Clinical Leadership: Leadership Styles and Patient Safety Essay

This essay delves into the crucial relationship between leadership styles and patient safety within healthcare settings. It begins by defining leadership and patient safety, establishing their interconnectedness. The essay then examines two primary leadership styles: transactional and transformational leadership. Transactional leadership, characterized by contingent rewards and punishments, is analyzed for its impact on healthcare practices, including medication error reduction. Transformational leadership, with its emphasis on vision, inspiration, and individual consideration, is explored for its role in fostering a positive nursing environment and minimizing errors. The paper highlights the characteristics of a transformational leader, such as courage and the ability to convince and motivate nurses. The essay concludes by emphasizing the importance of effective leadership in enhancing the quality of healthcare and ensuring patient safety, suggesting that a transformational approach is beneficial for long-term goals while transactional leadership suits short-term objectives.

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Introduction
Leadership is a practical skill that encompasses the capability of an individual to lead or
guide other people or trams in an organization.it are a process of social influence whereby an
individual enlists functional behavior, situational interaction, and conduct. Leadership emergence
is thought to be the cause of many personality characteristics. Some of the personality
characteristics include; authenticity, assertiveness, emotional intelligence, and social motivation,
among others. Leadership emergence is an idea that particular people are born with specific traits
for leadership and that those without those particular characteristics do not become leaders.
There is no evidence that there is a leadership gene that is inherited. However, we inherit traits
that influence our decision to seek leadership (Amanchukwu, Stanley, & Ololube, 2015).
Leadership is essential for teams to achieve their objectives. This paper will discuss two types of
leadership and how these leadership styles affect the performance of nurses in healthcare
institutions. The leadership styles will also discuss the nursing practices that ensure there is client
safety.
A leadership style is a style that provides direction, does an implementation of plans and
motivates workers. It comes as a result of personality, an experience that the leader has or the
developed models in the comprehension of leadership (Frankel & PGCMS, 2019). In and
healthcare situation, leadership styles are used in motivating the staff members, punishing them
and also rewarding them. Leadership styles in healthcare change, according to the case. Effective
leadership is crucial since it ensures that there is optimality in hospital performance and, a high-
quality healthcare system that would offer efficient care and ensure patient safety (Long, Yusof,
Kowang, & Heng, 2014).

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Leadership and Patient Safety
There exists an excellent correlation between leadership and patient safety. Leadership is
a skill that an individual possesses so that he can lead an organization, a team, or even other
individuals (Antonakis & Day, 2017). Patient safety, on the other hand, refers to the discipline of
the healthcare sector that employs safety science methodologies towards the objective of
achieving a system of healthcare delivery. Patient safety is an attribute of healthcare systems
since it minimizes therapeutic errors and maximizes patient recovery. Effective clinical
leadership is vital in ensuring that there is high-quality care system and that healthcare
institutions provide safe and efficient care. Leadership is critical in the improvement of quality
and safety. Patient safety is upheld by ensuring that there is proper engagement with the parents
and families of the patients, checking and updating procedures, and learning from errors (Özer &
Tınaztepe, 2014). It is also essential to have effective communication with the healthcare team.
The activities are also important since they help in saving cost and also minimize harms caused
to patients. In most occasions, nurses are the one who possesses the most significant impact on
the safety of patients. Patient safety is a crucial part of nursing care. It aims at preventing any
errors that can be avoided. Patient safety is a feature of the healthcare system that can be used in
improving care (Amanchukwu, Stanley, & Ololube, 2015).
Transactional Leadership
Transactional leadership is essential in a clinical setting. This kind of leadership style is
based on a contingent reward. It depends on the delivery of the job outcome. In this case, the
transactional leader establishes goals and objectives and provides direction, offers awards to the
employees in meeting the objectives by praising and recognizing them and also increasing their

LEADERSHIP STYLES AND PATIENT SAFETY 4
merit in terms of job promotion (Iqbal, Anwar, & Haider, 2015). Leaders who use a transactional
leadership style give rewards to exemplary behavior, punish detrimental conduct, and control the
topmost hierarchy (Amanchukwu, Stanley, & Ololube, 2015).
In the alteration that occurs in transactional leadership, the basic needs of both the leader
and the follower are achieved, and for the case of nursing practice, the leaders and nurses have a
shared vision. The nurses agree to complete the assigned duties to meet the guidelines (Jiang,
2014). This kind of leadership style has little emphasis on job satisfaction and organizational
commitment. The nursing departments that utilize the transactional leadership style may have a
published vision and a statement of goals that were developed by the transactional leader or the
top management that possesses very little input (Amanchukwu, Stanley, & Ololube, 2015).
At the unit category, a nurse may be requested by the manager to come up with a unified vision.
The manager may then reference this document in staff gatherings and place it in matriculation
folders for the recruits (Anderson & Sun, 2017). Transactional leadership is vital in nursing since
it helps the organization meet its goals in the short term.
Effects in the Safety of Patients
Transactional leadership is associated with rewarding and punishing nurses for their
work. Through the transactional leadership style, there are improved healthcare services. To
make sure that there is efficient therapeutic practices and minimization of medication errors,
transactional leaders make sure that they ensure patient safety by punishing any mistakes
occurring and monitoring the progress of the workers closely (Nanjundeswaraswamy & Swamy,
2014). Through the latter, medication errors like inappropriate prescriptions and unethical
standards in healthcare are minimized.

