Nursing Leadership and Quality Improvement in Healthcare

This article discusses safe practice, quality improvement, information management, and leadership in healthcare. It explores opportunities for improvement and individual leadership aspects. The author reflects on their practice and shares their final thoughts on the course.

RUNNING HEAD: NURSING LEADERSHIP 1
Nursing leadership
Name:
Institution:
Tutor:
Date:

NURSING LEADERSHIP 2
Nursing leadership
1) During this module you have been reading about safe practice. How can you apply this
information to your current practice? Please give specifics. According to my
understanding, I would start by defining safe practice as the ability to accomplish nursing
assessments and interventions without causing any form of harm to either myself as a
healthcare provider or to the patient. According to the National Safety and Quality
Healthcare Standards, there is a section on clinical governance that dwells mostly on risk
management Risk management involves provision of a safe environment to both the
healthcare provider and the patient (Lin, MacLennan, Hunt, & Cox, 2015). There are
several ways in which I can apply safety practice. This includes training of other
healthcare professionals to attend seminars on the importance of safety practice. Besides,
I would also encourage or educate them to undergo immunization against infectious
diseases like Hepatitis. Safe practice under the NSQHS also involves information
management. At my place of work, I would ensure all patient information is secure and
safe and it can be retrieved anytime the patient is need.
2) Define quality in your own terms and using your own ideas? The word quality is
pragmatic and has different definitions depending on the field of specialty .I can define
this term from both a subjective and the conceptual perspective. At the burns unit, I could
define quality as the aspect of providing the best services to victims of burns. According
to the nursing codes of ethics, there is a certain code known as beneficence. It states that
any nursing intervention so be in the best interest of the patient. The patient should reap
maximum benefits from whatever procedure he or she is subjected to. Quality on a
subjective basis can also be used to indicate the level of satisfaction. In this case, the

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patient can offer a feedback on how he or she was subjected to quality services. This
would mean that he was satisfied with whatever was offered by the healthcare
professional (Démeh & Rosengren, 2015). According to the NSQHS, I would also define
quality as a healthcare institution whereby all the eight elements of the NSQHS are up to
the required standards.
3) After the readings about quality and care: where do you see opportunities for
improvement in your practice? After reading about quality and care, I have come to
realize that there exist different opportunities or avenues that I can generally improve on
my practice. One of the leading opportunities is research. The nursing profession will
always need one to be updated on the current methods of nursing interventions that will
lead to quality outcome especially at the Burn intensive care unit. This new interventions
are only possible if there is continuous research .Another important opportunity for
improvement is communication (Wong, 2015). Communication is the sharing of
information between two or more opportunities. Sharing information can enable me to
learn something that I previously never knew .I would ensure there is effective
communication at the Burn intensive care unit. This thing might very productive or of
quality. Communication is therefore a very important for improvement. The final
opportunity for improvement in my practice is through setting goals. Setting goals will
motivate me to work hard and improve on my weaknesses due to the satisfaction that
comes with achieving them .Collaboration is also important since through collaboration, I
can learn on better nursing practices.

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4) The Institute of Medicine defines six standards of quality health care. Choose one and
expand on it. What does the standard mean to you?
According to the Institute of Medicine, there are six standards of quality health care and
they include safe, effective, patient centered, timely, efficient and finally equitable. My
standard of choice is safety. Safety in healthcare implies avoiding harm to the clients or
patients. Clients have a lot of expectations from the healthcare. They always believe that
they are very safe whenever they are in the hands of the healthcare providers .It is
therefore the role of the healthcare providers to provide a safe environment for the
patients (Tyczkowski et al., 2015). A safe environment includes that environment where
there is no contamination especially at the Burn intensive care unit since most of the
patients have open wounds that are susceptible to infections. This means that the patient
should place in an environment that will not lead to other infections. Safety does not only
involve the patients but the medical staff as well. All the staff should be provided with
protective gears so as to avoid getting infections from the patients. There are some
infections which are contagious for example cholera .The protective gear will therefore
make the staff safe from the infections.
5) As you are reading Kegan and Lahey, how is your perspective about leadership
changing? The Kegan and Lahey readings have totally changed my perspective about
leadership. Previously I t leadership was all about dictatorship. The readings have
however changed that perspective and I have to learn to leadership is all about
communication, teamwork or collaboration and creativity .I would therefore ensure that
there is collaboration with different healthcare providers at the Burn intensive care unit.I

