Nursing Leadership Journal: Addressing Staffing and Nurse Support

This nursing leadership journal reflects on experiences during weeks 9 and 10, focusing on addressing a staffing crisis and mentoring a junior nurse. The author participated in team discussions to find solutions for the staffing shortage, acknowledging its impact on nurse burnout and patient care quality. The journal details implementing initiatives such as resource allocation, training, and incentive schemes. Furthermore, it recounts an incident involving a medication error by a junior nurse and the author's role in providing guidance, training, and support to rebuild her confidence and skills. The reflection also discusses the importance of influential leadership and servant leadership in fostering a positive organizational environment and empowering team members to achieve their full potential. The video teaches about leadership and how to influence others to meet the organization's goals.

Running head: NURSING LEADERSHIP
NURSING LEADERSHIP
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note:

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The activities where I participated in week 9 and week 10 were mainly management
based rather than clinical activity. Along with the team, we participated in the team discussion
about the staff crisis that the healthcare organization is facing now. Through the past few years,
staffing crisis had been observed and many of the professional researchers are of the opinion that
advancement in the medical field had increased the life expectancy of the people. Therefore, due
to the growth in the population of the aged individuals, there has been a huge pressure on the
nursing professionals, as they had to handle a large number of patients (van Oostveen et al.,
2015). Therefore, staffing crisis was felt as the rush of the patient inflow had increased.
Moreover, as the number of nurse is quite low in comparison to the patients, the nurses suffered
from burnouts as well as their emotional and physical health was compromised. Therefore, the
nursing professionals left their jobs. Moreover bullying was also observed. Therefore, we
undertook a bed huddle and tried to decide on the various ways by which admissions, discharges
as well as transfers within the hospital inflow can be conducted in ways by which staffing can be
accommodated properly. Poor staffing also compromised the quality of the care service and
patients were dissatisfied. Therefore, as leaders, I learnt the different initiatives that I should take
in such situations. This includes the allocation of proper resources to the human resource
department so that they can effectively take in new staffs, develop training sessions for the
already present staffs to handle the pressure effectively, introduce new incentive schemes for the
nursing professionals as well as develop an organizational culture that ensure buy-free
environment (Fox & Keisling et al., 2016). I developed good leadership skills that would help me
in my future endeavors.
One of my junior colleagues was repeatedly making medication errors that were not
being noticed as they were not resulting n threatening situations. One day, she was see to make

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terrible medication error she made when she provided a patient of 60 years old with hip
replacement with both aspirin and ibuprofen without knowing about her allergy issues. She was
seen to develop rash as well as blisters and her face had swollen up. Since the medications were
provided in association as well as in high doses, they resulted in stomach bleeding of the patient
resulting in suffering of the patient. After such incident, she got so scared and demotivated that
she thought of leaving the profession. She did not want to harm anyone else and therefore took
this decision. After the entire incident, I took upon the responsibility on myself to lead the nurse
in a way by which she not only gains knowledge but also develop the confidence with which she
used to work. Therefore, like a transformational leadership trait, I tried to motivate her in ways
by which she can not only get encouraged but also develop an enthusiasm to get over the barriers
and constitute serving for the humans. I motivated her in way by which she ensured to work
beyond her potential; to achieve the organizational goals of providing safe and quality care to
patients (Vaismorardi et al., 2016). Not only did I motivate her, but I also set myself as an
example where I narrated my experiences in times of my enrolled nurses and how through
determination and effort, I had achieved the potion of a leader. I guided her by referring her to
training sessions where she would learn about proper medication administration technique. I also
collected about 25 evidence-based papers that she can follow to develop more knowledge on the
topic. I also guided her in every of her future medication administration so that she does not
make mistakes. All these helped in developing her confidence and skills and she admitted that
she had been grateful to get my assistance in her crisis period (Parry et al., 2015).
The video teaches us many important aspects of effective leadership. The first one aspect
that I learnt is the meaning of leadership that is not to lead only but to influence others in ways
by which they can ensure their best potential. The power of influencing can help in bring out the

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best benefit for the organization where the members would be encouraged and enthusiastic to
dedicate themselves to meet the vision and mission of the organization (Washington et al., 2014).
The second important thing that I learnt is the issue of power in leadership. By practicing the
traits of servant leadership, I will develop myself in ways by which I will not rule others but
rather be in a position by which I will try to recognize the power that I have which will influence
others. The power to influence others in positive ways will help in bringing out benefits for
others and power to influence in negative ways can result in harm to the organization (Berger,
2014). All these information would help me develop proper knowledge about how to lead people
so that I can effectively manage others and lead them to success.

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References:
Berger, T. A. (2014). Servant leadership 2.0: A call for strong theory. Sociological
viewpoints, 30(1), 146.
Fox Jr, R. E., & Keisling, B. L. (2016). Build your program by building your team: Inclusively
transforming services, staffing and spaces. Journal of Library Administration, 56(5), 526-
539.
Parry, A. M., Barriball, K. L., & While, A. E. (2015). Factors contributing to Registered Nurse
medication administration error: A narrative review. International journal of nursing
studies, 52(1), 403-420.
Vaismoradi, M., Griffiths, P., Turunen, H., & Jordan, S. (2016). Transformational leadership in
nursing and medication safety education: a discussion paper. Journal of nursing
management, 24(7), 970-980.
van Oostveen, C. J., Mathijssen, E., & Vermeulen, H. (2015). Nurse staffing issues are just the
tip of the iceberg: A qualitative study about nurses’ perceptions of nurse
staffing. International journal of nursing studies, 52(8), 1300-1309.
Washington, R. R., Sutton, C. D., & Sauser Jr, W. I. (2014). How distinct is servant leadership
theory? Empirical comparisons with competing theories. Journal of Leadership,
Accountability and Ethics, 11(1), 11.

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