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(PDF) Fundamentals of Leadership for Healthcare

   

Added on  2021-04-24

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Running head: LEADERSHIP IN HEALTHCARELeadership in HealthcareStudent’s NameInstitutional Affiliation

LEADERSHIP IN HEALTHCARE 2Leadership in HealthcareIntroductionAccording to Alligood (2017), leadership is the way individuals behave when directing the members of a group who have shared goals. There are several types of leadership. These include transactional, transformational and situational. Transactional leadership employs use of rewards and punishments. In this kind of leadership, the employeesfollow the dictates of leaders. Those employees who perform well and as expected are rewarded and those that do not meet the expectations are punished. Behaviours that are rewarded will most likely be repeated while those that are punished will be avoided in future (Giltinane, 2013). This type of leadership may be very important in emergency situations and may leave both the hard-working nurses and their patients happy. The nurse will be happy because of the reward while the patient is happy for effective treatment. Transformational leadership on the other hand involves a leader with a vision. These leaders have some future changes that they would want to see in the organizations they lead (Fischer, 2016). In some cases, the change to be achieved is planned by leaders in conjunction with the subordinates. The change is described clearly and concisely, and it is regularly communicated to employees. Each member of the organization is expected to be working in a way that will lead to the foreseen change. This form of leadership would be of great importance to the nursing profession. Goals could be set and communicated concisely. Such goals should be geared towards improved working conditions for nurses and improved clinical outcomes for patients.Situational leadership stipulates that there no single best way of leading. The leader will be most effective if they adapt to the current needs of the organization (Carsten, Uhl-Bien, West, Patera, and McGregor, 2010). This leadership style is flexible and is ready to

LEADERSHIP IN HEALTHCARE 3accommodate any outcomes of the future. No one knows what the future holds. A leadership style that gives room for any developments of the future seem to be a wiser one. In the nursing profession and the medical one in general, discoveries continue to be made. This style of leadership seems to be the best suited for the profession. As indicated by Wong (2015), effective leadership has been shown to bring about positive transformation in almost all areas where it was applied. This essay will discuss the importance of strong leadership in health care. This will be covered under the following topics: important nursing leadership qualities, leadership and workplace culture, leadership staff turnover and job satisfaction and leadership and quality care.Important Nursing Leadership QualitiesNurses in leadership deal less with patients and their responsibilities shift more to managing other nurses and keeping their eye on the aim and vision care provision. A nurse in a leadership position can influence the operations of not only the other nurses but also of the whole system of care provision. Leadership is pivotal and significantly affects the nature of care provision including the workplace culture of employees. As Grossman and Valiga (2016) argues,the goal of effective nursing is ensuring highest quality of care is offered in an environment where ethical principles are observed and where both the work force and the patient/clients feel valued. Discussed next are some important nursing leadership qualities. First is strong communication. As a leader, the nurse should be sure to master the art of communication. Daily, the leader will interact with a numerous number of people be it other nurses, doctors and other healthcare staff. Having good skills of communication will enable the leader to effectively communicate strategies, needs and instructions in a clear, concise and easily understandable manner.

LEADERSHIP IN HEALTHCARE 4The other important quality is delegation. The leader should have an in-depth understanding of the other members of the healthcare team. In addition to that understanding, the leader should ensure that they trust other members. Such a move would help the leader beable to delegate roles since it is practically impossible to expect to accomplish all roles by themselves. Different members of the team have different strengths and weaknesses. This will help in identifying who to delegate certain roles. By delegating role based on such knowledge, there is a high likelihood that others will be more efficient. Overall, the process of care improved, and the employees are more motivated.The third important leadership quality is being business-mindedness. The administrative side of leadership will require that the nurse have a business mind. This is because there will be a lot of dealing with budgets, scheduling, inventory management and other issues that may require business knowledge (Nieswiadomy and Bailey, 2017). Though these will be done by an expert in the area, it is important that the leader know what is happening and be able to guide the procedures well. The fourth quality is empathy. Empathy is the ability of being able to understand the other person (fitting in their shoes) but remainingto be yourself. The leader should be able to empathise with fellow nurses. In this case, the nurse has been there before and should listen to the issues presented by others empathetically.The final quality to be discussed is conflict resolution. Problems and challenges arise in our every day life. How we respond to these challenges is important to our progress. A leader should have effective ways to resolve any challenges or conflicts that might arise in the workplace (Delgado and Mitchell, 2016). This could involve constructive criticism to nurses while still maintaining respect for them.

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