Nursing Student Mayra Case Study

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What is a team leader? Who is a leader? Is it someone who takes charge or is it someone who has followers, a person who gives guidance or direction? Is a leader someone who takes action when necessary? These are all traits that leaders possess. In this paper we will address and identify the nursing student Mayra’s leadership style along with any changes that she would make to that style. We will also cover the leadership style of the distinguished Nurse Loretta C. Ford, along with a brief summary of her successes, challenges and the legacy that she has left in nursing.
The nursing students’ leadership style was that of a team leader. This style consists of a high task and high relationship oriented work ethic. This means that they believe in …show more content…

CNN Health stated, "She has a quiet leadership style. She is a listener, she is a great thinker and she has the ability to really put you at ease, that 's really at the heart of who she is." (Landau, 2011). Loretta was always ready to make the difficult leadership decisions, but that does not mean that she took herself too seriously. On occasion, Loretta would sport her “Super Nurse” costume to turn some heads. She believed that the S on her chest stood for scholarly, salient, self confident, sharp, speedy, savvy and special (Houser & Player, 2004, p. 1). She highly believed in leading by example and was not shy in letting others know what she was doing. Loretta was always pushing her peers to give better care and to do better by their patients. . Perhaps the best example of Loretta’s team leadership can be seen in the example that her daughter gave that explaining how Loretta visited the nurses on every Christmas morning to thank them for their service and their hard work, she states “my mother never had work commitments but rather commitments to people” (Houser & Player, 2004, p. 21). This small phrase of having commitments to people may epitomize all the traits that one could find under the definition of team leader. Ford once stated that the four thing that helped fuel her leadership were improving patient care, the …show more content…

To say that Loretta Ford has left a legacy in nursing would not do her justice. This quick thinking gal strongly believed that if nursing did not change it would have no future. Loretta started a movement that took the medical field by storm and forever changed it. She was years before her time, believed in making quality critical thinkers and that the care provided should include the family as well. Ford was also awarded many awards over the years including the prestigious Gustav O. Lienhard Award for improving the healthcare system, and the Elizabeth Blackwell Award for exemplifying outstanding service to humanity (Houser & Player, 2004, p. 21). Perhaps her legacy is not only seen by the barriers she broke or the awards she won, but in the nurses that she continues to influence

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