My professional identity as a nurse is defined by attributes, beliefs, values, motives and experiences which I have developed over twenty one years. As a self-reflective professional and lifelong learner, my professional identify will continue to evolve until I reach retirement. As I continue to develop my leadership style though my studies as a graduate student and through my work experience, I learn more and more about who I am and want to be as a nurse leader
At this point in my career, having transitioned from bedside nursing into leadership roles over a twenty year period, I have benefited from a variety of experiences that have informed my values and motivations. I have modeled my leadership style after some excellent mentors and consider myself to a collaborative leader. My core values are shared by most nurses: caring, trust, compassion, courage, and advocacy. There are unlikely to change very much as they a a fundamental part of who I am as a person ad as a professional.
My regulating body, the College of Nurses of Ontario (CNO) defines the professional standards to which I must adhere. They include clear expectations for accountability, continuing competence, ethics, knowledge and knowledge application, leadership, and relationships. (Professional Standards, 2002) Meeting these standards are the minimum set of expectations I have for myself, but they do provide a framework for reflection. Annually, I reflect and consider how I might further develop in any or all of these areas.
The part of my professional identity that I have not yet explored in depth as a leader is my social media presence. Never before this course, have I considered what my social media presence could or should be. An audit of my social media presence revealed that I am doing a good job of keeping my professional life and private lives separate. I have found my self challenged and uncomfortable with putting my self out there professionally, via an e-portfolio. Nevertheless, I am determined to push myself and to grow.
I have observed the social media presence of other nurse leaders, the CEO of my organization via the hospital website, and have been following other leaders on LinkedIn and Twitter. I think that I have found a few to model and to learn from. One, a former mentor and colleague keeps a very low profile and almost never post links or updates to her LinkedIn profile. Another has her own lifestyle blog and offers editorial on current politics and healthcare related news which she links to twitter and to LinkedIn. I think my preference would be to land somewhere in between the two. I have also observed that the CEO of our hospital has a blog which is curated by the communications department, but our Chief Nurse does not. Flury (2017) notes that in fact, very little nursing presence may be found on most hospital websites, whether it be a message from the chief nurse or information on the model of care or nursing events and achievements. Further, she suggests that social media is a way for nurse leaders to develop branding, engagement, and learning opportunities. (Flury, 2017) This strikes me as a potential opportunity for my organization, but also for myself.
I am certainly not a chief nurse, nor is that my ambition, but I do acknowledge that using social media as a communication strategy would be a way to brand myself as a clinical leader in quality improvement and patient safety. I have a LinkedIn profile, but it is quite basic and I use the site primarily to job search and follow trends in my field of work. By developing an e-portfolio, I now have a way to engage my classmates and learn from them as I follow their blogs. There is much more that I can and will do to enhance my social media presence.
References:
Flury, C. (2017). Social media as a leadership tool for nurse executives. Nursing Economics, 35(5), 272-275. Retrieved from http://www.nursingeconomics.net/cgi-bin/WebObjects/NECJournal.woa
Professional Standards, Revised 2002. (2002). Retrieved from http://www.cno.org/globalassets/docs/prac/41006_profstds.pdf
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