Clinical Leadership in a Nursing Team Name

Running head: NURSING
Leadership in a Nursing Team
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

NURSING1
Introduction- Clinical leadership is an umbrella term that encompasses the notion of
medical healthcare professionals undertaking the responsibilities of leadership such as,
establishing, encouraging and promoting vision and values, while utilising their skills and
clinical experience for ensuring that the needs and preferences of patients are the fundamental
focus to the delivery of healthcare (Swanwick & McKimm 2017). All across the world, the
healthcare systems continuously struggle to meet the escalating demands of patients and
healthcare costs. According to Sarto and Veronesi (2016) effective clinical leadership of RNs
has been associated to numerous functions such as, system performance, timely care delivery,
accomplishing health reform objectives, and system efficiency and integrity. In this
assignment, two case scenarios shall be analysed using clinical reasoning process.
Clinical Scenario 1- An analysis of the scenario suggests that Aarya, the graduate nurse at the
Westeros Aged Care, is entitled with a range of responsibilities and needs to oversee the
operations of the entire unit. She is not only expected to plan, lead, direct and assess nursing
care delivered to all patients who are within her domain, but is also expected to take charge of
developing workflows, recording progress of the unit, and overseeing development of staff.
In other words, RN leaders are expected to make crucial decisions which are abound to have
positive consequences, thereby creating an impact on the lives of patients (Regan et al. 2017).
In this scenario, it has been found that Aarya has called the GP for surgery of a patient, has
three monthly care plans due, and also has to complete medication rounds during the shift.
Hence, as an RN leader, she has to provide support, direction, motivation, while fostering
collaboration and effective communication, with the aim of accomplishing optimal health
outcomes for the patients. In nursing, it is imperative for RN leaders to demonstrate the
followers how care is delivered, thus guiding their direction and the path of care actions
(Udod & Lobchuk 2017).
Often it has been found that delegation is one of the most complex and necessary skills in
nursing leadership. Delegation in nursing environment comprises of a sound understanding of
the accountability, authority and responsibility (Siegel et al. 2017). As evidenced in this
scenario, the RN has to comprehend the demands of their patients and/or family member,
besides engaging the suitable caregivers for meeting the healthcare needs. In the context of
nursing leadership, delegation is mandatory for effectively managing the vast accountabilities
that the RN leader has. Taking into consideration the ever-changing environment of health
and social care, engaging in delegation will help the leader to further involve all caregivers in
clinical decision-making.

NURSING2
With reference to the clinical scenario, it can be stated that as a leader, Aarya is
expected to be a core component of the interdisciplinary healthcare team, and must be
accomplished and proficient in leading the team members in this age of fast paced, great
patient acuity, and extremely multifaceted environment. As supervisors, RN leaders are also
expected to maintain open communication with the subordinates, administrators and
department heads (Driscoll et al. 2019). Aarya has to overview the care delivered to around
50 residents who are in the Winterfell Wing. This has made her adorn the role of a leader for
a team that comprises of six carers and one enrolled nurse. Thus, her role as a supervisor
requires her to consider patient care as the central focus of her role.
Considering the huge number of patients who are being cared for in this scenario, as a
supervisor, Aarya must also confirm that presence of adequate staffing for meeting patient
needs, while being directly associated in new staff orientation and training. The role also
emphasises on the need of ensuring that all staff show adherence to relevant policies and that
the care delivered to the patients is comprehensive and appropriate (Cutcliffe & Sloan 2018).
Using the decision-making framework developed by the NMBA, it can be suggested that
Aarya needs to be successful in fulfilling the responsibility of supervision (NMBA 2020).
This can be accredited to the fact that though she spends most of her time delivering hands-on
care to all patients, she should remain primarily engaged in overseeing the care given by all
shift nurses. Moreover, as in this case, she needs to take efforts to guarantee presence of
adequate staff assigned to all patient shifts, while interacting directly with the patients and the
healthcare professionals.
According to Swanwick and McKimm (2017) clinical care teams are frequently
randomly assigned, and the authentic make-up of these teams often get modified. Therefore,
the leadership role of the RN considers it necessary to promote a setting that makes the team
members feel at ease and deliver care. However, she could not completely fulfil her duty of
delegation. The fact that care delivery to several patients was due and not completed on time
provided an indication for ineffective delegation, or non-existence of follow-up for the
errands that had been delegated. This in turn increased the risk of omissions or errors in care.
This can be associated to the incident where a patient Mrs Targaryen suffered a laceration on
her head. In the words of Little, Wagner and Boal (2018) leaders can enhance patient safety
by engaging in more direct communication with the frontline healthcare personnel. However,
failure of Aarya to delegate the tasks prevented the personnel from engaging in surveillance
of the patients, thus threatening the safety of the patient.