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Excerpt
The context of mentoring and coaching is group meetings. At these meetings, nurses at varying levels of experience and skill use a critical thinking/problem-solving model to clarify the problem, the causes, the consequences, the potential solutions, and the desired outcomes. Initially, my role involves asking where we are in the steps of critical thinking, eg, keeping or getting back on track. But as time passes and proficiency in critical thinking emerges, I become a resource. The area that presents the greatest challenge for these nurses is identifying causes of a problem that come from within the organization and in creating feasible suggestions for change that enhance nursing practice within that organization. Not only are these nurses becoming competent and savvy, but they also have begun to demonstrate insight and leadership in tackling the problems they encounter. Nowhere is this enhanced ability to problem solve tested as much as when nurses conclude that they will go on strike.
This past January, I walked on the picket line with nurses who were out on strike. Some of the nurses are in the PNCC. Initially, as we walked and talked, they realized that they would not be there to see their patients go home; this recognition was emotionally wrenching. At the same time, they believe that the decision to leave their practices and participate in the strike rose above the decision to continue to work in this practice setting. Problem solving? Critical thinking? Oh, yes; this was a difficult choice between competing priorities.
During those initial days of the strike, nurses turned to each other and began to establish links, even friendships, with those in their unit and in their clinical cluster and on other units. They shared information, their hopes, and their fears. Thus, a new level of linking and cohesiveness among the nurses happened outside, not in, the setting. The nurses also turned to the local community, giving voice to the inter-related issues that caused the strike (pay, benefits, staffing, respect) (Oregon Nurses Association, unpublished data, 2000).
The nurses have written letters to the newspaper, picketed on bridges where commuters travel, distributed leaflets on the city’s downtown streets, and participated in interviews with the media. These nurses have also turned toward the entire nursing community in the state, seeking to inform, asking for support. The response has ranged from being overwhelmingly positive to distancing and rejection. Some businesses have expressed their solidarity with the striking nurses, and unexpected alliances, relationships, and partners have been formed.
Kouzes and Pozner 1 describe 5 characteristics of exemplary leadership. They are:
These nurses have challenged processes within their practice, which have fostered feelings of despair, being undervalued, overloaded, overworked, and deceived. 2,3 Through newfound relationships developed when on strike and through proposals offered at the table, the nurses are communicating their vision for the future. Through strike planning, they are enabling others to act. These nurses are modeling participative decision making, access to leaders, and listening and support for each other.
