A Contemporary Nursing Leader: Dorothea Lynde Dix Paper Example

Dorothea Lynde Dix was born on fourth, April of the year 1802 at a place called Maine. Her father was known as Joseph Dix and her mother, Bigelow Dix. Dorothea's father was known as an unsuccessful farmer who was struggling to fend for his family. Her mother Bigelow was always suffering from both physical and mental illnesses (C. & Tiffany, 1902). Because of that, it was very difficult for her to take care of Dorothea together with her two younger brothers. Due to Dorothea's background of instability, she had to mature fast and help her family in doing various chores. Again, because Dorothea's mother was always sick, she had to start taking care of her younger brothers as her family was trying to provide for them. At the age of twelve, she went to live with her wealthy grandmother at Worcester, Massachusetts (Shampo & Kyle, 1986). When she reached the age of fourteen, she started a private school for children who are at the age of four to seven. The school was for poor and neglected children. Being that Dorothy cared so much about children, she took it upon herself to see to it that the poor and the neglected children received a basic education. Dorothy taught the children how to read and write before joining the public school. Dorothy developed and came to love her job very much as she taught in many places for many years. When she reached twenty-two years, Dorothy, as she was known previously, changed her name to Dorothea (C. & Tiffany, 1902). Being that she loved her job, she worked very hard and could spare little time for rest. Because of this, Dorothea became sick at the age of thirty-four and had to stop teaching to seek for treatment. It was suggested that Dorothy was suffering from depressives episodes.

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When she recovered, Dorothea still had the passion of teaching but could not continue since she did not have enough energy as before. Therefore, she was only left with the option of writing devotional books and stories for the children. While still sick, Dorothy traveled to different places to get the best treatment. It was during her trip to Europe when she met her opportunity to teach on Sundays. In the year 1841, Dorothea had the opportunity to teach but only on Sundays. The opportunity seemed very okay to Dorothea. Therefore, she embraced the idea wholeheartedly. In her later life, Dorothea Dix played a big role in nursing as a leader (Dix, 2006). Dorothea advocated for the mentally ill since she believed that everybody deserved a good treatment, whether living with a mental disability or not. Dorothea struggled and fought hard for people with various mental illnesses to the extent that she contributed to the changing of legislation on health and helped them in various hospitals during the civil war. One of the evidence that shows her Leadership was when she became a transformer and started to advocate for people living with mental disabilities through visiting different public mental institutions such as jails, hospitals, and almshouses (C. & Tiffany, 1902). As she was visiting the institutions, Dorothea was taking reports, which she later gave to the legislature of Massachusetts. Her leadership is also seen when she channeled all her energy in a ten-week tour all over the sixty counties trying to visit and to examine the mental institutions in New York. Later she delivered her reports to the New York legislature seeking for the support for the people living with mental illnesses.

Leadership Analysis

Leadership defines the ability of an individual or group of people to be able to influence and guide their followers (Alqatawenah, 2018). Leadership is not an easy task since it involves making difficult decisions, having a clear vision, establishing achievable goals and offering the followers or the members of an organization with the knowledge and any necessary tools that they require in order to achieve the set goals. The leadership styles that people adopt are characterized by the traits and the actions of the leaders. Not all people are born leaders, in fact, only a few people can carry the mantle e of being a leader (Mahajan, 2011). For someone to qualify to be a leader, various qualities must be seen in him or her. A good leader is one who can coordinate and be able to balance the conflicting interests of the members of the group. Dorothea qualified as a transformational leader since she had the sound mind and had clear visions of the things she wanted to achieve (Shampo & Kyle, 1986). She yearned for change and fought for it relentlessly. Dorothea was a leader who wanted to achieve equal rights for patients in the health sector, especially the patients living with mental disabilities.

