Nursing Clinical Leadership

Running head: NURSING CLINICAL LEADERSHIP
NURSING CLINICAL LEADERSHIP
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1NURSING CLINICAL LEADERSHIP
Introduction
The nursing profession at present, seeks nurses to function beyond merely the alleviation
of disease symptoms in patients, and focus upon maintaining optimum organizational
environments and workforce functioning in the clinical scenario. Clinical leadership is a major
responsibility outlining clinical nursing duties and involves usage of clinical nursing experiences
by nurses to delegate and lead the clinical staff towards fulfillment of positive patient outcomes
and organizational principles. Hence, the following paper will aim to evaluate clinical leadership
concepts in nursing, their limitations, recommendations and relevance to development of
leadership skills in the nursing profession, as discussed in four peer reviewed, scholarly studies.
These include: discussion of transformational nursing leadership by Fischer (2016), usage of
emotional intelligence by Crowne et al., (2017), utilization of a person centered situational
leadership framework by Lynch et al., (2018) and the administration of a servant style of clinical
leadership by Saven and Munro (2017).
Nursing Leadership Theory
For the optimum execution of skills of clinical leadership and workforce manage among
staff working in healthcare organizations, the usage of clinical nursing leadership theories is of
utmost importance (Démeh & Rosengren, 2015). The selected four articles discussed relevant
aspects of clinical nursing leadership theories which potential nurse leaders can utilize for quality
nursing professional practice. Fischer (2016) , with the aid of concept analysis, explores the
relevant aspects of transformational leadership in clinical leadership. The usage of
transformational nursing leadership encompasses administration of skills of empowerment by
nurses to motivate subordinates to achieve their highest potential, leading to increased

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occupational satisfaction and subordinate autonomy (Weng et al., 2015). The clinical leadership
theory explored extensively by Crowne et al., (2017), comprises the usage of emotional
intelligence by nurse leaders which involves exhibiting adequate awareness on one’s own and
other’s emotions and learning to reflect and regulate the same especially during times of
adversity. The article by Lynch et al., (2018), focuses upon the clinical leadership style of person
centered situational leadership which is characterized by the nurse leader, actively taking into
consideration, the personalized needs of the patients and using the same to direct and delegate
workforce duties for appropriately managing the unique clinical situation. Likewise, Savel and
Munro (2017), in their paper, extensively evaluated the theoretical concepts of servant
leadership, which involves the nurse leader to direct clinical leadership actions based on the
prioritizing the unique needs of the patient first, followed by considering the needs of the
subordinate and novice clinical staff.
Issues and Problems
According to Fischer (2016), transformational leadership in nursing is characterized by
nurse leaders leading and delegating clinical duties as per the unique competencies possessed by
each workforce member and using the same to inspire staff to achieve positive outcomes beyong
expectations. However, Fischer (2016) notes that a key issue pertaining to the usage of
transformational leadership by nurse leaders is the lack of an established definition and loose
discussion of competencies which otherwise makes it difficult to educate novice nurses on
acquiring values of the same. Hence, reform in the healthcare organization characterized by the
prevalence of educational nursing framework teaching the same, will be useful for administration
of transformational clinical leadership (Masood & Afsar, 2017). Likewise, in their evaluation of
the effectiveness of a leadership framework administering emotional intelligence, authors

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Crowne et al., (2017) discussed the issue of lack of emotional awareness among nurses
especially required for understanding emotional needs and establishing therapeutic relationships
with patients. Indeed, healthcare organizations, especially nursing homes, rely their functioning
on maintenance of cordial nurse-patient relationships and understanding of patient’s emotions for
quality functioning, which can be administered by nurse leaders through usage of emotional
intelligence (Carragher & Gormley, 2017). Likewise, authors Lynch et al., (2018), postulated
the importance of administering a situational, person-centered leadership considering the
prevalence of issues of using a controlled clinical management framework, which often does not
take into account the patient’s problems of boredom, loneliness and helplessness especially in
nursing care homes catering to older adults. Likewise, through discussion of a servant
leadership, Savel and Munro (2017), highlights the issues and problems associated with a
standard autocratic leadership framework, which is traditionally used in the healthcare
organization. These issues include, lack of consideration of the patient’s as well as the staff’s
needs as well as absence of a two way form of communication where clinical staff can voice
their concerns (Chicca, Frank & Hagy, 2018).
Nursing Leadership Development
The administration of a transformational leadership style, as discussed by Fischer (2016)
is of relevance to nursing leadership development since it provides guidelines on staff
empowerment and motivation hence resulting in increased job satisfaction. Hence, potential
nurse leaders can improve upon their future clinical leadership skills by following
transformational leadership principles such as working with staff using principles of
collaboration and empowerment, providing opportunities for staff to learn and develop from their
experiences, engagement in evidence based practice for improved clinical professional practice