Importance of Personal Affiliations and Networking for Nursing Leaders
Personal affiliations and networking offer nurses resources that they can use to cope with the challenges that they encounter in their work and to advance in their careers. Personal affiliations such as friends, colleagues and relatives for instance serve as sources for valuable encouragement for nurse managers that can help them to cope with job-related stress. In respect to networking, professional networks offer nurses resources where they can get mentorship, career advice, and support to address challenges in their work that they may otherwise find overwhelming. As such, both personal affiliations and professional networks offer ways for nurse leaders to remain motivated in their demanding work experiences thus avoid detrimental outcomes such as burnout.
One of the characteristic of nursing is that it engages nurses’ physical, mental and emotional resources while caring for the patients. As such, absence of resources to replenish the emotional resources such as through encouragement may lead to nurses experiencing stress and dissatisfaction in their work For example, in a study by Lindholm, Dejin-Karlsson, Ostergren and Uden (2003), nurse managers who had little support outside their work places had greater odds for low self-rated health. As Shirey (2004) further reinforces, social support could have benefits such as effective coping behaviors, sense of self-worth, reduced depression and psychological well-being. Such positive self-care aspects are critical for nurses to be able to perform their roles effectively as advanced in holistic care concepts.
In respect to networking, nurse leaders can reap various benefits. For example, as highlighted by Waller-Wise (2006), networking is associated with benefits such as success in personal career since the networks offer opportunities for nurses to “display [their] unique abilities and talents” (p. 37). In professional networks, nurses are able to access support from colleagues who experience similar challenges in their work place thus enhancing their ability to come up with initiatives that can alleviate job-related stressors. Further, as observed by Tracey and Nicholl (2006) networking helps nurses to identify mentors in their profession who can guide them into developing needed leadership qualities and competencies for their roles. As such, networking serves not only as a means of alleviating job-related stress, but also as a way of enhancing one’s competencies to be a more effective leader.
In summary, personal affiliations and networking offer nurses opportunities to build resources to cope with job challenges and advance their career. Personal affiliations for instance serve as a source of encouragement thus enabling nurse to get the social support they need both in their workplaces and outside. Apart from providing similar benefits as personal affiliations, networking further enables nurse leaders to link with mentors within their profession who can motivate them to develop the competencies, values and attitudes needed for higher levels of responsibility. Therefore, nurse leaders ought to maintain such relationships to enhance their ability to provide better leadership and advance their careers.
References
Lindholm, M., Dejin-Karlsson, E., Ostergren, P. O., & Uden, G. (2003). Nurse managers’ professional networks, psychosocial resources and self-rated health. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 42(5), 506 – 515. doi:10.1046/j.1365-2648.2003.02650.x
Shirey, M. R. (2004). Social support in the workplace: Nurse leader implications. Nursing Economic$, 22(6), 313-319.
Tracey, C., Nicholl, H. (2006). Mentoring and networking. Nursing Management, 12(10), 28-32.
Waller-Wise, R. (2006). Growing collegial relationships: How networking can benefit your practice & patients. AWHONN Lifelines, 10(1), 34-38.
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