Importance of Clinical Leadership in Nursing: A Review of Literature

Running Head: NURSING ASSIGNMENT
Nursing Assignment
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NURSING ASSIGNMENT 2
Nursing Assignment
Introduction
Clinical leadership plays a leading role in making sure that the quality of care, as well as
fashioning a healthy, as well as secure clinical work surroundings. Poor patient care along with
the unfavorable events has been recorded in healthcare facilities globally, triggering healthcare
systems to promote clinical leadership (Casey, McNamara, Fealy & Geraghty, 2011). Clinical
leadership has become important by stressing the need to advance skills among nurses, as well as
improve clinical mentoring within the healthcare setting. Whilst programs to expand clinical
competencies, especially lifesaving abilities have been implemented actively in the United
States, less focus has been afforded to the proviso of clinical leadership (Curtis, de Vries &
Sheerin, 2011). Therefore, prompting programs through curriculum and education that will
promote clinical skill, nurses in the clinical setting will acquire the needed skills and solve the
current challenges facing the healthcare system, include inadequate clinical leadership. The
paper will examine primary four articles on clinical leadership theories and nursing.
Review of Literature
Warwick (2011) emphasizes the importance of leadership in nursing towards promoting
the clinical practice among nurses. The author claims that it is caring that makes the nursing
profession unique from others where it promotes positive outcomes for patients. It is apparent in
the article that clinical leadership is founded on transformative leadership that needs that clinical
leadership qualities are required in a broad array of clinical roles. Furthermore, the author claims
that there is need for comprehensive training programs to encourage clinical professionals,

NURSING ASSIGNMENT 3
specifically nurse to acquire leadership and management skills. This is founded on the fact that
professionals (nurses) in the frontline clinical practice are better suited to improve their clinical
experience. The authors observe that the current inefficiency that is seen among nurses in the
clinical setting is attributed to lack of proper training on leadership aspects that will enable these
nurses to offer quality in addition to safe care to the patients. This has created a growing
professional or management gap where the morale of the clinicians has diminished resulting in
unmet expectations and needs of the patients (Warwick, 2011). Therefore, it is apparent from the
article that clinicians, especially nurses should be better trained on leadership skills to ensure that
they are effective and deliver the need care to the patients. In addition, the author champion the
fact that clinicians that aspire to assume senior leadership roles in the clinical setting are vitally
significant and training programs on leadership should be developed to promote this endeavor
(Burns, 2009).
According to McNamara, Fealy & Casey (2011) tackle the importance of leadership in
the clinical setting towards promoting the outcome of care where nurses will meet the
expectations of the patients. The authors assert that nurses are frequently indistinct regarding the
accurate environment of the clinical leadership along with its effect on the process, as well as
outcomes of care where little is understood regarding the self-perceived leadership developments
requirements. The authors sampled Irish nurses through focus interviews that investigated the
clinical leadership among these nurses (Havig, Skogstad, Kjekshus & Romoren, 2011). The
authors argue that there is need to understand the development needs of the nurses towards
developing the necessary programs to promote leadership needs of the nurses to improve their
clinical experience. In addition, the authors established that the clinical development must stress