Applied leadership is taking charge of a stiuation regrdless of your position of staff nurse, charge nurse, etc. In the emergency department, this becomes a very important quality for a nurse to have in my experience. There is often a lot going on at a very fast pace. It is important for nurses to speak up and take charge if necessary to make sure lives are saved and patients are taken care of appropriately. 

D1. My definition of applied leadership that I wrote previously for professional roles and values has not changed much. If I were asked to define it again, I would come up with the same definition. Applied leadership is when you take charge, despite your position or role in the hospital setting. This is a very important quality to have, especially in the high stress environment of the ER.

D1a. Before the WGU program, I already had a decent understanding of applied leadership thanks to my time in my ADN program. I fell that applied leadership is important enough that it is taught well no matter the program length. Nurses must be able to take charge in situations across the board, ADN or BSN. Applied leadership is also taught in the culture of the workplace. The professional roles and values course and this course further ingrained the concept of applied leadership into my thought process.

D1b. Professional roles and values course task 1.

D1b1. PRV task 1 solidifies my definition of applied leadership. In the paper, I had to research and pick two historical nurses who were great examples of applied leadership, which helped develop my definition. The paper also made me define 4 characteristics of a good leader and apply them to different roles in nursing.

D2a. Professional collaboration is vital to effective nursing leadership. You are only as good as your team, no matter what department you work in. In an ER, it is especially important. Nurses collaborate with pharmacists, ER doctors, residents, trauma clinicians, paramedics, EMTs, fire departments, and surgeons on a daily basis. Without each other, the whole emergency medicine system would fail. If a nursing leader were to fail to realize this importance of collaboration, they would indeed fail as an effective leader. One cannot survive without the other.