The leadership of Dorothea was felt in many places, as she did not only focus in one place but traveled to different locations trying to seek support for people living with mental disabilities. A good example is seen in New York where she set up a teen's week campaign across the sixty counties of New York and later submitted her report to the legislature of the New York seeking for support for the people living with mental disabilities (Dix, 2006). Dorothea Dix is one of the leaders who showed passion in what they did. Being that she never came from a wealthy family and for the fact that her mother also suffered from mental illness, Dorothea felt the pain that other people were feeling. Therefore, she took it upon herself to help those who were suffering from the mental illnesses. Dorothea's leadership is also seen in how she had the respect for the public and in the reforms of all the prisons and mental asylums. This clearly showed how she did great things in order to gain the respect of the public. According to Dorothea's quote in one of her books, both the prisoners and the ill deserve hopes. She said that "While we diminish the stimulant of fear, we must increase to the prisoners the incitements of hope, in proportion as we extinguish the terrors of the law, we should awaken and strengthen the control of the conscience" (Dix, 2006). Finally, Dorothea leadership is seen when she stood up and fought for what she wanted.

Dorothea demanded that the officials that were concerned should take action towards the reforms in favor of the mentally ill. She also fought so hard for women to be able to nurse soldiers and later achieved success in fighting for the involvement of women nurses. Leadership traits must be evident in any person for him or her to qualify for being called a leader. Some of the leadership traits include strong communication, management skills, perseverance when there is a failure, self-confidence, openness to change, creative and innovative thinking, willingness to take risks, levelheadedness, and reactiveness during the time of crisis (Alqatawenah, 2018). Dorothea had some of these leadership traits in her. Dorothea was courageous enough to command the official in charge to consider the reforms in favor of the people living with mental illnesses. Again, she was self-confident enough to believe that what she was doing was the right thing.

Personal Reflection

As an aspiring leader, I have learned a lot from the leadership qualities of Dorothea and will implement them in ensuring that I make the lives of my subjects better than I find them. First, I have learned from Dorothea that one does not have to be in a position of power to become a leader; one can become a leader by championing for the rights of people and helping others in any capacity possible. Dorothea became a leader by simply offering to teach children from poor families and later decided to fight for the rights of the neglected, including people living with disabilities. She did this by setting up a learning institution at the age of fourteen and proposed changes in legislation leading to fair treatment of people living with mental disabilities. One does not have to be rich and have enormous resources to take up the mantle of becoming a transformative leader (Mahajan, 2011). Being rich with ideas and being confident in what one wants is enough to make one a transformative leader. One cannot become a transformative leader if he or she has nothing to fight for or does not intend to change the conditions at a place or the lives of a people. I am convinced that Dorothea became an inspirational leader simply because she wanted the lives of the less fortunate and the neglected to improve. She was never fighting for her wellbeing but for the wellbeing of others.

Secondly, I have learned from Dorothea's leadership skills that one needs to have a motive to be a leader and work as hard as possible to achieve the motive. In her case, she was determined to see to it that the people got the same opportunities regardless of whether they are from poor families or are living with mental illnesses. When a leader has an agenda and focuses on what he or she intends to achieve, it becomes easy to focus energy. Dorothea was consistent in her fight for the people living with mental illnesses and the women nurses who were not given a chance to tend to soldiers during the war. Her main drive was transforming the lives of the poor and the neglected; she never deviated from that focus making her a consistent leader in championing for what she wanted.

Conclusion

Consistency in the motives of a leader makes him, or she avoids conflicting his or her interests. I have learned from the leadership of Dorothea that when one is in a position of leadership, giving up is not a way to achieve success. Regardless of the situation, a leader must remain focused and consistent in what he or she is championing for. For instance, Dorothea was an individual, but she organized campaigns and went to prisons and other mental institutions making reports on the changes that needed to be made.

References

Alqatawenah, A. (2018). Transformational leadership style and its relationship with change management. Business: Theory And Practice, 19, 17-24. doi: 10.3846/btp.2018.03

C., M., & Tiffany, F. (1902). Life of Dorothea Lynde Dix. The American Journal Of Nursing, 2(8), 608. doi: 10.2307/3401592

Dix, D. (2006). "I Tell What I Have Seen"-The Reports of Asylum Reformer Dorothea Dix. American Journal Of Public Health, 96(4), 622-624. doi: 10.2105/ajph.96.4.622

Mahajan, S. (2011). Study on Leadership Styles and Theories. Indian Journal Of Applied Research, 4(3), 281-282. doi: 10.15373/2249555x/mar2014/86

Shampo, M., & Kyle, R. (1986). Dorothea Lynde Dix: Ardent Reformer. Mayo Clinic Proceedings, 61(12), 950. doi: 10.1016/s0025-6196(12)62634-2