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Essay about Nursing Leadership

   

Added on  2021-04-17

11 Pages4301 Words89 Views
Running head: NURSINGNursingName of student:Name of university:Author note:

1NURSINGNursing leadership has been considered as an integral element of optimal qualityhealthcare delivery that influences health outcomes to a great extent. Leadership is about actingin a responsible manner in the respected organization for the fulfilment of goals and objectivesof services. Being a leader is more than taking strong stances in decision making. It is moreabout acting as a source of inspiration and serving individuals in the setting whom the person isleading. Empowering others through leadership is related to devoting oneself to a group ofindividuals for successful achievement of set goals in the organizational context. Sinceleadership is a widely researched subject with different implications in different settings,understanding the concept requires extensive analysis of personal viewpoints of leaders.Conducting interviews with leaders in healthcare settings is a valuable way of coming across theperceptions and experiences of credible leaders. The present essay discusses in details aninterview conducted with a healthcare leader in a health care setting. The paper is based on theinformative interview that provided a chance to exercise personal communication andinterpersonal skills. The focused are for the interview was leadership style, and key themesarising from the interview are highlighted. The interview provided a chance to gain deep insightsinto the different aspects of leadership styles and the applicability of the same in clinicalpractice. The essay is a reflection on personal experience and discusses personal learning fromexperience with support from relevant literature and research. Further, insight into futureleadership practice is included in the paper, and recommendations for change are mentioned. As a nursing student, I had developed an interest to understand further the benefits andchallenges in healthcare leadership and how I can apply the same in practice. The topic ofnursing leadership and development had always gained my attention, and I aim to preparemyself as a leader in future. One question that has made to think critically about is what thedifferent leadership styles are and which one of these best suits the needs in a healthcarecontext. Throughout my course, I have explored different aspects of leadership and gainedknowledge for future practice. The interview which is being reflected upon in the present essaywas conducted with Ms Anne Murrey who works as a healthcare leader in charge at a reputedcity hospital. The interview was an opportunity to discuss the different leadership styles in thenursing field exemplified through her who has fifteen years experience in her field. Anne hadreceived an award by the healthcare department as an appreciation of her commitment,dedication and experience. This spurred me to interview her and understand further on themeaning of leadership, the mostly used leadership styles, the advantages of the same, thechallenges faced and the responsibilities that come along as a nurse professional. In my

2NURSINGpersonal interview, I decided to learn about the skills she employed to ensure effectiveleadership. The very first question that I asked the interview was regarding what inspired her tobecome a part of the healthcare workforce. To this, she replied that the eagerness to work forthe society and promote a better quality of life was instilled in her from her childhood. She haddecided to study nursing as it is perceived as a divine way of serving the needs of thecommunity. I agreed to her that nursing is a noble profession in which the aim is to alleviatehuman sufferings. I considered it to be desirable to commence on the discussion aboutleadership with a special focus on distinct leadership styles. I then engaged in understandingthe definition of leadership as perceived by her. According to Anne, healthcare leadership is thebehavior of the individual that directs the activities of the followers towards the shared goal ofenabling better healthcare service delivery. The key aspects of the leadership role are enablinggroup activities and coping with change. According to her, a strong component of leadership isto focus on the strengths of the followers and influence them to fulfil a certainly agreed aim. Theidea given by her led me to further understand the importance of appropriate leadership inhealthcare service. Good leadership is a way of caring for the work environment and advocatingfor individual’s rights is crucial (Al-Sawai, 2013). According to Swanwick and McKimm (2017),leadership and delegation lead to a caring environment and patient’s safety is ensured in thisprocess. Leadership further makes the employee’s secure about their ownership of patient care.Notably, suitable leadership is advantageous for both the employees and the patients. As per my understanding, leadership is viewed by different people in a different manner.The idea of which leadership approach is suitable might vary between individuals. I wasinterested in knowing more about the qualities and features of a good leader. Anne answeredmy query and stated that a good leader is defined by the discreet leadership style she exhibits.However, at the core of an effective leadership styles lies the need of improving patient’s care. Iwas overwhelmed to know that Anne perceived listening to the follower’s ideas as the hallmarkof leadership. She believed that the transition from working at the bedside to taking up theresponsibility of a leader needs immense efforts. She commented that she had been fair in herdecision making processes and established honest relationships with her colleagues. I later tookinterest on learning more about this aspect. According to Ward (2017), a leader is not to makejudgments in a hasty manner without involving the concerned stakeholders. An effectiverelationship with the followers ensures that integrity is defended at all levels. Anne furthercommented that she had been following the set guidelines and rules and delivering

3NURSINGcompassionate care. An intricacy when bearing in mind leadership of healthcare professionalsis the fact that the styles have not evolved within the healthcare context (Boyd et al., 2017). Though I had a preconceived idea that there are different forms of leadership asapplicable in diverse settings, I lacked a clear understanding of the leadership styles that havebeen more relevance to healthcare settings as evident from practice and literature. Annereflected that the leadership styles that are more relevant in healthcare context are autocraticleadership, democratic leadership, transformational leadership, and transactional leadership.She took interest in describing in short the implications of apply these leadership styles and thebenefits and challenges of the same. In her viewpoint, autocratic leadership revolves around thesole viewpoints of the leader. In such a leadership form, a leader has the sole responsibility andauthority for taking decisions. Leaders do not consider the input of the followers in the decisionmaking process. Anne commented that she had witnessed other leader exhibit such form ofleadership wherein the autocratic leader only added to policies, procedures and guidelines inthe setting. Autocratic leadership leads to poor healthcare delivery as a collaboration betweenhealthcare workers are missing. Coming to democratic leadership, subordinates are involved inthe decision making process and thus is highly contrasting with autocratic leadership.Transformational leadership, on the other hand, is mainly involves the initiation of the keychange in organizations and individuals. Transactional leadership continues and maintains thestatus quo. At this juncture I was interested to know which leadership style she preferred and why.Anne proceeded to discuss her preferred leadership style and how she exhibits the same. Annewas glad to inform that her favorite styles of leadership were democratic leadership style andtransformation leadership style that she exhibited in per practice as per the needs of thesituation. Since I believed that Anne was competent enough to act as a good leader and hadalready gained an immense reputation for her contributions, I decided to explore more aboutthese two leadership styles through the interview and successive literature search. Upon requested, Anne pondered over her experiences and opinions about the twoleadership styles that she felt was very important in the present era. She felt that democraticleadership and transformational leadership holds the potential to enable professionals toaddress the evolving needs of patients presenting with diverse conditions. Anne stated that sheprefers using democratic leadership style when the inclusion of other staff members is neededfor completion of a task. At the time of need of active role of staff members, democratic

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