Shining a Light on Leaders - Emerging Nurse Leader

By Rose O. Sherman, EdD, RN, NEA-BC, FAAN

“At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us.” Albert Schweitzer

One of this blog’s readers shared what her staff had done for her as part of the nursing week celebration. She is too modest to allow me to give her a shout-out publicly, but the story is worth telling. This reader has been a critical care nurse manager for ten years. Here is what she shared, I tell my staff that I am older than dirt and have seen it all – well, almost everything until COVID came along. These past 14 months have been the toughest in my leadership work. Trying to keep up the morale of staff when I sometimes felt hopeless myself was hard. Somehow, they must have known I needed a pick me up for nurses week. Staff members each wrote a note about how I had helped them through COVID.

Here is some of what she shared with me……………….. Thank you for:

Knowing when I was scared and talking me down.
Being my Mom when mine was so far away.
Staying hopeful when I was not.
Laughing at my morbid COVID jokes.
Not lecturing me about my meltdown.
Talking to that family on Facetime when I could not.
Not quitting when other leaders did.
Treating me like family when I was new to the unit.
Taking my call when I was so stressed out I was not sure I could come to work.
Forcing me to take a few days off when I needed it.
Walking my dog when my dog walker bailed on me.
Always having lots of chocolate in your office.
Telling us that this is hard …. very hard, but it will get better.
Coming in on nights with food.
Thanking us over and over and over again.

The pandemic has been very hard on nursing staff but perhaps even more on leaders who went in day after day supporting nurses. Many now tell me that they, too, are burned out and exhausted. Taking time to shed light on what they have done is critically important, especially during nurses’ week.

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