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also used to think that leadership is only meant for those who do not joke .I have however
come to learn that the key quality of a good leader is integrity. According to the 34th
President of the United States of America, the supreme attribute of a leader is integrity
and that is actually true based on the Kegan and Lahey readings as well (Ross,
Fitzpatrick, Click, Krouse, & Clavelle, 2014) .I learnt that success in any setting depends
on honesty and integrity and not dictatorship as I used to think. This is because whenever
there is honesty and integrity in any organization, success will always be visible. This
therefore means that the leader should be honest for others to see.
6) Reflect on your practice and discuss what aspects of individual leadership you use.
During my routine practice at the Burn intensive care unit, there are different aspects of
leadership I employ. One of them is integrity and honesty. All leaders are expected to be
honest so as their followers can follow suit. I have always been honest whenever I handle
victims of burns so as to gain trust from my clients. Another aspect of leadership that I
employ during practice is confident however the situation might be tough at the Burn
intensive care unit. Leaders are expected to be confident at all times(Fischer, 2016).This
is because being uncertain with your decisions will always make the subordinates to lose
trust in you .I am always confident in what I do so that others or the clients can trust me
and whatever I am doing to them .Inspiring others is another important leadership aspect
I employ while at the hospital. I always motivate other staffs whenever they feel
discouraged. I always look for a reason to motivate them despite the tough situations.
Good communication is the final leadership that I always use. This is because good
communication will always allow good decision making.

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7) Discuss how you will integrate reflection into your practice. For example, how will you
get the courage to speak up and express your opinion when it may be a controversial
issue? What reflective practice skills do you want to develop further? Reflection is the
ability to think of what happened in the past and what you did about the same. During my
practice at the Burn intensive care unit, I will integrate reflection by using a diary
whereby I will be noting down whatever happened during the day and how I acted upon
the scenario. Through this act, I will be better placed to handle a similar case in the future
(Regan, Laschinger, & Wong, 2015). There are different reflective skills that I want to
develop further and they include extensive reading, inquiry, being watchful, paying
attention to different emotions, sharing views with colleagues and finally spending some
time to think about my work. To get the courage to share and express my opinions even
though they are controversial, I will have to learn how to be frank through continuous
sharing of my views with my colleagues.
8) Give an example of when you used moral courage. According to the Kegan and Lahey
readings, moral courage is ability to take action for moral reasons regardless of the
adverse outcomes. There are several instances where I have used this aspect during my
practice .One such case was when I encountered a teen girl who had been burnt by her
parents and she was in a critical condition. The reason as to why she was burnt was
because she was pregnant. The parents were well aware that they would be prosecuted at
the court and they therefore wanted me to give a false report that the victim was burnt
accidentally(Makaroff, Storch, Pauly, & Newton, 2014).I however stood firm and told the

NURSING LEADERSHIP 7
parents of the negative consequences of issuing false reports and results. I felt that it is
not moral to cheat as a healthcare provider despite the adverse consequences from the
parents. There was another case whereby I was denied the chance to attend to a critically
ill patient just because I was young .I however felt it is morally wrong to discriminate
others and I went ahead and attended to the patient.
9) Your final thoughts about the course and what you have learned? (quality improvement,
Information management and leadership in healthcare) The course on quality
improvement, Information management and healthcare leadership in healthcare has been
a very educative and enjoyable course as well .The course should be introduced through
all healthcare institutions. I have to learn of what quality means. Previously, I used to
focus more on quantity but I have come to appreciate the fact that quality is key is any
healthcare staff (Ha & Pepin, 2018). The course has also enabled me to learn on how
better or quality leadership can positively impact the general performance of the
healthcare providers .I used to think that leadership is all about being authoritative and
dictatorship. I have however come to learn that quality leadership is all about
communication and collaboration. I would say that the course has been wonderful since it
has taught me on how to be a good leader .Since quality is paramount at all levels of
operation, I would recommend that this course be taught throughout the curriculum and
not just a single year or semesters.

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References
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Tyczkowski, B. A., Vandenhouten, C., Reilly, J., Bansal, G., Kubsch, S. M., & Jakkola, R.
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