401213 Essay: Leadership Styles and Patient Safety in Nursing

This essay delves into the critical relationship between leadership styles and patient safety within the nursing profession. It begins by defining leadership and patient safety, emphasizing their interconnectedness in healthcare. The essay then explores various leadership styles, including democratic, transactional, and transformational approaches, and analyzes their respective roles in promoting patient safety. It highlights how effective leadership can reduce clinical errors, enhance communication, and improve the overall quality of care. The paper provides a specific example of patient safety, such as falls in older adults, and suggests how different leadership styles can be applied to address such issues. The essay concludes by reinforcing the significance of effective leadership in ensuring patient safety and fostering a positive healthcare environment. This analysis utilizes credible sources to support its arguments and provides a comprehensive overview of the subject matter.

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Introduction
It is very difficult to assess the nursing profession from outside as nurses are the
integral parts of healthcare. But, several common problems are there that occur regularly in
the nursing profession which has the potential to affect the lives of the patients. Therefore
nursing is a challenging job and sometimes, many issues arise that are out of control. In such
cases, communication among the nurses becomes vital which is possible with the support of a
strong leadership control. It is also directly associated with the safe care to the patients
(Scully, 2015). Leadership is a fundamental principle of nursing that promotes patients
safety. In this paper, the definition of leadership and patients’ safety will be discussed along
with the relationship between those two. In this context, different leadership styles and their
role in promoting the safety of the patients will also be discussed thoroughly. A specific
example of patients’ safety will be considered to relate that with the efficient leadership style.
Finally, the paper will conclude gathering all the important points discussed in the paper.
Definition of leadership and patients’ safety
Leadership is mainly considered as an ability of doing something with the help of
proper talent and skill which is adaptive as well as motivating for others. Nursing leadership
is basically defined as the component of influencing others in order to improve the quality of
care along with the direct participation in clinical care (McFadden, Stock & Gowen III,
2015). Leaders are always responsible in enhancing the confidence level of the co-workers
which ensures a workplace environment where all the workers are dedicated and performing
together to achieve the best outcome. When a task is performed in a group, under the
supervision of a leader then the goal becomes common which is easier and faster to achieve.
Nursing is a dynamic profession which requires a strong leadership to provide an effective
result. Needless to say, an efficient leader helps an organization to be more productive and

reputed. On the other hand, safety of the patients is the prime target of all the healthcare
organizations across the world (Phaneuf, Boudrias, Rousseau & Brunelle, 2016). The
responsibility or discipline in nursing practice emphasizes safety of the patients. While
receiving treatment, it is the right of the patients to get a safe care from the nurses. Preventing
the errors of care and reducing the adverse effects of healthcare nurses are also responsible to
establish the safety of the patients. According to many authors, patients’ safety can be
achieved through proper prevention, reduction, reporting and analyzing. A safe care can
increase patients’ satisfaction and adherence to the treatment which in turn improves the
reputation of the healthcare organization (McFadden, Stock & Gowen III, 2015).
Relationship between these two
Nurses are responsible for the standard of safe care to the patients. The evidence-
based nursing practice is widely accepted as a prime tool of establishing holistic care in to
practice. Safe care indicates organizational success and it is highly dependent on the working
method of nurses. The performances of the nurses can only be enhanced with an effective
leader. Nurses who understand the emerging science of complexity are more likely to be
prepared for facing any kind of issue in nursing and inspire other to achieve a common goal.
Such nurses are the leaders of the team and this kind of leadership is the cornerstone of
patients’ safety. In studies, many researchers clearly indicated that leadership plays a crucial
role in strengthening the quality and the integration of care (Boamah, Laschinger, Wong &
Clarke, 2018). It has been reported by the researchers that significant leadership style as well
as optimum level of patient satisfaction can effectively reduce all kinds of medication error
and the other adverse effects found in healthcare. In addition, some other studies in this
regard discussed that empowering leadership is directly associated to the patient health
outcomes and it promotes greater nursing expertise. Also, there are many publications and
studies which also clearly mentioned that leadership style is one of the key elements in

