Have the courage to make an impact

Chief nurse
Wolters Kluwer – Health, science, research and practice

Last week we wrote concerning the theme of Nurses Week: Nurses encourage, innovate, influence. What does influencing mean and can we, as skilled nurses, have a responsibility to influence those around us? The definition of influence in accordance with the dictionary is “the ability to influence the character, development, or behavior of someone or something, or the effect itself.” In essence, it means the flexibility to be an agent of change.

Change – This will not be the favourite thing of those of us in clinical practice. It is far easier to just accept things as they’ve all the time been and never change our practice. However, we all know that we must practice using the most effective available evidence and best practices to make sure high-quality patient care. As nurses, we must influence our colleagues to practice higher standards to make sure continuity of care; In short, be a clinical leader on the bedside.

The practice will not be the one place where nurses could make an impact. Nurses have to be present in decisions about health care and our practice. This implies that we have to be present where discussions are happening about quality improvement, the physical practice environment, the equipment we are going to use in our practice, the monitors we use, and even decisions about electronic health records.

We should have a voice on the leadership level, which suggests our chief nursing officer/executive director and CIO have to be at the identical level as their healthcare counterparts. We have to be a part of health care boards and boards that influence people. Who higher to advocate for people than the nurses who look after them through the most effective and worst moments of their lives.

Nurses have to be present in decisions related to our scope of practice, and which means we should have a voice on the local, state and federal levels. We need to know the problems at hand and express our concerns and support appropriately.

Never doubt the influence you’ve got on the people around you, especially your loved ones. I even have three daughters and every of them has grown into an influential woman who will not be afraid to make use of her voice and her actions to defend what she believes in.

Perhaps our biggest impact is on our patients. We are advocates for our patients and will help our patients make informed decisions about their health care and lives. We guide and teach our patients how you can understand diseases and conditions, how you can take medications, how you can prevent diseases and, most significantly, how you can live a healthy life.

Nursing is essentially the most trusted career for a reason, and it has been that way for a few years, in accordance with a Gallop survey. This is because we’ve the courage and ambition to encourage, innovate and influence others to be the most effective they may be.