Clinical Leadership in Nursing

Running head: CLINICAL LEADERSHIP IN NURSING
Clinical Leadership in Nursing
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

CLINICAL LEADERSHIP IN NURSING
Introduction
I work as a registered nurse in the night shift of a nursing home since 2006. I work in
the geriatric unit with 25 old frail patients. The following report aims to highlight one conflict
scenario that I have came across during my duty in my practice settings. This will be
followed by the measures that I have employed in order to resolve the situation. The report
will also highlight the leadership employed by me for the proper management of the satiation
and subsequent resolving of the conflict. At the report I will discuss the how my leadership
style helped to improve the overall health-related outcome of the patients. At the end
recommendations will be given in order to state the chances that are required to be
implemented under the healthcare settings so that similar instances can be avoided in the
future. The overall paper will focus on how proper leadership style helps to overcome the
conflict situation and thereby helping to improve the health-related outcome of the patients.
Overview of the geriatric ward
Within the geriatric clinical settings, new graduate nurses are exposed to numerous
formal protocol, norms, expectations rules and regulations. In this scenario of array and
despair, the support given to these novice nurses by the organisation or the senior nurses is
insufficient. The initial years of these graduates is thus regarded as the main years of hurdles
or obstacles as it results in the generation of many conflicts within the workplace settings.
The pressure to follow the prevailing workplace norms is outlines by strict routines of the
wards which the novice nurses may regard ineffective but then they are compelled to follow
those rules by their senior nurses. This results in the generation of conflict with the senior
nurses. Patients especially the patients in the geriatric wards who are unable to accomplish
their daily living activities have high expectations regarding how they want to be handled
with and taken care off. This increase the pressure over the novice nurses along with

CLINICAL LEADERSHIP IN NURSING
congruency in perceptions pertinent to patient-care issues and results in the generation of
conflict with both the patients and their family members. The generation of conflict hampers
the overall process of care.
Events resulting in the generation of the conflict
Under my practice settings, from my 23 years of experience, I have seen that, there is
a increasing tendency of generation of the conflict with the night shift nurses and the day shift
nurses. The night shift nurses are of the opinion that the day shift nurses work in a
disorganised manner, leaving the workplace in a confusing and in a chaotic state. In contrary,
the daytime nurses remains upset as they thinks that their duties are more demanding than
those working in the night shift. These differences in understanding of the job role or
prioritising duties act as the main basement for the generation of conflict. Three days before,
a new RN nurses joined as night RN under by workplace settings (geriatric care) for giving
care to the frail patients. On day 2 of her duty, I have seen that the new RN nurse has
indulged in a conflict with a senior nurse in the middle of the night. The main issue was
difference in the opinion in the prioritising tasks. The new RN nurse was consoling one
geriatric frail patient he was suffering from extreme emotional breakdown like he was
missing his wife. On the other hand, the senior nurse complained that, “this new RN who have
attained training under the morning shift nurses have no idea how to work in an organised
manner”.. She also reported that, “ Patient X was about to fall from his bed and I was unable
to held him straight , but the new RN nurse preferred consoling the patient Y who was
suffering from emotional breakdown”.. “It was such an act of irresponsibility, I any how
managed but it might have lead to the generation of accidental fall”. The new RN nurses
complained that, “the patient Y was crying profusely, he was missing his wife and was telling
that he want to die and do not want to live. If I felt extremely bad for him and thus went on

CLINICAL LEADERSHIP IN NURSING
consoling him”. The new RN was crying telling, “ I don’t know what to do, my seniors
criticise me, I feel stressed and depressed working here”.
My position in the work
I work as the nurse leader in the geriatric ward that gives care to 25 old frail patients.
My duty is to supervise the work done by my subordinate nurses while taking detail
consideration of the mental and physical health-related quality of life of the patients. As a
nurse leader, I also belief that, it is important to look after the mental health and well-being of
the nursing professionals. Tajvar et al. (2015) are of the opinion that nurse have reported of
experiencing occupational stress under the workplace settings. Stress, under stressful
workplace events hamper the nursing behaviour in the hospital wards. Taking care of the
mental health status of the nurses through effective leadership approaches and through
comprehensive healthcare program helps to reduce the occupational stress and increases the
overall mental health status. A nurse who is free from occupational stress is more likely to
perform better under complex healthcare settings.
Measures applied to seek immediate solutions
I saw that the newly appointed RN was crying profusely and was telling to call-off the
duty while the senior nurses were refusing to corporate with the new RN. I found that the
current situation is extremely detrimental for the healthcare of the patients. I found that the
patients are looking paranoid having witnessed this conflict. Dzierzewski, Rodriguez Tapia
and Alessi (2017) stated that sound sleep at night for the old frail patients is extremely
important in order to improve their overall health status. Paranoia or mental health distress
hampers the quality of sleep at night and thus hampering overall health status. So in order to
manage the situation immediately, I call in the defaulter new RN nurses and the complaining
senior nurses in the conference room. This helped me to reduce the gossips or the negativity