INTRODUCTION/CONCLUSION

A critical yet highly overlooked task in one’s professional career is sitting down and creating a personal mission statement.  Chances are, if you have ever applied for a job, you have read and become familiar with that company’s mission statement.  These statements are important because it explains what the foundation of that company is and the purpose for their existence.  The same concept goes with creating a personal mission statement.  Having a personal mission statement is so profound because it is the deep display of self-reflection of who you are, what you stand for, and the why behind what you do (Power, 2016).  It is easy to proceed through one’s career early on without a firm mission statement because the excitement of being a nurse is enough to carry you through the days.  However, it is easy to become disparaged and burned out when one has been a nurse for an extended amount of time.  This can lead to easily forgetting the “why” behind one’s initial aspirations.  I have never been tasked with drafting a personal mission, and although I subconsciously knew the motives behind embarking on this particular career and the goals I wished to accomplish on my journey, I found putting these objectives into words was more difficult than initially anticipated.  My father inspired by path towards nursing.  He had multiple medical problems from a young age and had been in and out of the hospital numerous times throughout my childhood and adult life.  The nurses who cared for him were the most impactful in my and my father’s stays.  I found them to be some of the kindest and thoughtful people.  I was in awe of their expertise and compassion.  Thus, when I decided to become a nurse I knew that the core values of advocacy, respect, and excellence that were so impressive to me as a young girl would be the same guiding principles in my own career.  Therefore, my mission as a future Nursing Informatics Specialist is to always advocate for the well-being of all patients and families, especially during some of their most vulnerable times.  In addition, I vow to respect and keep confidential my patient’s health information and to always display excellence in any and all tasks assigned to me at the highest level of my capacity.  A mission statement, though fundamental, is just the blueprint to becoming a successful leader.  A leader must also have a vision – a “guiding compass” (Herold, 2017) to take these principles and develop a plan of action that promotes growth and success within the company and its employees.

            A successful leader has the ability to visualize the future and present a clear vision for his company and employees. This can only be successful if he can visualize, articulate, believe, and live that vision and mission every day.  What do I mean by this? Well, according to Cameron Herold (2017) a leader needs to begin to mentally map the future of his company in order to create a “clear vision” that fuels the purpose of that company.  That is, one must have the ability to create a mental picture for what he wishes the company would like to look like in the future and share these concepts to his peers in order to create a support network for endorsement (Herold, 2017). Because a vision serves to inspire positive change and “speak in possibilities” (Grossman & Valiga) for the future, there are a few steps that help serve to create either a personal or professional vision.  First, in order to create change there needs to be something that needs changing. Secondly, there also must be a driving force behind why that particular vision is important.  Just as Brendon Burchard (2019) stated in his video, if you pursue your interests, you will figure out what you are passionate about and it can help define your mission. Lastly, it is important to think about what type of legacy you wish to leave behind for the organization. My professional vision is a future where a global platform of interoperability and accessibility is available to patients and healthcare teams to help improve the care and safety of patients across the continuum.  As tech savvy as medicine has become, there still remains a great chasm in health record accessibility. I have personally experienced interruptions in the continuity of care for my son when we moved from Philadelphia to Dallas.  Having his medical records sent over from multiple specialists from his hospital in Philadelphia to his doctors in Dallas took months of back and forth phone calls to complete.  This ultimately caused a delay in establishing a new DME to get trach supplies and monitoring equipment; a delay in follow-up appointments; and finally a delay in getting approved for my son’s Medicaid (which cost us thousands of dollars out of pocket for his chemotherapy medications).  What frustrated me the most was that the two hospitals utilized the same operating system.  There should not be such a great divide between EHR systems that it takes months for other facilities to receive patient records.  The legacy I hope to leave one day is that I was able to help contribute to a process that enables patients or families, especially those with complex medical issues, to transition seamlessly from one medical facility to the next in the event that an emergency may occur or even just a life event.  I dream of a day when safer transitions of care can be achieved because crucial medical information would not fall between the cracks or be missed entirely. In order for a leader to help inspire change and get others to buy into their vision, a great deal of creativity is necessary to help remove any ambiguity and move people towards the vision (Grossman & Valiga).

