Modernisation and reform within health and social care have created exciting career opportunities for nurses in leadership positions. But to make the transition to new levels of responsibility and performance, nurses must respond to a number of personal and professional challenges.

Led by an expert team of facilitators with clinical backgrounds in nursing, this training provides nurses with a unique learning experience designed to help them develop the skills, awareness and confidence they need to maximise their leadership potential.

‘Difficulties at work? Things you're not happy about? Are you ready to take a risk and make a change? The King's Fund Successful Nurse Leader programme is for you.’

Lecturer in Nursing

Programme outline

Today's nurses are working in an environment of rapid change as the health services take forward their programmes of reform. These changes offer nurses both challenge and opportunity. New policies, priorities and ways of working demand that nurses become more flexible, creative and effective in their leadership practice so that they can manage change effectively and improve patient care.

At the same time, the redefinition of professional roles and development of alternative career pathways offer greater scope for nurses to progress their careers by moving into new and different leadership roles.

Our Successful Nurse Leader training aims to support nurses who wish to take this step, helping them to overcome the personal and professional obstacles to achieving career success and to take an active role in shaping the health and social care services of the future.

The training offers a unique opportunity for networking with nurses from a range of other disciplines and sectors. Such networks can serve as a valuable source of support for future development, helping to dispel the sense of professional isolation often experienced by nurses as they progress up the career ladder.

How will it help participants?

This training will give you the tools you need to enhance your contribution to health and social care by developing yourself and your leadership role. Working together with other participants, you will consider new trends and challenges in health services and reflect on how these affect the environment in which you are operating, as well as the nature of your nurse leader role. This understanding provides a context for assessing the personal and professional challenges that you face in moving forward with your career.

In a structured and supportive learning environment, you will be encouraged to gain greater insight into your attitudes, beliefs, values and behaviour by reflecting on your experiences and being receptive to feedback from others. You will also develop a range of skills to help you increase the range and depth of your leadership practice.

These skills include:

• self-awareness and critical reflection
• communication and presentation skills
• the ability to give and receive supportive yet challenging feedback
• the ability to facilitate group processes and make effective interventions
• the capacity to inspire and influence others
• strategic and political awareness
• awareness of your organisation as a system and your role within that system
• understanding of how to build leadership capability through strategic alliances and networking across disciplines, responsibilities and management levels.

What the training cover?

Successful Nurse Leader uses a variety of formats to encourage learning on several different levels. The formats include presentations, group discussions, role plays, and a range of experiential, creative and peer-review exercises.

The training material focuses on some of the the key elements of successful leadership. One of these elements is the ability to work effectively in groups. To help you develop this skill, we introduce you to new ways of understanding how groups operate, as well as different styles of facilitation. From this you will learn how to detect the underlying dynamics of a group and discover how to make appropriate interventions to move a group forward.

Crucial to effective leadership is the ability to understand the underlying dynamics of your organisation. In our comprehensive session on systems-based thinking, you will gain a deeper awareness of how your organisation operates and the relationships between your organisation and the wider systems in which it participates.

We explore how your role fits into those systems, and consider some practical ways that you can use this awareness to engage with and manage change more effectively. We also discuss the idea that a successful leader is one who recognises that people see the world from different viewpoints, and look at ways of managing multiple perspectives to find effective solutions to complex situations.

To progress further in your role as a nurse leader, it is useful if your behaviour is informed by an understanding of the power structures in which you are operating and of how these are affected by changes in government health policy. To help you develop this leadership ability, we explore the relationship between current policy initiatives and the emerging structure of the health service, and introduce you to the concepts of emotional and political intelligence.

The training also includes a number of co-consulting sessions in which you can ask for feedback from your peers on challenging personal experiences that you are struggling with at work. As well as helping you to find more effective ways to approach these situations, the sessions provide further opportunities for developing your group-working and feedback skills.

On completion of the training, you will emerge with the confidence, motivation, energy and skills that you need to be an effective leader. Together these will bring considerable benefits to you, your patients and clients and the organisation as a whole.

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