Leadership in Nursing: Beginning Practice and RN Standards

This report examines leadership in nursing, focusing on the challenges faced by new graduate nurses and the application of RN standards of practice. The analysis centers on a case study involving a new RN, Kim, and her experiences within a hospital setting, including interactions with the Nurse Unit Manager and other healthcare professionals. The report explores the impact of various factors on nursing leaders and professional practice, such as communication and adherence to legal and ethical boundaries. It applies the Gibbs reflective model to analyze Kim's experiences, proposing strategies to develop personal and professional resilience. The report also discusses supportive elements in effective leadership, including knowledge, evidence-based practice, communication, and networking, and their role in supporting new nurses. The conclusion emphasizes the importance of leadership in fostering a supportive environment for new nurses to ensure safe and competent patient care.

Leadership for beginning practice
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Body.................................................................................................................................................2
Issues and factors that impact on nursing leaders and professional practice...................................2
Clinical leadership expectations for beginning new graduate nurses: scope of practice, legal and
ethical boundaries............................................................................................................................3
Gibbs model of reflection: strategies to develop personal and professional resilience...................3
Supportive elements in effective leadership: knowledge, evidence, communication and networks
.........................................................................................................................................................5
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................6
References........................................................................................................................................7
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Introduction
Competent and safe nursing practice is grounded in the law and regulations like
nursing
practice act (NPA) and other governing rules and practices for the nurses are equally important
to ensure appropriate nursing services. It is necessary for nurses to adopt appropriate
communication, self-care and wellbeing while they commence their nursing career. Herein, the
study it has been stated about the necessities required to be adopted by nurses undertaking the
given case study of Kim and her nursing career. It has been discussed about the RN and other
nursing standards to meet the obligations as a new graduate nurse.
Body
Issues and factors that impact on nursing leaders and professional practice
Q. How would you approach the situation if you were the Nurse Unit Manager (NUM)?
How would the RN Standards of Practice apply in the NUM’s case?
It is necessary for professional units to maintain the competency level through every process of
nursing. The major purpose of such standards is to ensure safety
, security and
clinical
competency of the patients and complying with such standards is necessary as through these
standards, promotion of the clinical practices can be supported (Vito-Thomas et al., 2018).
Considering the case study of Kim, it has been observed that after the incident at the say of the
arrest, Kim was upset when she was encountered by
Nursing Unit Manager (NUM), NUM
asked Kim to share her problem while Kim was extremely uncomfortable and embarrassed
enough to share her issues pertinent to her new place. If I was the Nursing Unit Manager, I
would have ensured about compliance of the RN standards like
critical thinking, therapeutic
and professional relationship, comprehensive conduction of different assessments,
capability for practice, ensuring the safety and security of the patients and most importantly
maintaining about proper ways through which the nurses and other interns would be able to
handle the activities that are associated with them (Nursingmidwiferyboard.gov.au, 2019). As
per my opinion, it is necessary for NUM to ensure that she meets the standards of RN. This
would be effective for NUM as this would provide Kim the confidence to convey her issues and
problems properly without hesitation. Considering different aspects of the standard, it can be
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stated that if the NUM effectively complies with
standard 2, where it has been stated about the
engagement of professional and therapeutic relationship through which the NUM would be able
to
establish, sustain and conclude relationships and maintain the boundaries of
personal and
professional relationship (Nursingmidwiferyboard.gov.au, 2019)
. Additionally,communication would also grow proper due to which Kim would also feel better and free to
share her issues that were faced by her at the workplace as she joined new over there.
Clinical leadership expectations for beginning new graduate nurses: scope of practice, legal
and ethical boundaries
Q. Did Kim meet her obligations as a new graduate nurse? How would the RN Standards
of Practice apply in Kim’s case?
As far as Kim is considered, it has been observed that she has been making numerous efforts to
meet the obligations as a new graduate as she was about to give a new start to her phase at a
tertiary hospital in Western Sydney. As Kim was new she had to undertake
Transition to
Practice (TTP) program at the hospital, half the way of her program, she encountered a case of
cardiac arrest. The patient however was successfully resuscitated and was shifted to ICU. While
the procedure went on, one of the on floor Registrar shouted at Kim for being unaware of what
equipment would be used while intubation. This incident made Kim think hopeless and useless
out of her. Apart from all this, she did not complain about the issues she faced and thought that
she must continue with her work. Another instance of Kim being dutiful and meeting her
obligations can be the time when she had to go to NUM’s office and she thought that others
would have to take the burden of her work. As the greatest strength of Kim was her
adaptability
skills and considering these cases, it can be said that
standard 3 of the RN standards, would be
applicable for Kim as she tried to maintain the capability of her nursing practice along with
which she also tried to consider the ethical and legal boundaries (McPherson and MacDonald,
2017).
Gibbs model of reflection: strategies to develop personal and professional resilience
Q. How you would have felt in Kim’s situation. What strategies would you recommend to
develop personal and professional resilience?
