Exploring Leadership in Nursing: Styles, Theories and Challenges

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of leadership in the nursing scenario, emphasizing the importance of effective leadership within multidisciplinary healthcare environments. It explores various leadership styles and theories, including transformational, autocratic, transactional, and situational leadership, evaluating their suitability for addressing the unique challenges within healthcare. The report contrasts leader-centered and team-centered approaches, advocating for the latter to foster teamwork, improve patient safety, and optimize care delivery. Key challenges in healthcare leadership, such as internal conflicts, are identified, and strategic recommendations are provided to overcome these obstacles. The paper concludes that effective leadership, particularly situational leadership, is crucial for navigating the complexities of the healthcare industry and ensuring high-quality patient care. Desklib offers this report and many other solved assignments to help students.

Running head: LEADERSHIP SCENARIO IN NURSING
Leadership scenario in nursing
Name of the student:
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Executive summary:
The leadership is the need of the hour for the nursing care scenario with the
multidisciplinary approaches ruling the health care environment. Although, there are a
myriad of different leadership styles and approaches that are pertinent in the health care
scenario, and often the leaders or managerial staff face multiple leadership challenges and
hardships and are confused regarding what leadership style or theory to choose and employ.
This paper describes the need for apt leadership in the nursing scenario, the different
applicable styles and approaches, different challenges and how it can be overcome.

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Table of Contents
Introduction:...............................................................................................................................2
Leadership, teamwork and its importance in health care:..........................................................3
Leadership styles and theories appropriate for health care:.......................................................4
Leader centred versus team centred leadership:.........................................................................6
Challenges of the health care leadership scenario:....................................................................7
Strategies for addressing the challenges:...................................................................................9
Conclusion:..............................................................................................................................10
References:...............................................................................................................................11

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Introduction:
The Healthcare environment is rapidly changing owing to the innovative research in
both technological on infrastructural front and the medicinal research front. With rapidly
revolutionizing healthcare environment and growing consumerism in the industry, the patient
care needs and demands and also rapidly changing. In order to impress each and every
personalized and individualized needs of the patients and their family members that care
delivery scenario has also improved in many ways (Andersson, 2015). However, it has been
mentioned that nurses are the main purpose traitor of delivering care to the patients and they
are also the first and most important point of contact between the healthcare service delivery
and the patients of the consumers that are receiving the care services. One of the most
fundamental revolutions in the care delivery scenario is the introduction of the
multidisciplinary care approach.
As discussed by Banks et al. (2016), multidisciplinary Healthcare approach can be
defined as of integrated and comprehensive format for different individuals to come together
in a single stage to address the myriad of Care needs patient might have so that a singular
patient-centered and optimized care plan can be designed and delivered to the patients
receiving care. Although, it is also very important to have a harmony cooperation and
collaboration between the different team members of the multidisciplinary team so that none
of the canons of the patients are ignored or misinterpreted. The need for effective leadership
in the nursing environment to properly leads a multidisciplinary team is vital a necessary so
that high quality care can be delivered to successfully and effectively (Azar & Asiabar,
2015). Hence, leadership is the need of the hour in the healthcare environment and this essay
will explore the different aspects of leadership and its association with teamwork, decision
making, leadership styles and theories, the leadership challenges in the healthcare and
environment and how it can be at rest with strategic recommendations.

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Leadership, teamwork and its importance in health care:
Leadership has many definitions, and each of the definition has relations with the
professional course that it is associated with. However the most general definition of
leadership can be designated as a systematic process which allows an individual to manage
supervisor and advocates different responsibilities to different delegate in order to achieve
singular or plural organizational goals or a specific purpose. As discussed by Boamah et al.,
(2018), leaders have the capacity to insurance the decision making of others to power politics
networking and negotiation. In the healthcare environment leadership has a central role in
building cultures of quality innovation and care in the Healthcare facilities. In support Dyess
et al. (2016) have stated of the leadership is a critical requirement in the Healthcare facility
especially in addressing the current challenges that are representing itself in the care delivery
and care planning scenarios. A leader is expected to have certain traits or behaviour which
can help persuade or influence the followers towards investing the best efforts for achieving
the organizational goals. The most notable traits include tolerance to stress, adaptation to
situations, dependability, decisiveness, assertiveness, compassion, and ambition (David &
Erduado, 2014).
Healthcare on the other hand is a multidisciplinary professional industry which
consists of health professionals, doctors, nurses, and other care providers that must work
together in a cooperative harmony for optimized care to be provided. Teamwork on the other
hand can be defined as a process where two or more people can work together in
collaboration and cooperation for a common purpose or in an attempt to achieving specific
goals (Denis & van Gestel, 2015). constant healthcare environment the organizational goals
that binds the multidisciplinary getting together includes patient Safety, patient centred care,
patient satisfaction, compassionate and empathetic culturally sensitive care, ethical
behaviour, and last but not the least financial profit. Proper teamwork ensures harmonious

