowing him/her to make a difference in policy-making.  In a recent TV show, a millionaire decided he could build a million-dollar business in 90 days.  What the show ended up teaching is that no one can build a business, grow a business that can be done without others willing to be there with you.  This is true with making a difference in the lives of people.  There is a newfound value in his/her special talents and gifts.  Each employee brings talents, knowledge, and perception of how to improve the hospital or facility.  Then there are those employees that do not see how things can be changed better.  There are always those bad apples as they are called.  When there is a union interference, it makes it difficult to handle those toxic employees.  It is best to help these employees to see that maybe this is not the best place for him/her.  It is always important as a team leader to look at how to add value to each other

The wound care nurse doing her rounds checks the patient’s room.  When talking with the patient, she finds the patient knows the type of dressing being used, where located, and the days to be changed.  The wound care coordinator asked how the patient knows this, the patient proudly says, my nurse told me and wrote it on the board.  When the wound care coordinator went to the next room, she found the same thing.  What had changed in this hospital, is the fact the administration was happy to help the wound care coordinator.  A wound care team had been created and the nurses were excited to join.  The team had discussed the problem and together came up with an action plan.  Each member of the committee was happy to make the changes and teach others.  A wound care team is not just meeting to learn about staging pressure ulcers or what a wound is, it is becoming active in making changes in the hospital and each nurse working.  It is solving problems and improving the lives of patients.  Nursing leadership can be taught, encouraged and promoted.                                          

In conclusion, a nurse leader should be a primary class for all nurses.  The days of eating our young, should be discouraged.  The youth today are looking for work balance and how to make the world better for each of them being there.  As a wound care nurse leader/director, I see encouraging others to become certified to grow in the love of wound care and love my fellow nurses as my goal in life.  I hope many others join me in this quest.