Skilled Nursing Leadership Case Study

I had the pleasure of interviewing Sara Peterson, a nurse manager who works at a skilled nursing facility. She has worked there for almost three years and has learned quite a bit about leadership during this time. The nurse manager at this facility is called the “Heritage Team Lead”. The tern heritage comes from the hall/section that this nurse manager is over. In this skilled nursing facility there are four nurse managers that work together and report to a main director in nursing (DRN). A nurse manager helps the patients by managing the nurses and certified nursing assistants in their unit. They occasionally work with the patient’s care physicians if needed. Mrs. Peterson stated that she “loves helping people, wanted to make a career out …show more content…
Peterson was hired she went through a training course to ensure she would be able to help the staff as much as possible. In this course they reviewed the term leadership and what makes a person a good leader. According to the textbook: Health Communication, Theory & Practice, “A leader is a person who uses his or her power to move or influence a group toward perceived goals through verbal and nonverbal communication. Effective leaders must be able to inspire visions and goals.” (74) This definition is very close to what Mrs. Peterson was taught. The main goals of this skilled nursing facility are to make sure the residents are being physically and emotionally taken care …show more content…
Peterson now tries to think about what she is going to say before explaining what needs to be done for the day. All the nurses, aides, and herself now have a meeting at the beginning of each shift and talk about the goals for the day. Sara shares the tasks that need to be filled, and each person signs up for what they feel comfortable doing that day. This has helped boost morale with the aides, and nurses, because they get to choose their work instead of just having chores assigned to them.
To help boost morale even more, Sara started a reward system that is now implemented throughout the nursing facility. If you are seen doing something good by a nurse manager, director of nursing, or even the residents of the hall, you are given a piece of paper with a point value printed on it. You can save these points up and buy candy, etc. or the aides/nurses and other staff can pool their points together to earn a pizza day. Even though this is a new project it has been very popular and has started a friendly competition between the staff at this skilled nursing