Contract Nurse Network

Nursing law of legacy: Raising up future nurse leaders

As we are facing yet another brutal nursing shortage, nursing leaders should thrive to pass an important leadership test, which is the law of legacy. Legacy means to pass something immaterial from one generation to another. The ability and willingness for nursing leaders to reproduce themselves in other nurses are very important in the efforts to attract and keep people practicing the nursing profession.

The nursing shortage without a doubt affects everyone in the healthcare system, including the professional nurse. One of the issues with the nursing shortage is the aging of nurses with the average age of 46.8. According to the National Council of State Boards of Nursing, there is a decline of 20% in the number of graduate nurses taking the national licensure exam, which means that there are fewer nurses available to replace the ones that are retiring. Though there is a great demand for nurses to provide direct care, nurses are also needed as researchers, health-care administrators, policy analysts, and nurse executives.

Here are five easy steps that current nurse leaders need to do on their parts to help alleviate the nursing shortage by being pro-active in reproducing themselves.

1. Take the time to seek future leaders

Nurse leaders need to make it a point to visit and spend time with nurses in their work environment. Being in their day to day world gives you an opportunity to observe younger nurses at work, and it give them the opportunity to dialogue with you and get to know you in a human level.

2. Handpick your future leaders

Your future nurse leader is currently in your facility, and it is a privilege for you to be able to handpick him/her. Do not wait until a position is vacant for you to start looking for someone to fill it from outside. Get to know the nurses that are currently in your employment, develop them according to their skills and interests to prepare them for their future career step.

3. Develop influential leaders

In the effort of reproducing yourself in others, pay close attention not to call them to simply follow you but to develop them to be able to influence others. Help them to develop their leadership skills and be resourceful so others can recognize them as experts in the nursing field.

4. Challenges leaders to reproduce

As you go thru this reproductive process as a leader, having had the experience and the difficulties of finding and molding your protégé, make it a goal to engrain very early in them the importance of learning to reproduce themselves in others also.

5. Demonstration of leadership

Model your leadership skills. The nurse leaders in training will learn best when they see you in action as a leader. Be aware that their eyes will be on you as you handle difficult situations, deal with people and do your day-to-day duties.

Calling others to follow you

Nursing leaders are without a doubt preoccupied with their day-to-day duties, but one of the most important marks of an effective leader is the ability to develop other leaders. Developing other leaders ensures that the vision of the facility will live on long after the current leaders are gone. With this goal in mind, the effective leader then needs to be pro-active in seeking to find younger nurses to reproduce themselves.

Legal Nurse Consulting

Another area of independent contract nursing is that of the Legal Nurse Consultant. This is just what it sounds like, a nurse who has achieved expertise in an area such as rehabilitation or chart auditing and can offer expert testimoney in legal proceedings. Do you have a penchant for research? Do you like and excel at uncovering the truth in a given situation? If you do, legal nurse consulting may be the career you've been looking for.

How To Become An Independent Contract Nurse Case Manager

There are a number of "How to" books, websites that provide training and guides on how to become an Independent Contract Nurse Case Manager or legal nurse consultant and for $$$ you can be on your way to a truly marvelous career. A particularly great place to start is at Nurse Entrepreneur Network. For those of a more frugal nature and who have a self-starter attitude and aptitude, you can just do a search on the internet and you'll find plenty of information to get you started. I'm just going to cover some basics here. First, in order to become an independent contract nurse case manager you must be at least an RN, unfortunately LPN's aren't recognized as "professional" nurses, even though they most certainly are. That's ok, there are other areas of the case management industry where LPN's are considered most valuable, we'll discuss that in another article. So, you need to be an RN. You should have some case management experience and ideally you should also have certification in case management (CCM).

What is Case Management In Nursing?

Case management in nursing can take many forms, in almost every area of nursing you will find a nurse case manager whether it be in a hospital, home care or administrative setting (hospital, home care or managed care). Those are primarily mainstream case management positions. Not so well known are those areas of case management involving nurses who work from home for a company that assigns cases (catastrophic auto, worker's compensation etc) to them for management. These are not independent or contract nurse case managers, but they often hire independent or contract nurse case managers to perform tasks. This site is devoted primarily to the latter as they are the nurses who are independent entities and depend on being contracted for their services which is their livelihood. These nurses have a degree of independence not enjoyed by even an agency nurse. They set their own hours, their own workload and are basically in business for themselves. Some independent nurse case managers will partner up with 1 or more other nurse case managers to form a team that can manage a much higher caseload.

Success as an Independent Nurse Contractor

Many nurses today are frustrated with their work situation. Are you one of them? If so, it is time you take control and make that first step. Quit thinking about a change ...DO IT ...quit saying I am going too... DO IT...Quit day dreaming, procrastinating, making excuses, waiting for “the right time” ....DO IT. Now is the time to expand your nursing career and enjoy the many benefits that is offered as an Independent Nurse Contractor. WE CAN MAKE IT REALITY!