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cooperation between the different members of the multidisciplinary team which in turn if it's
the risk of many Healthcare challenges that can represent itself when care is being delivered
to Team of different professions. Researchers are of the opinion that working together as a
team reduces the probability of medical errors and enhances patient safety. Along with pant
meeting exact patient care needs is also extremely smooth and easy to obtain when there is
property work within the multidisciplinary team (Johnson, 2017). Now it has been mentioned
that in case of discipline in order for that to be property in work there is need for active and
effective communication, interpersonal interaction, active listening, and share decision
making so that each and every member of the team is accountable and responsible for the
care decisions they are making and Patient Safety and wellbeing is prioritized at all times.
Although in a multidisciplinary team where people from different designations and
disciplines work together the risk of conflict miscommunication and misinterpretation is very
common which can only be avoided on property manage with efficient and motivational
leadership. Hence, it can be mentioned that leadership and teamwork both have a
fundamental role in facilitating optimized safe and effective healthcare and establishing a
culture of efficient and accountable care professionals (Ford, 2015).
Leadership styles and theories appropriate for health care:
There are various leadership styles and theories and each theory or leadership style
has its own merits and demerits. The nursing case scenario of the Healthcare scenario
represents a few fundamental and specific leadership needs which can only be aligned with a
few leadership theories or styles. The first and foremost leadership style which is followed
abundantly in the Healthcare scenario is the transformational leadership style. a
transformational leader is a inspirational leader. This is the leadership style that is associated
with transforming the vision of the father was so that they can and vision the similar goals
and objectives as their organization and put forth their best effort to achieve these goals or

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objectives. Transformational leader incorporates leadership with compassion empathy and
most of all motivation, empowering the followers and sharing decision making opportunities
with them so that they can feel a significant part of the team and foster a culture of
cooperation and collaboration which is essential for effective teamwork (Mickan & Sharon,
2014).
Contrary to the transformational leadership, another leadership style is the autocratic
leadership which represents a complete contrast to the transformational leadership. It
represents a leader that does not believe in sharing decision making power on integrating
motivation inspiration of compassion to the follower. Autocratic leadership is based on
authoritarian leadership style where the leader takes all the important decisions and the
following are only expected to follow through the decisions without having any say on the
decision making process. The autocratic leadership style represents a challenge to effective
teamwork as there is no involvement or engagement between the team members facilitated by
the leader and there is no motivation or persuasion for the leaders as well. Another very
commonly used leadership style in the professional scenario such as the Healthcare scenario
is the transactional leadership. the transactional leadership represents reward and
punishment based leadership. The reward and punishment based transactional leadership is a
systematic theory; it lacks any compassionate or humanitarian touch. The lack of any
humanitarian or compassionate approach to the leadership style makes this particular
leadership approach unable to be aligned to the effective teamwork models (Mickan &
Rodgers, 2014).
The last and most important leadership style for the healthcare delivery scenario is
the situational leadership. Situational leadership is a revolutionary concept in the leadership
scenario where the leader has a iconic trait to slip into any leadership role and employ any of
the leadership style fit for the situation. In situational leadership the style or approach of the

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laser may transition from one theory to another to address the situations at hand the best. This
is the leadership style which allows the leaders to utilize the perks of all the above mentioned
mainstream or conventional leadership styles and employ them as per the demand of the
situation. Researchers are of the opinion that the situational leadership Theory or style is best
fit for any crisis situation within the health organization (Özer et al., 2017). This is a potent
and immediate effect leadership style for urgent and critical situations.
Leader centred versus team centred leadership:
One of the very important aspects of debate between team centred or leader centred
leadership. The team centred approach is associated with all of the team members being
treated equal having similar saying in the decision making process. In the team centred
approach, the team members are allowed to decide without getting a certain approval. In this
care approach the team members function in a collaborative manner and take assistance from
each other to solve their own problems or issues. The team centred approach provides the
team members with the power to speak their opinion without hesitation and provide any
suggestion so as to solve any problem they might be facing. Along with that, the team centred
approach aims to establish a culture of responsible professionalism and organizational
citizenship behavior, where the employees are optimally engaged to the cause and envision
any challenge as their own challenge to solve them. The team members understand their
value in the team and take equal responsibility of accountability in the procedure, even when
experiencing failure (Salas, Nancy & Micheal, 2013).
On the other hand, leader centred approach is focused on only the leader, where the
decision making power stays within the Hands of the leader. The leader centred approach
does not take into consideration the personal gains or losses of the members and as a result,
the teamwork is absent in the leader centred approaches. The members are not given any

