It is important that we differentiate between leadership and management right at the outset, and this differentiation can be seen in this statement. However, initially, we will consider both individually and as different facets of what you as a student nurse are required to learn to achieve your competencies to practise as a registered nurse. The concept of team working is explicit throughout this chapter. Recent years have seen the issue of nursing leadership become an important issue for the future of nursing generally, and, most importantly, specifically in relation to the major changes in health and social care, and subsequently in direct nursing care. Patients now require more intensive interventions; bedside technology continues to thrive and, with a more rapid discharge system and quicker throughput of patients in hospitals, many organizations are in search of a workforce who can manage their workload effectively, whilst providing leadership to others. Employers are looking for qualified nurses who can provide supervision, management, development, administration, and coordination of services to patients and employees (Mahoney 2001: 269). In his letter to the Prime Minister summarizing the interim report of the National Health Service (NHS) Next Stage Review (Department of Health 2007: 3), Lord Darzi set out his aim to convince and inspire everyone working in the NHS to embrace and lead change. Every time you go on duty with an aim to care for patients, whatever their number, you require some degree of skill and potential to lead others to help you to collaborate with your colleagues. The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) Standards for Pre-Registration Nursing Education (NMC 2010) now make it explicit how student nurses are expected to achieve competencies in these areas and state in the Standards: Each field of practice also has its own field-specific competencies related to this domain—that is, competencies that are specific to the main service users that are the focus of the respective field of care.
