Meeting Minutes

Attendance via zoom meeting: Angela Casey (Chair), Jemma Binney, Kaye Spence, Karen Walker, Wendy Carlish, Carley O'Rouke and Alison Michaels

May 16th, 2017 at 1930hrs - The role of emotional intelligence and leadership?
                                               Styles of leadership that challenge our practice?

The group reviwed the article circulated - "A pilot study of emotional intelligence training intervention for a paediatric team".

Emotional Intelligence key points raised:
1. Nurses can be trained in this area and it would be interesting to investigate what training models could be used
2. Nurses use emotional intelligence more effectively than medical or allied health staff as seen in the pilot study
3. Self awareness and insight are key to identifying effective leaders
4. Mindfulness and being educated on emotional intelligence including things like empathy, respect, assesrtiveness and flexibilty would play an effective role in nurses
5. Emotional intelligence takes time, skills and dedication to understand the underlying principles
 

Styles of leadership that challenge practice - key points raised:
1. Having a voice and being able to listen is most effective
2. Challenging all nurses to be a leaders wthin their scope - not all nurses will want to be team leaders or have the skills to do it however they can still be a leader for the care they provide to that baby and family
3. Micro-managers were discussed as being very challenging and strategies identified to manage these behaviours - identifying that this is not a personal attack, never react or engage in confrontation. remove the emotion and frustration from the situation or individual. Be proactive and meet their demands by being open and transparent communication around deadline submissions and details.There is a lot of literature about this type of manager and how to manage this
4. Know what type of leaders you are and challenge yourself
5. Having high expectaions of others to be exceptional leaders is sometimes confronting and a different approah may be required

This was a very informataive session and the most important thing that came out for members was that we were supporting and networking with each other on a common ground facing similar challenges in our NICU's.
 

Next meeting: July 20th 2017 at 1930hrs - Why do nursing leaders burn out?
                                                                      What is the difference between leaders and managers?