Nursing Leadership: Roles, Teamwork, and Collaboration

Running head: NURSING LEADERHSIP 1
Nursing leadership
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NURSING LEADERSHIP 2
Introduction
Often, registered nurses offer diverse services to healthcare consumers in different
settings. There are some things that nurses carry out on a daily basis that are unique. On the
contrary, there are some things that nurses can’t do but they can be done by other experts. The
fact that the nursing profession is broad in nature forces nurses to assume multiple roles while
meeting the healthcare needs of patients (Wilson et al., 2019). For that matter, this paper will
explore the different roles of a registered nurse in an interdisciplinary team. Furthermore,
concepts of inter professional team, professionalism, leadership, and teamwork and Inter-
professional collaboration will be explored. Finally, there will be a conclusion that will highlight
important details explained in the essay.
Role of registered nurse
A registered nurse is the primary caregiver. It is the duty of the registered nurse to
implement nursing intervention so as to meet both the physical, psychosocial spiritual and
environmental needs of the both the patients and their family members. In so doing, the nurse is
supposed to incorporate different nursing standards set by the Australian Nursing and mid wifery
board. In standard one, the nurse is supposed to think critically and analyze nursing practice
(Crouch, Fillmore, Fly, & Ukot, 2015). In this standard, the nurse while providing care should
think of the best strategies and available evidence before making any decisions.
A registered nurse is a nurse educator. According to the Australian Nursing and
Midwifery Board, a nurse is supposed to educate patients, their families, communities and other
healthcare team members. It is the duty of the nurse to provide relevant information about
diseases, medications and rehabilitation needs (Verhaegh et al., 2017). In so doing, the nurse

NURSING LEADERSHIP 3
should act according to standard two that dictates nurse to engage in therapeutic and professional
relationships. This standard warrants nurses to effectively communicate with consumers of
healthcare.
A registered nurse is a patient’s advocate. A registered nurse should respect the decisions
made by patients and bolster patient autonomy. Patient advocacy also revolves around standard
two that focus on therapeutic relationships between the nurse and the patient. The aim of this role
is to secure self-determination, protections of patients’ rights (Drennan, Gabe, Halter, De
Lusignan, & Levenson, 2017). In this role, the nurse also acts as the bridge between the patient
and other healthcare providers since it is the nurse who interacts with patients on a daily basis.
Furthermore, the registered nurse represents the interests of patients who has unmet needs.
Finally, the registered nurse speaks for the patients interests as if they are the nurses.
Inter-professional team
Nurses have in the past years worked within teams. In most hospitals, the nurses are
considered ‘permanent’ staff due to their routine interaction with patients. Other healthcare
providers such as social workers are only available for few hours. In a study conducted by
Raffery, teamwork among workers improve staff retention and reduces job stress and burnout
(Stievano et al., 2016). The same study found out that there are different barriers in establishing
positive interprofessional teamwork. One of the highlighted issue is a poor physician/nurse
relationship. Huinen in 2013 found out that the poor relationship between nurses and physicians
causes some of the nurses to leave the profession.