April 13, 2010

National nursing leader encourages RVH staff to be leaders in their field

The nursing staff of Renfrew Victoria Hospital were inspired by national nursing leader Ginette Lemire Rodger, second from right, who spoke to them last week. The RVH participants included, from left, Joyce Mulvihill, Rhonda Normandeau, Monica Lapierre, Chris Ferguson, Jayde Oliver, Melanie Rivet and Jennifer Keller.

Renfrew Victoria Hospital nurses heard a message of inspiration when they hosted a national leader in their field last week.

Dr. Ginette Lemire Rodger spoke with great passion about inspiring fellow nurses and adopting strong leadership qualities when she addressed the RVH nursing staff on the morning of April 9.

Internationally recognized for her achievements in the field, Lemire Rodger has experience in management, education, research and clinical nursing. In 2004 she received Canada’s highest nursing honour, the Jeanne Mance Award, and she was selected as an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2008.

RVH’s vice-president of patient care services, Chris Ferguson, introduced Lemire Rodger by pointing out what an honour it was to have her in Renfrew to encourage and empower nurses in their day-to-day work.

“What’s so great about her is that she’s never lost sight of what it’s like to be at the front lines,” Ferguson commented after listing the speaker’s many accomplishments.

Now senior vice-president of professional practice and chief nursing executive at The Ottawa Hospital and the University of Ottawa Heart Institute and past president of the Canadian Nurses Association, Lemire Rodger knows all too well the challenges health care staff face on a daily basis.

Her talk explored how leadership has been defined over the years and the process of influencing the activities of an organized group toward a goal.

“I don’t know of a nurse anywhere who is not in a position to influence others,” she stated. “What you want to do is bring to the table your influences with your nursing values.”

In what Lemire Rodger describes as a new era, leadership has become multi-faceted rather than linear.

“We are the last generation of the industrial age, where the nurse’s role was mainly functional. Now we’re into the information age and we’ve taken on a more philosophical role,” she says.

Even the nursing environments have changed from the traditional hospital setting to a range of professionals dedicated to research, or working on oil rigs and even at the Olympics.

Lemire Rodger argues that on any of those front lines, all it takes is a few enthusiastic leaders in a unit to rise to the occasion and bring about positive change.

Nurses are natural problem-solvers, she says, adding that confidence in their abilities allows the visionaries to emerge.

The cornerstone to all of this, she says, is knowledge and nurses are regularly participating in continuing education courses and expanding their skills.

“The access to knowledge these days is something phenomenal,” says Lemire Rodger, referring to the quality of research and facts available at the click of a mouse.

Successful leaders also need to stand up, be vocal and visible, she concluded.

At the same time, nurse managers and educators need to be supporters of the decisions and suggestions made by the clinical nurses in the unit and recognize them for their efforts.

Lemire Rodger encouraged the nurses of RVH to adopt leadership roles in their own practice.

“All you have to ask yourself is what do you want to achieve,” she said. “The next step is to form a committee or council, and all you need to start anything is three people.”

“From there it’s a matter of working in small, manageable steps toward that final goal.”

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