The CNO at our Ministry, Dawna Hendel, is a Leader for whom I have a great deal of respect. Dawna is a calm, unassuming leader with a great sense of humor. When I first met Dawna I was impressed by her vast nursing knowledge and calm demeanor, her ability to deal with challenges with acceptance, consistency, and persistence all while slowly making necessary changes. Dawna has exceptional communication skills; she is knowledgeable about our hospital system, the nursing profession, and patient care. What makes her a DAISY Nurse from my perspective, she is a great leader. The leaders must have exceptional communication skills, be consistent, assertive and knowledgeable speakers about their role. According to Tropello & DeFazio (2014), the main belief of servant leadership will direct a nursing leader to consider all components of nursing service to the patients and other stakeholders and is built on relationships of respect and compassion. Her style of being a servant leader first was a cornerstone of her success at our facility. By caring for each hire, and caregiver she created a building block for a good nursing foundation at our facility. Dawna is good at developing a team, affirming values and motivating the team to achieve the goal.
In my opinion, Dawna is, in fact, a transformational leader; by the way she communicates her value and beliefs so that as a nursing division we can achieve the common goal. Her competitiveness is healthy as she motivates her team to achieve better scores, better outcomes for the patients. As a leader, she displays the love of learning, being a lifelong learner.
Dawna is an amazing, compassionate leader. She is honest and trustworthy, without that a leader cannot lead. Consistency and fairness are something that all staff is expecting. I have found that leaders influence the staff by their leadership style; employees will only know how to perform well if leaders are able to lead effectively.