My virtual conference, the Art of Nursing, that will be put on during National Nurse’s Week is a collaborative and inspirational space for all of the nurse professionals who participate. But guess what? The program provides value, education and resources to more than simply the individual nurses who join the event.

Selfishly, I get to learn from the Art of Nursing 2.0 content as well. And this past March, that’s just what I did.

Since all of the videos for this virtual conference are pre-recorded and because the evening co-hosts who will join me live on the conference calls each evening during Nurse’s Week, we have to do the video interviews well ahead of the start date of May 5th. I have been interviewing all of the speakers this past March, with my last interviews wrapping up just this Monday.

Now I know you want me to get to the ‘good stuff’, the reason you’re reading this post (the one way to get your nursing team to effectively work together as a cohesive and collaborative unit), but I am just sharing with you upfront where I’ve gotten my information from. The content in this blog post comes from listening to 12 nurse professionals who are keynote speakers, nursing theorists, nurse entrepreneurs, nurse authors and so much more.

While the inspiration comes from these 12, the actual ‘problem’ statement of this post comes from my real-life experience sitting on multi-level nursing committees. As a clinical nurse, I obviously sat on unit-based groups. As I advanced up the clinical ladder, this included departmental committees and even chairing two of my own. Now, with a part-time role in nursing administration, I am able to observe conversations at a wide variety of professional nurse levels (including leadership).

Part of my work with the Art of Nursing 2.0 this year involved reaching out to, speaking with and listening to Chief Nurse Officers, Directors of Nursing and other leadership type positions. I heard key themes with nurses from across the country, struggling with similar challenges. One item that came up on more than one occasion, was the issue of having the nurse step into the leadership role on the unit and be a true role-model and leader for the nursing team.

So how can we do this effectively? When we know from the literature, our own in-house numbers, and the conversations we have with each other and experts we seek assistance from:

• Nursing is hard work. Clinical nurses are forced to work short-staffed, stay overtime, and take on sicker patients.
• Healthcare is changing. The face of healthcare- the very age of the population, the demographics and culture of the patient, the people we take care of is very different now than it was many years ago.
• Teamwork can be hard and stepping into a leadership role can be risky. People don’t want to rock the boat, feel rejection or have other teammates talk badly about them.
• Negative energy spreads faster, quicker and is much more perverse than the positive opposite. Like a virus, having a few negative teammates can affect the entire team.

What can we do to empower our nurses to step into leadership roles and effectively lead the team?

Now while the answer may surprise you, it’s actually quite powerful. And it comes from both my own self-work in mindset shifts, self-worth and empowerment AND from an actual conversation being had in my own coaching group.

I posted in my coaching group (where I am receiving coaching) about what I heard on the last coaching call we had. I had to listen to the replay as I had to work during the live call, so after the fact I was able to finally tune in and share my feedback. Well, I had no idea but the post I wrote in the coaching group spurred another coachee to thank me, saying she was feeling the exact same way.

However, in her response post, she went onto add how she was feeling (anxious, scared, nervous about the future and worried over her work). I actually had to go back in and clarify that, while I posted some challenging questions, I was actually sharing that I see a ‘shift’ in me. I am not frustrated with my work (used to be). I am not worried about money (gosh, used to be ALL the time). I am feeling good and learning from my experiences; I feel confident and clear and am stepping into some serious leader-type roles with my work.

Now here’s the one tip. Ready for the secret to getting your nursing teams to be successful?

Ask different questions.

That’s it. Ask different questions. The very nature of being a human being is that our mind has to answer a question. It cannot stand to have a question hanging out there in space. So if we are asking: ‘What’s wrong with my group? How come my team can’t work together? Why does the team struggle and fail?’ -we will get those very answers.

If we shift the way we ask our questions, we will be granted access to different answers. We can try these out to start:

• Who is a leader in my group that I can tap into?
• What does my nursing team enjoy?
• Where has my team of nurses been a success before?
• What is working within this group?

Focus on what is working rather than what isn’t and you will receive more of the good stuff. Don’t trust me? Just try it. Then come on back and report to the blog, sharing with us how it went.

I’d love to hear from you. Have you ever tried shifting your line of questions? What was your result like? Leave a comment below and thanks for reading. Oh, and if you’re interested in bring the Art of Nursing 2.0 to your nursing team, please click here for more information on how to make that happen.