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power or authority to speak of their opinion or put forth any suggestions regardless of the
situation. In the healthcare environment, the teamwork is a vital component which is
associated with it just proper professional functionality of the team but also patient safety
and optimal care delivery. In the patient care scenario the nurses are often the only point of
contact among and without an opportunity to voice their opinions; the patient care can be
affected negatively. Hence, team centred approach is essential to be followed which can be
fostered with a transformational leadership approach, which not only will Address the key
issues but with shared leadership rather than sole leadership, the team centred approach can
even adequately address and overcome the common leadership and management challenges
faced in the health care scenario (Sowcik et al., 2015).
Challenges of the health care leadership scenario:
There are a myriad of challenges pertaining to leadership and management summary
of the Healthcare facility organisation might face. First and foremost the most important
leadership management challenges that many organization faces including healthcare
industry is the internal conflict. It has to be accounted in this context that multidisciplinary
teams and valve different professionals coming from variety of disciplines and designations
where the power distance can affect the internal communication between the team members
which in turn can give rise to interpersonal conflict (Sullivan 2013). In case these
interpersonal conflicts are not addressed adequately the impact can in easily affect the Patient
Safety and care planning addressing the candles and prioritizing the safety and wellbeing.
Interpersonal conflict can lead to lack of cooperation miscommunication and
misinterpretation leading to various medicinal errors or negligence directed at the patients,
ultimately jeopardizing the efforts of the entire team as well. Equal participation is the
second important challenge that the health healthcare leadership scenario represents. In most
cases the lack of responsibility accountability from any of the team members where they do

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not put forth their best efforts in the care planning for implementation the unequal
participation among the different team members can affect the professional efficacy of the
team and can also intern extent to affecting the patients, their safety and wellbeing.
Flawed or delayed decision making is another very crucial challenge which can
represent itself where there is lack of effective communication between the thing and
integrity of the leader to take swift decision. Conflicting ideologies can also create a
considerable challenge in the health care scenario. In the care planning scenario of the team,
often different people provide competing ideas or options and the choice of one among the
opinions or suggestions can become very difficult in case there is lack of adequate leadership
and proper teamwork. Incompatibility among the team members or lack of enough
accountability or competency is a very common challenge in the care teams. The lack of
enough dedication and responsibility from all of the team members often lead to avoidable
errors in the patient care scenario. These issues include lack of adherence to infection control
protocol, proper medication administration, both oral and intravenous and patient centred and
culturally competent care delivery (West et al., 2015).
Another grave challenge is the lack of cultural sensitivity or equality in the team.
Multidisciplinary teams often have culturally diverse professionals that also mostly have
language barriers. Their incompatibilities are often discriminated against in the team which
makes the member feel insignificant and unworthy affecting their professional competence as
well. The lack of the leaders establishing a culture of equality in the team, discrimination is a
major issue leading of dropouts and staff shortage. Resistance to change of any kind among
the team members is the last and yet formidable challenge that the health care team leaders
can experience. Regardless of the nature of the change, whether it a technological addition of
practice protocol change, the resistance, if not overcome with transformational leadership and

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teamwork can become detrimental to the goals and objectives of the team (Zeb & Brown,
2013).
Strategies for addressing the challenges:
First and foremost, a transformational leader can address the mentioned challenge
with shared decision making, shared leadership, motivation and compassionate team work.
Team work or effective team working depends entirely on members having similar say,
similar standing and similar vision. The transformation leader and with effective motivation,
inspiration and delegation of responsibility can make each and every member feel equally
indispensable for the team (Sowcik et al., 2015).
Conflict resolution is a fundamental responsibility of a leader, with compassion and
empathy, the transformational leader can easily overcome conflicts and motivate members to
work together and achieve the goals. Shared responsibility is another easy strategy for a
transformational leader in order to overcome conflict and foster a culture of equality and
cooperation.
Similarly, a transformational leader with a vision can also help in overcoming any
resistance to change among the members and help them see the overall benefit of any chance
to the care scenario and the patients in question. The team centred approach to focus on the
strengths of each of the members can help in enhancing teamwork and organizational
citizenship behavior among the team and accept any change optimistically (Mickan &
Rodgers, 2014).
Lack of responsibility and accountability among certain members can also be easily
addressed with persuasion, motivation and inspiration. A transformational leader has to
represent him or herself as a role model for the followers to look up-to. In this case as well,

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with proper communication motivation and positive example, the lack of accountability can
be turned into responsibility as well, towards the welfare of the facility and the patients (Ford,
2015).
Conclusion:
On a concluding note, leadership is undoubtedly the need of the hour and the
healthcare industry experiences the need for apt leadership now more than ever. In order to
deliver high quality care and address the changing care needs of the patients, it is essential for
there to be teamwork and proper leadership. This essay attempts to explore the province of
leadership and teamwork on healthcare and how to blend of the two can help in overcoming
the most abundantly found challenges in the care scenario. The research discovered
transformation leadership and team or team work centred approach to be the perfect blend
that can restore professional excellence of the care services and optimal safety for the
patients. Hence, the strategies identified, based on transformational leadership and teamwork
can successfully overcome any challenge in the care scenario.

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