improving the quality of care. If the nursing leader is highly efficient then providing safe care
becomes easier.
Different leadership styles
Different leadership styles are there and one of them is democratic leadership style. In
this leadership style, while taking any organizational decision, feedback and opinion from all
the team members is collected and after an analysis, the final decision is taken by the leader.
This leadership style is quite effective in nursing and with leadership practice, all the nurses
feel valued and it encourages them in their work. In democratic leadership style, an open
communication and interaction among the nurses is supported which is quite effective in
establishing a positive relationship among all the team members and the other staffs. Another
leadership style is transactional leadership (De Brún, Heavey, Waring, Dawson & Scott,
2017). In this kind of leadership, the leaders are constantly identifying the deficiencies in the
performance of the organization. In this practice the nurse is not punished but the problem is
identified and proper actions are taken to avoid that further. The transactional leadership has
a major place in nursing profession as it helps in reducing error and enhances evidence based
care approach in the practice. However, this kind of leadership may not be the best one for
creating an inspirational or motivational environment for all the employees. When the
performance deficiencies of employees are identified then it can affect them negatively.
Transformation leadership is another style of leadership that is most effective in nursing
practice. It is pivotal in clinical practice and according to authors, the transformational
leadership promotes patients’ safety and when the workplace or clinical settings requires a
big change for the improvement purpose then transformational leadership can be the most
effective (Phaneuf, Boudrias, Rousseau & Brunelle, 2016). A transformational leader always
develops high nurse satisfaction along with an exceptional nursing care. The transformational
leaders act as coach or mentor to foster a climate of personal development of all the nurses.

However, when there is a need of day to day decision making in clinical settings then
transformational leadership cannot be the best option to choose.
Their role in promoting patients’ safety
A democratic leader always supports an open communication. When the interaction
among all the staffs is clear then it significantly helps in reducing all kinds of clinical error
and promotes patients’ safety. This leadership encourages all the nurses to work together in
order to achieve the common goal of patients’ safety and in this way, the holistic nursing
approaches can be established properly (Frankel & PGCMS, 2019). Again, the transactional
leadership identifies the gap in the performance of the employees and thus the care deficiency
is identified. In this way, their performance can be improved. Nurses can find their own fault
and take all the necessary steps to uproot them. This practice never punishes the nurse who is
making the fault but still, identifying their faults can impact their mental state which might
have potential to affect the delivery of care (Cummings et al., 2018). On the other hand, the
transformational leadership is extremely efficient in improving the working structure of the
nurses that focuses in better care experience of the patients. The main target of the
transformation is to enhance and improve the quality of care that implements the safety of the
patients. According to many authors, all the leadership styles are necessary in different
perspective of care and all combined together can be most effective in promoting patients’
safety.
Example with a specific patients’ safety issue
From the various clinical errors, fall of older adults can be considered as an example.
Older adults while staying in hospitals may fall accidentally due to lack of attention of the
nurses as such patients generally suffer from stability issue. Older adults require high
attention from the nurses in this purpose. A transactional leadership can be effective in such

cases to identify the deficiency of care that causes falls among the patients. In this was nurses
can also recognize their own fault and improves their working performance to provide the
best care. Also, democratic leadership can be effective to have open communication among
the staffs and patients which will reduce the cause of accidental falls of the patients.
Therefore, it can be said that a combination of different leadership styles can be most
effective in reducing any clinical error and it also helps in providing a best care experience to
the patients (Chua, Basti & Hassan, 2018).
Conclusion
Patients’ safety is the main concern of all the healthcare professionals and nursing
performance is highly associated with the safe care. Leadership among the nurses is essential
in this regard. Different leadership styles are there that promotes patients’ safety and
reputation of the healthcare organization. Here, in the paper, the definition of leadership and
patients’ safety has been clearly discussed. Simultaneously, the relationship between these
two has been analyzed. Again, the paper discussed some of the leadership styles that can be
effective in clinical practice. Also, their role in promoting patients’ safety has been stated in
the paper. An example of patients’ safety is considered in the paper and the appropriate
leadership style to address the issue has also been discussed. Finally, it can be concluded that
an effective leadership in the nursing practice can promote patients’ safety and reputation of
the organization.

References
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