TEAM LEADER EXPERIENCE JOURNAL

Heather Pettett

Some leadership roles on this unit are decision maker, communicator, evaluator,
facilitator, teacher, critical thinker, and advocate. The charge nurse shows leadership to the entire
unit while the registered nurses show leadership roles towards patient care technicians. The care
delivery model used to organize the work across the nursing team was the RN Line Model. In
this model, registered nurses and patient care technicians work together to care for the patient.
The unlicensed assistive personnel are those whom provide bedside care consisting of activities
of daily living and obtaining vital signs. They work under the registered nurse and other
healthcare professionals by assiting the patients with basic care. There are no LVNs on the unit at
Sunnyvale Hospital. The unit nurse manager uses charge nurses to manage the floor with they
are not available. Much of the time the nurse manager is working behind the scenes or at
meetings.
A charge nurse is a nurse who is in charge of a health-care unit. The charge is a registered
nurse who supervises the floor and coordinates care. Some personal characteristics contributing
the charge nurses success as a leader includes adaptability, decisiveness, knowledge, and
judgement. With these characteristics, they are able to be efficient and effective in their role as
supervisor and resource for all members of the team. The responsibilities of the charge nurse
include overseeing the RNs, the patient care technicians, the patients, the flow of the floor, and
organizing dishcarges and admissions. The charge nurse makes the staff work assignments for
the next shift. The level of acuity is considered when guiding patient assignment decisions. The
charge nurse also tries to give the nurses patients they previously cared for during the patients
stay to maintain a continuation of care. The charge nurse has the authority to evaluate team work
behaviors during a shift. They can intervene when necessary to help resolve issues but the charge
nurse cannot send employees home and instead must contact the House Superviser in such

TEAM LEADER EXPERIENCE JOURNAL

Heather Pettett

situations. The charge nurse is accountable for the staff, patients, their families and visitors, and
the physicians. They are accountable for ensuring safe and effective practice as well as
organizing the unit so it flows productively. The nurse is accountable for being the role model on
the unit and being available for the staff to resolve conflicts and act as a resource for any
questions the team members have.
During my time as a team leader, I had to coordinate breaks, lunches, and medication
administration. I also had to be available for my team when they needed me and lend a hand
whenever necessary. At the beginning of the day I did a good job organizing patients to fit the
objectives of my team members. I did my best to assign them to interesting patients with nurses
who had previously worked well with students. I stayed organized during my shift and made it a
point to get the schedule sorted out first thing in the morning. I think I did a good job
coordinating these times with everyone. As the day went on, we had to be flexible with the
schedule and with this flexibilty, everything went smoothly. I did my best to help when it was
needed it and found answers to their questions promptly. I need to develop more confidence in
my role as team leader and I also would like to work on managing the time better so I am always
aware when someone misses a break or is getting ready to give a medication. It was difficult to
continuously remind my team members of their responsibilities and make sure they were getting
things done on time. I believe this experience will really help me to refine my skills in my future
team leader clinical days.

References

TEAM LEADER EXPERIENCE JOURNAL

Heather Pettett

Marquis, B. L., & Huston, C. J. (2012). Leadership roles and management functions
in nursing: Theory and application (7th ed.). Philadelphia: Wolters Kluwer.