Sailing the “Seven C’s” of Leadership

Abstract

Nurses are increasingly being called upon to lead changes within health care. How do nurses and, in particular, school nurses become leaders? School nurses lead daily in their work but often do not recognize themselves as leaders. The "Five C's of Leadership"-character, commitment, connectedness, compassion, and confidence-identified by Kowalski and Yoder-Wise are foundational to the development of leadership and are particularly relevant to school nurses and their role. Two additional attributes found in the literature-courage and capacity-also undergird school nursing practice. In this article, we describe how school nurses already embody these leadership qualities. Each leadership attribute is reviewed in light of the literature, followed by specific examples to demonstrate how school nurses provide leadership. Through these illustrations, school nurses can recognize and embrace their present leadership abilities. In addition, by using the "Seven C's" of leadership, school nurses can enhance their inherent leadership abilities.

Framework for 21st Century School Nursing Practice

“…Critical thinking is a dynamic, vital, and continuing part of every step in the nursing process. Critical thinking uses knowledge and reasoning skills to make sound clinical decisions that influence nursing practice (ANA & NASN, 2011; Weismuller, Willgerodt, McClanahan, & Helm-Remund, 2015).…”

Framework for 21st Century School Nursing Practice™: Clarifications and Updated Definitions

“…Critical thinking refers to the knowledge and reasoning skills used to make sound clinical decisions. Critical thinking in nursing uses the nursing process (Weismuller et al, 2015).…”

The Effect of Nurse managers’ Leadership Styles on Staff Nurses’ Organizational Commitment

“…Lastly, the laissez-faire style had a statistically significant weak positive correlation with the compliance domain of commitment (r=-0.237) with total 0.20. Nurses are increasingly assuming leadership role in healthcare (Weismuller et al, 2016).Leadership style is the manner and approach of motivating people, providing direction and achieving goals (Amirul and Daud, 2012).Such style can either encourage or discourage employees, which can in turn lead to increasing or decreasing their job commitment and consequently their performance levels (Belonio,2012;Whyte,2016).…”