8 Technical Skills in Nursing Leadership

The field of nursing is constantly changing and innovating. As health care experts conduct new research, improve technologies, and put new care protocols in place, the knowledge and skills required of nursing leadership change as well. Becoming an effective and successful leader in health care involves a continuous commitment to education, training, and developing the technical skills in nursing required to provide patients with the best possible care.

As a career that presents new challenges every day, nursing leadership can be fulfilling for experienced graduates. With the knowledge and technical nursing skills gained by earning a higher education degree, such as a Master of Science in Nursing , graduates can shape a rewarding future for themselves in health care.

What Are Leadership Roles in Nursing?

Nurses play a fundamental part in our health care system. In both large and small facilities, public and private, skilled nurses are required to provide quality care to patients. These roles can be clinical, patient-facing roles, or in management. In many cases, leadership roles in nursing tend to focus on executive or administrative duties, steering the direction of a health care facility or organization.

Achieving a leadership position in a health care organization is a significant achievement for nursing graduates. Roles such as chief nursing officer (CNO), certified nurse educator, director of nursing, or clinical nursing leader all require several years of experience, technical nursing skills, and an advanced degree like a master of science in nursing (MSN).

While clinical nursing leaders continue to provide bedside care, administrative or executive leadership roles in nursing typically involve duties such as budgeting, staffing, coordinating with other executives or managers, steering a program’s nursing systems and protocols, and acting as the face of a health care organization. Depending on the role, different technical nursing skills are required to achieve success.

Why Pursue Nursing Leadership?

Many individuals in health care consider it a calling as much as a career and work passionately to improve patient care. While entry- and mid-level clinical positions such as registered nurse (RN) allow individuals to work hands-on with patients, many nurses work toward leadership roles in the interest of having a positive effect on a wider range of patients.

In leadership roles, nurses can influence the quality of care delivered to patients within an entire organization or even care trends throughout health care as a whole. Through an advanced education like an MSN, nursing leaders can participate in the research that fuels nursing innovation, work toward executive roles that help to shape future care protocols and take on complex cases that require advanced technical nursing skills.

Additionally, many nurses work toward leadership roles as they typically offer higher salaries, can provide more job security, and may offer increased flexibility.

Technical Skills in Nursing Leadership

Technical skills in nursing can range from practical clinical skills to the soft skills required to interact with patients and to take on leadership roles. By definition, technical skills are specific abilities and knowledge required to complete particular tasks. Depending on the role, these skills can vary broadly. From entry- and senior-level clinical roles to executive or research positions, candidates need to be able to handle a broad spectrum of different responsibilities to succeed.

1. Communication

Across nursing roles, strong communication skills are vital to success. In clinical positions, communication skills such as active listening, empathy, and compassion are incredibly beneficial when interacting with patients and other medical professionals. For most patients, interacting with nurses coincides with challenging health scares, and nurses’ ability to be supportive and clearly explain medical situations can make all the difference in providing quality care.

A key soft technical skill in nursing leadership, communication is crucial to those in executive roles who may find themselves interacting with a multitude of people on a daily basis. Communicating effectively with a wide range of parties can be crucial to achieving progress. Being a strong communicator can also alleviate much of the pressure in nursing leadership roles.

2. Budgeting

For many patients and facilities, quality health care can be very costly. According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), in 2022 annual health care expenditure in the United States rose to $4.5 trillion, or $13,493 per person. Minimizing costs can be absolutely crucial to a hospital’s success. A nursing leader’s ability to manage budgets and keep track of their facility’s spending can not only impact the organization’s future but also influence the level of care that nurses and medical staff are able to provide.

In terms of technical nursing skills for administrators and leadership, the ability to balance a budget is profoundly important. A health care facility’s budget needs to cover important elements such as:

• Medical resources and supplies
• Emergency funds
• Hiring, training, and paying staff
• Purchasing and repairing medical equipment
• Marketing and advertising budgets
• Insurance for the facility and its staff
• Facility maintenance and upkeep
• Administrative costs

Between monitoring a facility’s current operational requirements and forecasting its future needs, nursing leaders put strategies in place to ensure medical staff have the resources they need to provide quality care. Often coordinating with other executives to balance the needs of board members, patients, and the community, budget management can be a complicated and nuanced process.

