When a patient has a medical emergency, it’s often the job of a nurse leader to coordinate the actions of the nursing team to save the patient’s life. When an inexperienced nurse is having trouble handling a tricky situation, such as a physician potentially prescribing an incorrect drug, a nurse leader can step in to provide guidance.

Leadership is needed in every type of organization, but leadership skills in nursing are particularly important because patients’ lives depend on them.

If you think you have what it takes to become a nurse leader, you can build a solid foundation for your future at Northeastern University. Our Accelerated Bachelor of Science in Nursing (ABSN) program is designed for transfer students and non-traditional students interested in switching careers.

You can apply your previously earned non-nursing college credits or bachelor’s degree toward earning a BSN in as few as 16 months. After earning a nursing license and gaining clinical experience, you could begin serving as a leader in nursing.

Before pursuing a career in nursing, discover what leadership means in the nursing field and why it matters. Then, dive into the important skills and leadership styles in nursing before exploring tips to improve your leadership skills as a nursing student.

What Is Leadership in Nursing?

A nurse leader is someone who motivates and inspires others on the team to work collaboratively toward shared goals, such as improving the quality of patient care and patient outcomes. Nurse leaders strive to uplift and empower their team members. This might take the form of a few encouraging words during a stressful shift, acknowledgement of accomplishments, mentorship and guidance, or connections to needed resources.

A nurse leader might hold a formal title, such as charge nurse or nurse manager. Any experienced nurse on the floor, however, can serve as a nurse leader, regardless of whether they hold the title. By acting with professionalism and integrity, prioritizing patients’ needs, and empowering others, nurses can step into de facto leadership roles.

Why Leadership Matters for Nursing Environments

The primary mission of a nurse leader is to drive excellence in healthcare, improving patient care and outcomes. Nurse leaders can elevate the standards of care within their departments through mentorship, collaboration, and motivation.

Nurse leaders go beyond patient care, however. They also strive to improve the work culture, which boosts staff morale and retention rates. Nurse leaders can enhance the efficiency of daily operations, encourage professional development, and lead others through organizational change.

Core Leadership Skills in Nursing

There are many skills essential for all nurses. These include empathy and compassion, time management, and organization. Certain skills, however, are even more important for nurse leaders. Some of these include:

• Accountability
• Communication skills
• Conflict resolution
• Delegation
• Emotional intelligence
• Professional integrity and ethics
• Team building

Understanding Leadership Styles in Nursing

Along with cultivating leadership skills in nursing, it’s important to understand the different leadership styles. Certain leadership styles are better suited for specific nursing specialties or work settings; however, the most successful leaders can recognize which style is best for the situation.

Some of the most common leadership styles in nursing include:

• Democratic nurse leaders: These nurse leaders take a collaborative approach and focus on empowering the team. The democratic style works well for roles that need a strong focus on quality improvement.
• Transformational leadership in nursing: Transformational nurse leaders tend to be excellent mentors. They focus on inspiring and motivating team members to reach their full potential, such as through professional development initiatives that enhance their skills and strengths.
• Transactional nurse leaders: Transactional nurse leaders work to improve both efficiency and performance by focusing on short-term goals with a task-oriented approach.
• Autocratic leadership in nursing: Autocratic nurse leaders do not actively cultivate input from their team. Rather, they focus on task delegation and making quick decisions.

Autocratic nurse leaders can excel in fast-paced settings, such as trauma centers and emergency rooms, in which decisions must be made quickly. In contrast, the democratic leadership style in nursing works well in departments that need to focus on quality and systems improvement, such as long-term care.

How ABSN Programs Prepare Students for Leadership Roles

Through coursework, nursing labs, and clinical experiences, ABSN programs, such as Northeastern University’s, prepare nursing students to pursue leadership roles.

At our ABSN program, we integrate leadership competencies directly into the curriculum. In the first semester, you’ll complete a course on professional ethics in nursing and another course on developing your professional identity and practice. During your last semester, you’ll examine management and leadership in nursing and explore your transition into professional practice.

Our ABSN students also have numerous opportunities to practice professional communication and teamwork during labs and clinical rotations. They can seek mentorship relationships among instructors, preceptors, and experienced nurses on the floor. All these opportunities combine to prepare students to become effective RNs and, later, experienced nurse leaders.

Tips for Developing Leadership Skills as a Nursing Student

You can take many steps to develop leadership skills and fine-tune your leadership style. It starts with cultivating a humble attitude and an open mind. Accept that you have much to learn and understand that you will make mistakes and learn from them. Even after you graduate and go on to work in your first nursing job, you’ll continue to learn from the experienced nurses around you.

Along with cultivating the right mindset, take the following steps to work toward becoming a nurse leader:

• Feedback: Actively request feedback from your nursing instructors and clinical preceptors, along with the experienced RNs in your unit during clinical shifts. Take that feedback to heart and use it to improve your work.
• Empathy: Empathy and compassion are essential skills for nurse leaders. Work on understanding the perspectives and situations of other people, and practice compassion.
• Listening: Nurse leaders must be active listeners. Active listening is a skill you can start practicing as a student. During each conversation and lecture, pay close attention, work to process information, and use body language that demonstrates your attentiveness.
• Mentorship: If possible, seek a mentor. Nurse leaders often serve as mentors, and being a mentee allows you to become familiar with what’s helpful.
• Accountability: Always be accountable for your actions and decisions. This is important for all nurses, but especially for nurse leaders. If you make a mistake during a clinical rotation, immediately let your preceptor know so that the mistake can be addressed. Otherwise, patient care might be compromised.

Becoming a Leader in Nursing at Northeastern

Northeastern University invites you to begin working toward your future as a nurse leader with our ABSN program. Offering ample support, the ABSN program provides students with small class sizes, talented nursing instructors, and close-knit nursing cohorts. If you have a non-nursing bachelor’s degree or at least 62 college credits, you can earn a BSN in as few as 16 months.

Contact an admissions counselor at Northeastern today to learn about applying to our ABSN program in one of our three locations around the country.