Democratic Leadership in Nursing: Experiences in Critical Care Unit

This essay examines democratic leadership in nursing, focusing on its practical application and impact on teamwork within a critical care unit. The author reflects on their experiences as a nurse leader, emphasizing the importance of shared decision-making, open communication, and respect for diverse perspectives. The essay highlights how democratic leadership fosters a collaborative environment, enhances job satisfaction, and ultimately improves the quality and safety of patient care. The author's philosophy centers on empowering team members, valuing their contributions, and promoting teamwork to achieve common goals within the healthcare setting. References to relevant research support the discussion of democratic leadership principles and their effectiveness in nursing practice.

Running Head: NURSING LEADERSHIP
Nursing Leadership
Name
Institution

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Nursing Leadership
Democratic leadership is a style of leadership where the team members take part in the
decision-making process within an organization. Consequently, democratic leadership allows
followers or subjects to feel more engaged in the management process, more dedicated to
objectives, as well as more motivated to work effectively. Democratic leadership plays a leading
role in inspiring friendships and moral associations in the workplace, where it create employee
ownership of the organization and its areas (Fiaz, Qin, Ikram & Saqib, 2017). During the 1930s,
Kurt Lewin, a behavioural scientist carried out researches and recognized the importance of
democratic or participative leadership in organizations. Democratic leadership in the nursing
practice greatly allows nurse leaders to influence other leaders towards attaining the goals of the
specific organization. Nurse leaders that adopt democratic leadership style act as facilitators
rather than being dictators by promoting the sharing of ideas and information towards providing
high-quality and safe care to the patients. Democratic leaders promote teamwork were the
majority of the tasks are performed by different teams towards promoting efficiency. In addition,
democratic leader encourages open communication and nurse staff in many decisions.
Democratic leaders emphasize relationships towards quality improvement and processes in the
organization, other than on mistakes of individual team members (Fowler, 2016).
I believe that I have the qualities of a democratic leader based on my past experiences
during my practice as a nurse leader in my organization in critical care unit. I believe my
democratic leadership stems from the fact that I am a relationship-and people-oriented. In my
practice, I believe that the organization’s policies along with decisions in a group setting are best
for all the people involved. Democratic leaders including myself stress teamwork and are willing

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to share roles to promote efficiency because teamwork will promote sharing of ideas and
information. As a nurse leader I usually endeavored to promote teamwork that allowed sharing
of ideas and information that improving the outcome of the nursing roles. This implies that I
could often seek to promote policies and practices through group discussion and emphasized on
teamwork (Fischer, Jones & Verran, 2018). My philosophy as a nurse leader was that an efficient
manager not only inspires, but also listens to the contribution of employees; an efficient manager
not only instructs the employees, but demonstrates the way instruction must be performed. This
are designed to promote job satisfaction, efficiency, as well as work production. During my
practice as a nurse leader, I always embraced teamwork where I formed different teams towards
delivering care to different clients within the critical care unit. The critical care unit required
teamwork because of the many critical care needed by different clients. I remember that the
different teams that I formed within the critical care unit played a leading role in promoting
efficiency than it was originally when I had not embraced teamwork. As a nurse leader, I ensured
I become part of the team to boost the morale of the teams to delivering high-quality and safe
care to patients (Day-Calder, 2017).
In addition, as a nurse leader, I embraced communication channels that ensured the
contribution of the nurses are accommodated the views and opinions of the nurses. I ensured that
nurses could freely air their concerns and I could be available for discussion to resolve the
different issues within the workplace setting. More importantly, as a democratic leader I
emphasized to listening more than anything else. I usually listened to the concerns of the nurses
whenever we interacted with them. This became important because to enhanced the trust and
rapport with the nurses that greatly increased efficiency in the critical care unit. In fact,

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communication played a leading in conflict resolution (McKeown & Carey, 2015). I stressed the
significance of diversity when dealing with different people from different backgrounds and
always respected their views.
The democratic style of leadership assisted a great deal during the group presentation. I
was able to accommodate the views of the different team members and I respected their
contribution towards group discussion. This style was instrumental in allowing me to appreciate
the importance of teamwork and contribution of each member. I used the democratic leadership
to learn to listen to the contribution of the team members and ensured that I carefully analyzed
their views and then later react. I as interacted with the team members I was able to build trust
that was crucial in understanding the diverse needs of the team members (Day et al., 2014). In
addition, the democratic leadership was important during group presentation because it allowed
me to be open in my communication to other members of the team and I often sought correction
whenever needed.

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References
Day, D. D., Hand, M. W., Jones, A. R., Kay Harrington, N., Best, R., & LeFebvre, K. B. (2014).
The Oncology Nursing Society Leadership Competency Project: Developing a Road Map
to Professional Excellence. Clinical Journal of Oncology Nursing, 18(4), 432–436.
Day-Calder, M. (2017). Develop your leadership style: The first in our three-part series on
leadership in nursing looks at what elements go together to be consistently effective.
Nursing Standard, 31(40), 37–38.
Fiaz, M., Qin Su, Ikram, A., & Saqib, A. (2017). Leadership Styles and Employees’ Motivation:
Perspective from an Emerging Economy. Journal of Developing Areas, 51(4), 143–156.
Fischer, S. A., Jones, J., & Verran, J. A. (2018). Consensus achievement of leadership,
organisational and individual factors that influence safety climate: Implications for
nursing management. Journal of Nursing Management, 26(1), 50–58.
Fowler, J. (2016). From staff nurse to nurse consultant Clinical leadership part 2: leadership
styles. British Journal of Nursing, 25(9), 522.
McKeown, M., & Carey, L. (2015). Editorial: Democratic leadership: a charming solution for
nursing’s legitimacy crisis. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 24(3/4), 315–317.