You are a clinical expert on your unit. You lead the care for your assigned patients collaborating with family members and the healthcare team.
Now you’ve been asked to be a charge nurse. As a new frontline nurse leader you will expand your leadership skills, focusing on keeping the entire unit (or clinic) running smoothly during your shift. You will be leading others on your unit as well as interacting with colleagues across the organization. So, let’s explore the leadership skills you will need to succeed in your new role.
Communication
Communication is an essential skill for nurse leaders. You’ve already developed a foundation for communicating effectively with your patients and their families. As a nurse leader, you will take this to the next level. Communicating effectively includes fostering relationships and influencing others as well as managing conflicts and disagreements both on and off your unit. Communication that is clear, transparent and truthful will help you gain cooperation to accomplish the goal of providing safe, quality care.
Knowledge
Knowledge of the work environment is a key competency for nurse leaders. You are already an expert on how your work center functions. As a nurse leader you will broaden this expertise. Gaining deeper knowledge of policies, nursing practice, and nursing regulations will help ensure safe patient care delivery throughout your workday. Understanding your unit’s performance on quality and safety measures will increase your knowledge of how your work environment supports the organization’s goals and objectives. You will be able to share this knowledge with your colleagues so they can see how the unit is interconnected with the entire organization.
Delegation
Delegation is “the process for a nurse to direct another person to perform nursing tasks and activities”. As a clinical nurse you delegate to UAPs daily. As a nurse leader you will delegate to nursing colleagues as well as UAPs. Delegating appropriately requires good communication and decision-making skills as well as knowledge of the competencies of the staff on your team. Delegating as a nurse leader may feel uncomfortable at first, but it is a critical skill for “empowering employees, decreasing burnout…and improving job satisfaction”.
Managing Change
Change is often challenging, both personally and professionally. As a frontline nurse leader your role in managing change will include being “open to change and new information”. You will support your team through change by explaining the reasons for the change and listening to their concerns. You will also help your team implement changes, walking beside them as they learn new skills and put those skills into practice. Understanding responses to change and actions you can take as a leader will help you support staff through the change process.
Decision making
Decision making is not new to you as a clinical nurse expert. You are well-versed in the nursing process, a decision-making tool. Decision making is a major component of your work as a nurse leader and builds on the nursing process skills you have learned in clinical practice. Now you will make decisions that impact the unit as well as the organization. Decision making will still include patient care issues, but now it will involve all the patients in your work center as well as the staff. Learning and practicing alternate decision-making models, in addition to the nursing process, will support your development as a nurse leader.
Building trust
Nursing is the most trusted profession. As a clinical nurse you’ve mastered the skill of building trust with your patients, their families and other members of the healthcare team to achieve the best outcomes. As a nurse leader you need the staff to feel comfortable coming to you and that requires trust. Trust is won through clear and truthful communication and building relationships. Get to know each staff member’s strengths and optimize those strengths. Facilitate open communication by truthfully addressing staff concerns and answering their questions.
Role model
The American Organization for Nurse Leaders (AONL) identifies role modeling as accountability to the profession of nursing. As a nurse leader you will be a role model for standards of both nursing professional practice and leadership professional practice. Recognizing and inspiring professional growth are types of role modeling. As a frontline nurse leader you observe, actively listen, and interact with staff daily; therefore, you are well positioned to highlight their expertise and accomplishments. Recognition takes many forms including saying, ‘thank you’, asking a staff member to share their expertise during huddle, recommending a nurse to be a preceptor, submitting a nurse for a Daisy Award, and so many more. As a frontline leader you are also well-positioned to be a role model for service recovery and managing conflicts.
Evidence-based Practice
The American Association of Critical Care Nurses (AACN) states that “the best available evidence should guide all healthcare decisions”. As a nurse leader you will ensure that patient care is provided based on evidence. You will accomplish this through observation, chart audits, examination of quality outcomes data, and role modeling best practice. Evidence must also guide your practice as a nurse leader. There is best-practice evidence in communication, conflict management, critical thinking, decision-making and interprofessional practice to name a few.
Financial Management
AONL identifies financial management as a core business competency for nurse leaders. As a frontline nurse leader you will help support the financial health of the organization. The outcomes of nursing care and nursing care decisions impact hospital finances; patient satisfaction is one example. Patients that are not satisfied with the nursing care they receive may not return which risks revenue loss for the hospital. As a nurse leader you will need to be aware of your unit’s performance on organizational quality measures and lead your team in areas that require improvement.
Accountability
Professional accountability is a critical leadership skill. As a nurse leader you are accountable for high quality patient outcomes in your work center. All the skills described in this article will support you in maintaining professional accountability for both you and your staff. Professional accountability includes role modeling continuous learning and career advancement, which is something you may not immediately think about as you transition to a nurse leader role.
What’s Next?
It is well-established that nurses often do not have the formal leadership preparation to take on the role of frontline nurse leader, or charge nurse. Your organization may provide charge nurse professional development. If not, NCharge®: Nurses Learning to Lead is a series of leadership courses designed to specifically develop the skills frontline nurse leaders need to shift from a tactical to a strategic mindset. Nursing leaders around the country and the world acknowledge the remarkable transformation in their charge nurses’ leadership skills after completing the NCharge® courses, citing self-assurance, proactive problem-solving and strategic decision-making.
Written by Joyce Borgfield, DNP, RN
References:
American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (March 12, 2025). AACN Position Statement: Science Must Drive Clinical Practice and Public Health Policy. AACN Position Statement: Science Must Drive Clinical Practice and Public Health Policy – AACN
ANA Nursing Resources Hub (September 7, 2023). Delegation in Nursing: How to build a stronger team . Delegation in Nursing: Building a Stronger Team | ANA
Barrow, JM, Sharma S. (2023). Five rights of nursing delegation. StatPearls. Five Rights of Nursing Delegation – StatPearls – NCBI Bookshelf
Everynurse. (May 14, 2023). Leading by example: Role modeling as a charge nurse . Leading by Example: Role Modeling as a Charge Nurse
Hughes, R., Meadows, M.T., & Begley, R. (2022). AONL Nurse Leader Competencies: Core competencies for nurse leadership. Nurse Leader, 20(5), 437-443. AONL Nurse Leader Competencies: Core Competencies for Nurse Leadership – Nurse Leader