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Transformational leadership
Transformational leadership is vital in the management of healthcare and in strengthening
the quality of outcome in a clinical setting. A transformational leader is cherished since he has
several distinguishable characteristics that foster the quality of healthcare delivery and hence
increased patient safety (Amanchukwu, Stanley, & Ololube, 2015). The following are some of
the features portrayed by a transformational leader.
A transformational pioneer can show an institutional standard that they anticipate that
every specialist should cling to. The pioneers can impart their primary goal and vision, desires,
and the technique by which the standard would be connected all through the foundation
(Amanchukwu, Stanley, & Ololube, 2015). While it is a piece of popular expression, exercises
do talk more exceptional than words — and when pioneers live according to the standard they
set, people pay notice. Pioneers ensure a lot, yet the completion influences a leader's capability of
bringing out change and get buy-in (Amanchukwu, Stanley, & Ololube, 2015). In value-based
administration, the pioneer goes about as chief of progress. The following shows the
characteristics of a transformational leader;
Courage
As a leader, the transformational leader is faced with many challenges. The leader is, at
all times, willing to accept and tackle new challenges to the best of his knowledge. A
transformational leader prepares for these challenges by creating a clear vision and objectives in
the healthcare system (Anderson & Sun, 2017).

LEADERSHIP STYLES AND PATIENT SAFETY 6
Convincing
A transformational leader can convince the nurses to strive to achieve the best in their
work. The leaders have a positive attribute towards their job. When encouraged, nurses feel that
they are part of the organization and work tirelessly to achieve the goals of the institution
(Amanchukwu, Stanley, & Ololube, 2015). To make sure that the nurses do not feel discouraged
in their work, the leaders view the mistakes that the nurses make as common mistakes in nursing
and not ignorance or a form of incompetence. The latter lead to minimal errors, and therefore the
safety of patients is maintained. Patient safety is also supported. Transformational leadership is
associated with an improved nursing environment (Amanchukwu, Stanley, & Ololube, 2015).
There are minimal medication errors since the nurses do not skip their duties hence minimization
of errors of omission. The nurses also ensure that they follow the medical history of patients,
administer medications keenly, and provide the correct dosage that should be taken by the
patient. Through this, the safety of patients in transformational leadership is assured
(Amanchukwu, Stanley, & Ololube, 2015).
Conclusion
Effectiveness in leadership is a vital factor in ensuring and enhancing quality healthcare
in all departments. Leadership styles are essential in the integration of care for the patients.
Nurses also need effective leadership for them to perform their duties effectively. An effective
leader can influence his subordinate workers to .the leader can establish a personal relationship
between him and the followers and strives to fulfill the needs of the workers. In a clinical
situation, a transformational leader can introduce changes that would lead to patient safety. The
leader ensures that the nurses are acknowledged in their exceptional efforts. The transformational

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leader also makes sure that there are minimal errors in healthcare by viewing the mistakes made
has a learning process and not incompetence. Transformational leadership is good, whereby the
organization wants to achieve long term goals. Transactional leadership, on the other hand, is
vital whereby the organization intends to meet short term goals.

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References
Amanchukwu, R. N., Stanley, G. J., & Ololube, N. P. (2015). A review of leadership theories,
principles and styles and their relevance to educational management. Management, 5(1),
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Anderson, M. H., & Sun, P. Y. (2017). Reviewing leadership styles: Overlaps and the need for a
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Frankel, A., & PGCMS, R. (2019). What leadership styles should senior nurses develop?
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Iqbal, N., Anwar, S., & Haider, N. (2015). Effect of leadership style on employee performance.
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Jiang, J. (2014). The study of the relationship between leadership style and project success.
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Long, C. S., Yusof, W. M., Kowang, T. O., & Heng, H. L. (2014). The impact of
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Nanjundeswaraswamy, T. S., & Swamy, D. R. (2014). Leadership styles. Advances in
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Özer, F., & Tınaztepe, C. (2014). Effect of strategic leadership styles on firm performance: A
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