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Maintaining resilience in nursing is the most significant factor as this is the ability of an
individual through which they are able to get back of normalcy and bounce back from adverse
situations. If I would have been at Kim’s place, I might have been conveyed my problem to my
top level management and might also have asked for a solution. Considering the incident when
the Registrar shouted at Kim, I would have portrayed my explanation on the blame that was put
on me. I would have conveyed that as I was new, it was the responsibility of my co members to
support me and guide me so that I am able to handle my responsibilities properly and be more
cautious.
Herein case of Kim, it is necessary for her to adopt certain effective strategies like
problem-
solving, emotion management, handling expression, debriefing, self-reflection andvalidation would be effective for her as by embracing such skills, and Kim would be able to
handle her emotions while she is dealing with her professional activities (Kimble et al., 2016).
Through these skills, Kim would be able to handle her
cognitive abilities, make positive
identity, improve cultural generativity, team working and
adapting to multiculturalism.
This would make Kim flexible with the regulations at her workplace. Additionally, she would
also enhance her communication by adopting the above mentioned skills. Considering the
Gibbs
Reflective Model, in the description stage, I was able to describe the situation that was faced by
Kim while she attained the tertiary hospital undertaking the TTP Program. In the feelings phase,
the emotions and feelings of Kim can be explained when she felt herself to be
hopeless and
useless after she was misbehaved by the Registrar. Evaluation is the step where I can define the
actions taken on the activities conducted like Kim was called to meet the NUM to share her
issues. In the analysis phase, I have been able to acquire experience from the activities
conducted. Conclusion stage depicts about the positive and negative experiences from the
situation on the basis of which action plan is made (Paterson et al., 2015).
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Figure: Gibbs Reflective Model
(Source: Paterson et al., 2015)
Supportive elements in effective leadership: knowledge, evidence, communication and
networks
Q. What knowledge, evidence, communication and networks could leaders, such as the
NUM in the case study, offer new graduate nurses to support their development as a
leader?
Considering the case scenario of Kim and the situations faced by her at her workplace can be
stated as there was
lack of appropriate communication among Kim and other members that
restricted Kim to convey her issues and problems to her top level management. From the side of
the leaders, it has been stated that it is necessary for them to comply with all the standards for
registered nurse (Miles and Scott, 2019). This includes that conduction of assessments and task
with responsibility, develop new plan for conducting nursing practice for the new nurses.
Additionally, it is also necessary to provide attention towards
standard 6 of the same so that the
care providers and the nurses are able to deliver safe and secure services to the care users withquality nursing practice. After its implications, it is also necessary to evaluate the outcome of
the nursing practice that has been conducted by the nurses. Additionally, other standards that
states about maintaining a therapeutic and professional relationship with the health workers have
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been taken into consideration and the critical approach of the top level management towards the
nurses. This would support the development of the healthcare workers (Lamb et al., 2018).
Conclusion
In the light of the above study, it can be concluded that it is necessary for the top level
management of every healthcare institute to listen to the issues that are faced by subordinates or
new workers. This would be effective to hinder a big issue. The study has been conducted
considering the case study of Kim, who was a Registered Nurse and was undertaking TTP
program at a tertiary hospital, where she faced several issues that made her feel low to herself.
However, in the study it has been discussed about different strategies that would be adopted by
Kim to handle her situation.
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References
Kimble, S.J., Brommelsiek, M. and Gotham, H., 2016. Utilizing Student Outcome Data from a
Three Year Interprofessional Clinical Practice Team Grant to Develop Effective Nursing
Leadership Education.
Lamb, A., Martin Misener, R., Bryant Lukosius, D. and Latimer, M., 2018. Describing the‐ ‐
leadership capabilities of advanced practice nurses using a qualitative descriptive study. Nursing
open, 5(3), pp.400-413.
McPherson, C. and MacDonald, C., 2017. Blending simulation-based learning and interpretative
pedagogy for undergraduate leadership competency development. Journal of Nursing Education,
56(1), pp.49-54.
Miles, J.M. and Scott, E.S., 2019. A New Leadership Development Model for Nursing
Education. Journal of Professional Nursing, 35(1), pp.5-11.
Nursingmidwiferyboard.gov.au. (2019). Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia - Registered
nurse standards for practice. Available at: https://www.nursingmidwiferyboard.gov.au/Codes-
Guidelines-Statements/Professional-standards/registered-nurse-standards-for-practice.aspx
[Accessed 4 Oct. 2019].
Paterson, K., Henderson, A. and Burmeister, E., 2015. The impact of a leadership development
programme on nurses' self perceived leadership capability. Journal of nursing management,‐
23(8), pp.1086-1093.
Vito-Thomas, D., Allyn, P., Wagner, L.B., Hodges, T. and Streitmatter, S.S., 2018. The
Evidence-Based Practice Fulcrum: Balancing Leadership and Emotional Intelligence in Nursing
and Interprofessional Education.
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