3. Staffing, Scheduling, and Training

Operating a health care facility is a collaborative effort. A successful organization relies on the knowledge and skills of its staff and their ability to handle adversity and properly care for patients. Learning how to hire, train, and manage staff is a technical skill in nursing leadership that can be very advantageous.

When nurses in leadership roles should trust their staff without having to micromanage day-to-day operations, they can free up time for other responsibilities. Being able to identify the right candidates, however, takes time and experience. Nurse leaders need to draw from a thorough understanding of what nursing entails and be extremely observant during the interview process.

Across both clinical and leadership roles, hiring the right people and enough staff is incredibly important. Without a sufficient number of employees, hospitals risk their staff reaching burnout or not being able to properly treat patients. When medical professionals lack training or are spread too thin, patients can suffer. In many facilities, staffing budgets are stretched to the limit, making a leader’s ability to choose the right people a valuable skill.

4. Patient Assessment and Treatment

Advanced clinical roles require nuanced technical skills. Nurses who have completed a terminal degree and specialized in their field will assess a variety of patients and treat a wide range of medical issues. The more advanced and challenging a patient’s case is, the more training may be required to treat it. Such specialized training includes the ability to take into account factors like age, gender, type of disease such as in oncology, or area of the body.

Whatever their specialization, nurses need to learn how to effectively assess and treat all kinds of patients. Senior roles such as clinical nurse leader often emphasize assessment and diagnosis, delegating patients’ treatment plans to other members of their medical team.

Depending on state regulations, there may be limitations to the care procedures nurses are allowed to perform. Nursing autonomy relies on both an individual’s level of education and their state’s laws. With an advanced education, graduates can hone their technical nursing skills and gain increased independence and input over their patient care.

5. Patient, Family, and Community Education

Education is at the heart of health care. From informing patients about their conditions to communicating with their families or providing health care resources to the community, teaching others about care practices can have a profoundly positive effect on people’s lives.

Education goes far beyond earning a degree. It is the ability to clearly explain a diagnosis to a patient while emphasizing the importance of following a care plan. In other cases, it involves putting on seminars and providing resources to give people clear, actionable steps they can follow to improve or maintain their wellbeing.

A dedication to continuous learning for nurse leaders ensures that a facility is keeping up to date with innovation and the highest standard of evidence-based practice.

6. Nursing Research

In both clinical and leadership roles, knowing how to conduct research is a valuable technical skill. Whether they are performing the research themselves or keeping up to date with the latest research, an in-depth understanding of how studies are conducted can be very beneficial to nursing leaders.

Clinical nursing leaders often work at the forefront of health care innovation by taking on challenging cases and working with patients’ care teams. Staying informed on the latest research – and being able to conduct their own studies – can be very advantageous for nurses, giving them the ability to take on difficult cases and train other nurses.

Nursing research also informs the decisions that nurse executives make. It can dictate the types of care a facility invests in, whether that be expanding its critical and emergent care unit or focusing on specific diseases like diabetes. Research can also inform health care administrators about the technologies and programs that an organization should implement. By conducting their own research, nursing leaders can ensure that their organization is concentrating on the care services people need most.

7. Program Development

Nursing programs and resources can be put into effect for a multitude of purposes. Knowing how to develop programs can help nursing leaders shape the future of their organization and allow them to work toward projected goals. Program development takes information, like the latest nursing research, and compiles it in a way that can be easily absorbed by students. Depending on their audience, nurses may develop programs for a variety of reasons including:

• Teaching nurses how to perform advanced skills
• Introducing medical personnel to new technology
• Educating the public on health and wellness
• Implementing new or updated nursing protocols

Strong program development skills rely on a foundation of knowledge and experience. Degrees like an MSN help graduates build a theoretical base and develop their own learning skills to help create programs for others. Nurse leaders decide which strategies to implement or how they’d like to steer their organizations. Understanding how to program and deliver those protocols in an efficient and effective way can make all the difference in their success.

8. Technological Skills

From ensuring that electronic records are kept properly to using complex medical devices, technological proficiency is required in almost every role. Technical nursing skills such as computer proficiency can be life-saving, as they often limit human error in deciding drug dosages and keeping track of patients’ vitals, medical history, and allergies.

As new technology and medical devices are developed, the nurses who learn how to use them can make themselves indispensable, because of their ability to handle complicated cases. Additionally, technological proficiency can improve care efficiency, allowing nurses to treat more patients more quickly and effectively.

