Leadership Development Programs for Early Career Nurses

Running head: HEALTHCARE LEADERSHIP 1
Leadership Development Programs for Early Career Nurses
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation

HEALTHCARE LEADERSHIP 2
Introduction
The success of health organizations exclusively relies on the type of leadership
executed by the leaders. Leadership type in any organization is subject to change due to the
transfer of leaders. Fresh graduates from colleges and universities and often given
opportunity to prove not only their knowledge of particular fields but also the leadership
skills and abilities that would boost the performance of the healthcare organizations (Frich,
Brewster, Cherlin & Bradley, 2015) However, because such junior nurses may not be well
conversant with the relevant leadership styles, they require the guidance of the senior leaders
in such institutions. The direction they acquire consequently help them to vigorously develop
their skills and become some of the best leaders whose skills significantly boost the
performance of organizations.
This study chooses to discuss the leadership development program for problem-
solving skills. In the study, some of the significant issues that would be discussed include the
concepts of leadership development for junior staff, a comparison of the past and current
leadership development plan and a description of the contents of an effective leadership
development plan aimed at improving problem-solving skills for the young employees in the
nursing sector.
Concepts of Leadership Development for Junior Staff
To understand the meaning of a leadership program, it is better first to know what
leadership means. Leadership refers to the ability of a person to either influence or direct a
group of people to perform some tasks which are either aimed at achieving particular goals or
making the group more cohesive towards an objective (Dwyer & Revell, 2016). Leadership
has various theories that can be used to explain it. However, the arguments may only apply to
different platforms. As for the case of developing junior staff or recruits in the healthcare

HEALTHCARE LEADERSHIP 3
sector, leadership should be majorly understood and practiced as a process accompanied by
directions, instructions, and practices. The recruits will be highly dependent on the senior
leaders to successfully execute the skills they developed during the educational sessions.
Some of the components of leadership involve the ability to train people to become
good leaders. However, when it comes to the question of leadership development, the term
‘develop’ becomes paramount and more applicable than to train (Chappell & Richards,
2015). Therefore, the recruits should be exposed to certain activities which help them to
either develop or improve their performance in terms of skills and abilities. Leadership for
this case, should not be based on theories but instead, involve a lot of relevant practical
activities which tend to have positive impacts on the performance of the junior staff.
Members of the junior team should, therefore, be exposed to the real problems and their
thoughts required on how to solve the issues (Chappell & Richards, 2015). If they are unable
to give opinions, they would be exposed to learning on how such matters should be
addressed.
The Past and the Current Leadership Development Programs for Early Career Nurses
Bringing forth a more comprehensive and successful leadership development plan
either comes from an idea or develops an already existing program. Leadership development
programs used in the past may have omitted some of the critical components which would
result in their less success compared to the current plans. One of the most noticeable
differences between the two programs is the active engagement of early career nurses (Sosik
& Jung, 2018). The past program relied mostly on the fact that nurses are well-trained in their
respective schools and so in the practical work, they would be given the chances to solve
severe problems to determine their performance. The provision is unlike the present program,

HEALTHCARE LEADERSHIP 4
which includes the junior staff in the problem solution committee so that they could be
exposed to more learning from their seniors.
A similarity which is evident in both of the development programs of leadership is the
presence of experienced instructors (Leung, 2015). The newly absorbed nurses always work
under some people who have had a good time in the field. When any problem arises, for the
case of the past program, the recruits will be allowed to solve the problem. However, if it
becomes difficult for them, the experienced instructors will be available to take charge, and
they will have an opportunity to learn. On the other hand, the present program requires the
recruits to be part of the problem-solving team so that they can see and master every step
followed. Another remarkable similarity is the measurement of results (Shamir & Eilam-
Shamir, 2018). Even though the criteria for measuring the results of the program might not be
similar, it is evident that the two programs measure their results to identify the extent of their
success.
Factors Associated With the Success of the Programs
Availability of experienced instructors: - People who have stayed in a particular field
for some good under tend to have a profound understanding of the area (Baron & Parent,
2015). Therefore, the presence of experienced instructors makes it easy for the recruits to
learn and fully understand the methods that can help them successfully solve problems.
Various learning methods: - the methods availed for learning are many. Some of the
plans include but not limited to inclusion of the recruits in the problem-solving teams and
giving them a chance to step up for senior leaders who are absent for duties (Newcomer,
Hatry & Wholey, 2015). People do not have a similar method of understanding and having a
variety of techniques helps cater to the needs of many people.