            The provision of health care and the role of nursing has continued to increase in complexity. There has also been a recent outcry by global nursing experts for nurses to pursue creativity during their practice to improve nursing outcomes. This shows the extent to which nurses’ creativity is vital in health and well-being. In this regard, nurses face the challenge of thinking more creatively and coming up with innovations that encourage learning and contribute to the entire health care enterprise. Most importantly the nursing leadership role requires an individual to be a daring leader and willing to “change the status quo” (Grossman & Valiga). One significance of creativity in the nursing practice is that it results in high-quality patient care. The achievement of high-quality patient care is mandatory for the nursing practice. Nurse leaders, therefore, play a pivotal role in delivering direct care and improving hospitals’ credibility. Barr and Nathenson (2021) consider patient satisfaction the primary indicator of health care service quality. However, it can only be realized through creativity, which gives nurses a feeling of ownership and empowerment. Additionally, the nurses who are always close to patients feel energized to provide high-quality care. Creativity results in the accumulation of ideas, resulting in better patient care while eliminating practical efficiencies. Creative modalities further offer nurse leaders new patient care perspectives and ultimately foster ethical change to advance professional nursing practice.

Moreover, the effectiveness of a health care organization depends on the ability of the nursing leadership to develop creative responses to complex problems. The team of nurses under such leaders is expected to innovate and institute change depending on the shifts in healthcare needs (Barr & Nathenson, 2021). It is upon the nurse leaders to completely utilize the available human and mental resources. In this context, creativity becomes the most important outcome from these resources, where nurses are required to think of new ways of changing the perspectives of old problems or creating novel approaches for patients’ future needs. Despite being a complex issue for any leader, creativity is an essential characteristic of nurses (Grossman & Valiga). The leader must use creative ways to promote an innovative spirit among their workforce. To nurture creative thinking techniques in the group, nurse leaders can use education to empower staff. This draws attention to the role of transformational leaders in inspiring and educating subordinates on creative approaches.

I always believed that a successful nurse must be creative in solving problems and communicating with patients. Being in the nursing profession involves going beyond handling medication, data, and protocols. One has to adopt a thoughtful approach when attending to patients’ needs and think beyond any protocols to accomplish good patient outcomes (Grossman & Valiga; Grossman & Valiga).  The Creative Ability Scale scored me as “Moderately Creative” which I think is an appropriate result and reflective of my level of ingenuity. I agree with the scale that an individual who surrounds and immerses themselves around people who are creative and varying perspectives, helps to activate differing thought processes within their own genius.  I also agree with both the Creative Scale and Brendon Burchard that scheduling adventures and creative activities help to “open up the brain, opens up new ideas, and thoughts” (Burchard, 2019). I draw satisfaction from my ability to apply creativity in practice. While patient satisfaction is yet to be directly measured, it has consistently improved whenever I use creativity to deliver care. I remember attending to two patients in the same room whose condition had them urinating every two hours. Both patients were apologetic for having to request my assistance to the commode within short intervals.  At the end of my shift, I designed a ribbon award and handed it to the patient who used the commode the most during my shift. The patients had a good laugh for that day and stopped being remorseful for the clinical situation they could not even control. Through creativity, I was able to help “reframe” (Grossman & Valiga) my work practice and maintain a good relationship with my patients, assuring them that they were in safe hands. From experience, I believe in my capacity to develop tactful interventions that employ inventiveness, imagination, and original ideas.

            The current healthcare environment requires a nurse leader to exercise independent judgment and decision-making in clinical practice. Hence, the nurse must have creative skills. Creativity pervades all other activities as it involves the process of thinking and reflection. To become a strong leader, it would be critical for me to realize the vision of a transformed health care system and be able to articulate that vision to the rest of the team in a way that inspires and empowers.  This involves “a bit of danger because it involves taking risks” (Grossman & Valiga), treating our failures as opportunities, and embracing new ideas (Grossman & Valiga).  Yet, Barr and Nathenson (2021) state that nurses do not advance their careers intending to become leaders. On the contrary, it is expected that the profession produces leaders in all departments of the health care system, ranging from the bedside to the boardroom. My creativity will therefore enable me to serve as a full partner to all interdisciplinary teams. It also means that I will be accountable for all my contributions, which have to be delivered with attention to high-quality care, whether individually or collaboratively with other leaders. The assertion to apply creativity in the nurse leadership role stems from the acknowledgment that the nurse must engage in continuous learning and adapt to the dynamic environment. Besides, the nursing leader roles include promoting teamwork, which requires creativity to guarantee high-quality nursing services.