Nurse Leaders: Leading as a NURSE First

One of the most rewarding aspects of hosting this blog is reading the profound insights shared by our community of nurse leaders. Today, I’m excited to feature a guest post from Christine Andreozzi, MSN, RN, Clinical Manager at Middlesex Health Cancer Center in Middletown, Connecticut, who beautifully captures a truth we often lose sight of amid operational chaos: Moving into leadership isn’t leaving the bedside; it’s multiplying your reach to every patient on your unit.

In her post below, Christine challenges us to reflect on a compelling question: Why do we sometimes stop applying our best clinical and therapeutic skills when leading our own teams? Using a clever framework anchored in the very heart of our profession, N.U.R.S.E offers a powerful reminder of what happens when we lead with empathy, assessment, and care first, and let the administrative tasks follow.

Nurse Leaders: Leading as a NURSE First

By Christine Andreozzi, MSN, RN

Nurse leaders play a pivotal role in the world of healthcare. We are initiators, sustainers, and motivators. It is a challenging role, but also a fulfilling one. To be by your nurses’ side as they make pivotal milestones in their careers, learn and grow as professionals, and change as people while they take care of patients at the lowest point of their lives is an unbelievable feeling. We didn’t leave the bedside; we replicated the number of bedsides that we could be at by supporting our nurses.

So why do some leaders not treat their teams like they treat their patients? Do nurse leaders lose all their assessment skills when they leave the bedside? I find that the daily tasks and stress sometimes get in the way of the bigger picture- the patients. Finding ways to support our teams is how we can support our patients and be present at the bedside of every patient on our unit.

Let’s get into it- what tools does the nurse leader need? Not budgeting and scheduling. Not staffing and clinical proficiency… Sure, those are important, and those are things at hand day in and day out, but what a nurse leader should begin with is being a NURSE.

• Needs: Assessing the needs of the team. Getting to know the team, what works, what doesn’t work, what challenges they have a harder time overcoming, what kind of feedback do they feel supported by
• Understanding: Dig deeper into those needs and talk to the team to truly understand where they are coming from. Bridging the gap from the bedside to the boardroom comes from not fully understanding either side of the conversation
• Reinforcement: Let your teams know that they are heard, understood and you are working with them and for them. They are your biggest asset as a nurse leader. Investing in their needs is going to help you run your units and fix your problems.
• Support: Truly bringing them back the answers and the solutions to their issues. This does not mean doing everything for them! (That said, I do think it’s worth jumping in to help when they’re genuinely struggling) This means showing up for them physically, with knowledge, with kindness, and with the transparency that we expect our clinicians to provide to our patients so they can make informed decisions too!
• Evaluation: The job doesn’t end with support – it is an ongoing cycle of understanding your people, giving them what they need, being honest about what constraints you are meeting, and moving with them to take the best care of every patient on your unit.

Being a leader doesn’t mean laying down the law and creating boundaries. It means creating therapeutic relationships with your teams the way that you would with your patients. Don’t take the NURSE out of being a Nurse Leader – Lead with it!

Rose’s Thoughts

What a powerful reminder this is from Christine. It’s so easy to let scheduling gridlocks, budget spreadsheets, and administrative demands pull us away from our core identity. But as Christine so eloquently points out, our nursing process, which includes assessing, understanding, reinforcing, supporting, and evaluating, is just as vital at the nurses’ station and in the hallway as it is at the bedside.

When we treat our teams with the same therapeutic care, transparency, and diagnostic curiosity that we give our patients, leadership transforms from managing tasks to truly empowering people.