Nursing Leadership Essay: Roles and Responsibilities of Nurses

This essay provides a comprehensive analysis of nursing leadership. It begins with a personal reflection on leadership, exploring the author's perspective and scoring based on different leadership aspects like trait emphasis, ability emphasis, skill emphasis, behavior emphasis, relationship approach, and process leadership. The essay then delves into an analysis of the author's leadership attributes, highlighting the importance of skill-based and process-based leadership while also acknowledging the significance of behavioral traits and relationships. Furthermore, the essay evaluates the distinctions between the roles and responsibilities of a nurse as a leader and a nurse as a manager, emphasizing that while managers focus on tasks and goals, leaders focus on employee and patient management. The essay concludes by referencing relevant leadership theories and concepts to support the arguments made throughout the analysis.

Running head: NURSING LEADERSHIP
NURSING LEADERSHIP
Name of the University:
Name of the Student:
Author Note:

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Leadership is one of the important practices in any kind of organizations. Involving
leadership into the business increases the work efficiency of the employees, and the
performance of the organization as a whole. Therefore, in the following essay I have aimed to
provide a brief understanding of my personal perspective on the leadership concept and my
personal viewpoint on the same. Firstly, I will reflect upon my score as a leader and further I
wish to present an analysis and the evaluation of my leadership attributes. Lastly, I will also
propose my understanding of the differences between the roles and responsibilities of a nurse
as a leaders and nurse as a manager.
Findings:
In order to analyse the score card it is important to mention that the scores that have
been present are based on six aspects of leadership. These include, the trait emphasis, which
refers to the belief that leadership is an approach which is based on the individual traits. It is
an old theory that states that in order to be a leader it is important for an individual to possess
certain traits that will determine his or her potential to become a leader.
The next aspects is the ability emphasis. This particular approach states that in order
to become a leader it is essential to possess the abilities that will determine the chances of the
individual to become a leader. It states the attributes of being a leader is related to the
capability of the person to successfully execute the roles and responsibilities of a leader
(Deanne, & Paul, 2013).
The next approach is the emphasis on the skills. This refer to the competent factor of a
person that determine the effectiveness of the deeds executed by the same. The skill approach
refers to the fact that leadership is a skill which can be developed by anyone (Northouse,
2017).

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The next aspect states that leadership is a behaviour. This implies that the behavioural
approaches and attributes of a person in various situations, reflects the competency of the
person to become a leader ((Northouse, 2017).
Next is the Relationship approach that is related to the concept of Leadership. This
particular approach states that the person has better understanding of the human beings and
has a positive relation with all the employees, is likely to be an effective leader in the future
(Nawaz, & Khan, 2016).
Next is the Process Leadership. The process leaders are the ones who have guide, and
support the employees, and nurture and facilitate opportunities for the employees (Nawaz, &
Khan, 2016)
Therefore as per the score card, it can be seen that I have scored 18 on the Trait
Emphasis, 11 on the Ability Emphasis, 20 in the Skill Emphasis, again 18 on the Behaviour
Emphasis, 15 on the relationship Aspect and 20 on the Process Emphasis.
Application:
From the scores that I have made, it can be stated I have a similar perspective
regarding the Ability Emphasis and the Process emphasis. Therefore, it can be stated that my
understanding of the leadership and my attribution towards the leadership are more inclined
to these two aspects. I personally believe that leadership needs skill, and anyone, who is
competent enough cam achieve the position. According to me, leadership is essentially a
skill, it can be developed by anyone, who is competent enough. The skill based leadership
initiates the inclusion of the innovation and the pro- activeness within the organizational
conduct. The skill based leadership also initiates a person to take chances and challenges and
prepare his or her employees for the same (Daft, 2014). The skill based leadership also

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provides the leaders to learn while in the process and grow further, which I believe is absent
in the other types of leadership.
On the other and, I do support and believe that process leadership is indeed important.
The leaders often come across as a guiding body, or as a figure who can teach. Teaching and
making the employees understand about a situation or perception, indeed lies in the hands of
a leader. Therefore, a leader must include a process based leadership approach within the
conducts of the organization.
Analysis:
If the whole of the questionnaires analysed, then it can be seen, that for me, not only
the skill based approach and the process based leadership approach are important. I also
believe that the behavioural approach of a leader and the traits of a leader are also very
important. As per my understanding, leadership is essentially a skill based learning and
application, but it is also important for the leaders to possess certain traits in order to better
the skills. It is often seen that the people who become leaders afterwards, essentially possess
the skills that are needed to possess, in order to gain the position of the leader. Along with
that, a leader must possess tee behavioural attributes to connect and motivate the employees.
However, for a leader the relationship aspect is also important to create a communication
base among the employees and to maintain the work environment (Northouse, 2018).
However, according to me the ability approach is not as relevant to a leader, because anybody
who possess the skills to become a leader can gain the position. However, there are certain
characteristics or abilities that are important and needed in order to be a leader.
Evaluation:
It is often perceived that ate positions of the leaders and the managers, are pretty
close, however there are certain strong distinctions present in between. Firstly, the ability and

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the behaviour based approach are more applicable for the managers. The managers
essentially need the ability to manage between the tasks and the organizational conducts.
Moreover, manger is the one, who provides goals, that the leaders are ton communicate by
creating visions. Leaders are the agents though whom the mangers get their job done.
Moreover, managers of a health institution or a hospital are more focused on the quality
control, goal and business management, while the leaders of the same are more focused in the
management of the employees and the patients. Therefore, as a conclusion it can be stated
that the ability, and behaviour approach is more related to a nurse who is a manager. While
the others can be applicable for a nurse who can be a good leader.

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References:
Daft, R. L. (2014). The leadership experience. Cengage Learning.
Deanne, N. D. H., & Paul, L. K. (2013). Leadership in organizations (Vol. 2). Sage.
Nawaz, Z. A. K. D. A., & Khan_ PhD, I. (2016). Leadership theories and styles: A literature
review. Leadership, 16, 1-7.
Northouse, P. G. (2017). Introduction to leadership: Concepts and practice. Sage
Publications.
Northouse, P. G. (2018). Leadership: Theory and practice. Sage publications.