How to Become a Nursing Leader

The journey to becoming a nursing leader involves investing in both higher education and practical workplace experience. Depending on a graduate’s career goals, the pathway to becoming a nurse can look quite different. Some choose to enter the workforce quickly with a general set of advanced clinical skills, while others choose to specialize in a particular area of nursing.

Nursing Education and Training

Entering the field of nursing begins with education. The two main pathways that most students follow are:

• Associate Degree in Nursing (ADN): An ADN typically takes two years of full-time study to complete. This degree is typically pursued by those who want to enter the workforce as quickly as possible, but it leaves limited options for career advancement.

• Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN): A BSN program typically takes four years of full-time study to complete and provides students with a well-rounded introduction to both practical nursing skills and nursing theory. It is a prerequisite program for advanced nursing degrees and entry-level positions in some health care facilities. Students with degrees in non-nursing related fields can also opt to pursue an Accelerated BSN , which allows them to earn their BSN more quickly.

Nurses must also complete the National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX) exam to become licensed as registered nurses (RNs) and begin practicing. While some candidates may be able to work their way into a leadership role with a BSN and extensive practical experience, many organizations look to nurses with an advanced degree and additional technical nursing skills to take on senior level roles. These degrees include:

• Master of Science in Nursing (MSN): An MSN program is an advanced level nursing degree that delves into both skills and theory as well as nursing research. Typically requiring two years of full-time study to complete, an MSN is a great option for graduates looking to pursue management and administrative leadership roles.

• Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP): Often considered the terminal nursing degree, a DNP program normally ranges between two to four years to complete. DNP programs often emphasize advanced nursing skills and provide the most in-depth practical training available in a nursing degree program.

• Post-graduate specialization certifications: Different specializations require a variety of technical skills. Psychiatric-mental health, oncology, acute care, women’s health, or adult-gerontology post-graduate certificates — to name just a few — allow highly trained nurses to build specific skills.

The nurses who achieve leadership roles in nursing are highly trained and talented individuals. Depending on the area of nursing they would like to pursue or the type of facility they work in, the technical nursing skills required and educational pathway can vary. By earning an advanced degree like an MSN, graduates can take charge of their careers and set themselves up for success.

Nursing Salary and Career Outlook

The demand for nurses is high nationwide. Experts in organizations like the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) project that the country is facing a shortage of RNs as older generations retire and nurses change careers. For highly skilled nurses, like certified Advanced Practice Registered Nurses (APRN) or medical and health services managers, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) projects overall employment to increase by 40 percent and 29 percent between 2023 and 2033, respectively.

While the annual salary for different nursing roles changes and can depend on job location, workplace experience, and level of education, the BLS reports a median annual salary of $86,070 for registered nurses as of May 2023. Comparatively, for those in advanced-level nursing roles such as medical and health services managers or nurse midwives and practitioners, the BLS reported median annual salaries of $110,680 and $129,480 per year respectively.

Become a Skilled Leader in Nursing

Being a nurse leader is as much a career as it is a calling, and a leadership role in nursing can make a long lasting and positive difference in our care systems and the lives of patients. Often responsible for directing a program, executive and clinical nursing leaders draw on both theoretical knowledge and advanced technical nursing skills to help shape the future of health care.

By investing in higher education such as the online Master of Science in Nursing from the University of Tulsa and honing their competencies, advanced degree graduates can shape their careers toward their professional goals. A growth-minded program based around future-proof practices, the MSN from the University of Tulsa was designed to equip you with the practical skills you need to succeed. Explore how earning an MSN can help you build a fulfilling career in nursing.

Recommended Readings

10 MSN Specialties: How a Concentration Can Help You Focus Your Degree

Is an MSN Worth It? Reasons to Pursue This Advanced Degree

Nursing Manager: Salary and Job Description

Sources:

American Association of Colleges of Nursing, Nursing Shortage Fact Sheet

American Nurses Association, Leadership in Nursing: Qualities & Why It Matters

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, National Health Expenditure Data — Historical

Houston Chronicle, “Technical Nursing Skills”

Indeed, “10 Nursing Leadership Qualities and Behaviors”

Indeed, “What Are Technical Skills in Nursing? (With Tips To Improve)”

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Medical and Health Services Managers

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Nurse Anesthetists, Nurse Midwives, and Nurse Practitioners

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Registered Nurses