I decided to interview Melissa Young who is an LPN at Atria Draper Place in Hopedale, MA. I have the pleasure of her as my supervisor as I also work at Atria Draper Place as a CNA. Especially over the course of the pandemic, I watched Melissa develop leadership skills that even my director of nursing didn’t demonstrate. I learned that a good leader shows respect to the people she oversees, this way she receives respect in return. Melissa always made sure that her CNA’s had the supplies and resources we needed to provide the best care to our clients. Whenever I had a concern about a client or their medications, I had no hesitation to call Melissa and either ask her recommendation, or have her come assess the situation, even if she was at home because I knew she wouldn’t mind. She continuously verbalized her gratitude for everything we did as CNA’s even though she was in over her head with paperwork and other tasks. Melissa established a trusting relationship between herself and her CNA’s where we were not afraid to inform her of a mistake we made as she would help us to figure out a solution. She displays a positive attitude toward us and the clients and creates a very positive work environment that I am so grateful to have found.

            As a seasoned wellness nurse of Atria Draper Place, Melissa has a formal leadership job as she oversees the certified Nursing assistants that work with the patients. If there are tasks such as dressing changes, changes in patient status or level of consciousness that the CNA’s are not allowed to assess as it is out of their scope of practice, Melissa is there to not only supervise the CNA’s work but to also complete these types of skills. Informal leadership positions are those that are not directly named a supervisor and do not oversee, but display leadership qualities that people respect. I am excited to interview Melissa as I feel that I have only been able to observe her leadership qualities. I am eager to hear her answers to my questions and really understand how she is able to display these characteristics, earn peoples respect and have such a positive attitude while still being under mass amounts of stress from her job at hand.