The person that I chose for my interview is one of my best friends who is a Registered Nurse. Emma graduated from nursing school last spring and has been working on a cardiac/telemetry floor for about 8 months now. I realize that Emma is a relatively new nurse who hasn’t had too much experience, but I believe that her perspective would be interesting in how she incorporates leadership qualities as a new nurse. Some qualities that she has is great communication and delegation skills. Emma has always been someone to take control of situations when others are not willing to step up to the plate. I can see these qualities being a part of her work culture and I know she is not shy to exhibit these features in the work setting. Another part of being a leader is being able to work with others to identify and solve issues. Emma is great at problem solving and is a true collaborator. Although she tends to take things into her own hands, she is great at listening to others and getting everyone’s input to make the best choices. She is also a naturally very helpful individual. I can always count on her for anything, and even through high school she offered so much constructive criticism with assignments. All of these qualities helped me identify her as having great leadership skills as a nurse.

Since Emma has less than a year of nursing experience, and given her position on the floor, her leadership position is certainly on the informal side. A formal leader is specifically designated to be responsible for a group of people/unit and has a formal title. They hold more responsibility and is someone that the employees can turn to for policy/patient specific questions and overall guidance on all aspects of work-related questions. An informal leader is someone who has leadership qualities and skills and applies them in their work setting, without the title and has less pressure put on them. They are people who others can rely on, and they choose to go to these individuals.

What I’m looking forward to learning from Emma is how she built her confidence to apply these skills as a new graduate. It is hard to insert yourself when there are so many people who have much more experience, so I’m interested in her navigation to find her place as a leader. I also want to learn more about how she delegates and communicates with her coworkers. How she deals with conflict, how she continues to build her leadership skills, and how her team supports each other are also some other things I would love to discuss with her about.