Nursing Leadership Interview Reflection: Healthcare Setting Insights

This essay reflects on an interview conducted with a healthcare leader, Ms. Anne Murrey, focusing on leadership styles in a hospital setting. The student, a nursing student, explores different leadership approaches, including autocratic, democratic, transformational, and transactional leadership. The interview delves into Ms. Murrey's preferred styles—democratic and transformational—and how she applies them in practice, highlighting the advantages and challenges of each. The reflection discusses the leader's experiences, the importance of employee involvement, and the impact of leadership on patient care and organizational change, supported by relevant literature and research. The essay provides insights into future leadership practice and offers recommendations for change based on the interview and research findings.

Running head: NURSING
Nursing
Name of student:
Name of university:
Author note:

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Nursing leadership has been considered as an integral element of optimal quality
healthcare delivery that influences health outcomes to a great extent. Leadership is about acting
in a responsible manner in the respected organization for the fulfilment of goals and objectives
of services. Being a leader is more than taking strong stances in decision making. It is more
about acting as a source of inspiration and serving individuals in the setting whom the person is
leading. Empowering others through leadership is related to devoting oneself to a group of
individuals for successful achievement of set goals in the organizational context. Since
leadership is a widely researched subject with different implications in different settings,
understanding the concept requires extensive analysis of personal viewpoints of leaders.
Conducting interviews with leaders in healthcare settings is a valuable way of coming across the
perceptions and experiences of credible leaders. The present essay discusses in details an
interview conducted with a healthcare leader in a health care setting. The paper is based on the
informative interview that provided a chance to exercise personal communication and
interpersonal skills. The focused are for the interview was leadership style, and key themes
arising from the interview are highlighted. The interview provided a chance to gain deep insights
into the different aspects of leadership styles and the applicability of the same in clinical
practice. The essay is a reflection on personal experience and discusses personal learning from
experience with support from relevant literature and research. Further, insight into future
leadership practice is included in the paper, and recommendations for change are mentioned.
As a nursing student, I had developed an interest to understand further the benefits and
challenges in healthcare leadership and how I can apply the same in practice. The topic of
nursing leadership and development had always gained my attention, and I aim to prepare
myself as a leader in future. One question that has made to think critically about is what the
different leadership styles are and which one of these best suits the needs in a healthcare
context. Throughout my course, I have explored different aspects of leadership and gained
knowledge for future practice. The interview which is being reflected upon in the present essay
was conducted with Ms Anne Murrey who works as a healthcare leader in charge at a reputed
city hospital. The interview was an opportunity to discuss the different leadership styles in the
nursing field exemplified through her who has fifteen years experience in her field. Anne had
received an award by the healthcare department as an appreciation of her commitment,
dedication and experience. This spurred me to interview her and understand further on the
meaning of leadership, the mostly used leadership styles, the advantages of the same, the
challenges faced and the responsibilities that come along as a nurse professional. In my

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personal interview, I decided to learn about the skills she employed to ensure effective
leadership.
The very first question that I asked the interview was regarding what inspired her to
become a part of the healthcare workforce. To this, she replied that the eagerness to work for
the society and promote a better quality of life was instilled in her from her childhood. She had
decided to study nursing as it is perceived as a divine way of serving the needs of the
community. I agreed to her that nursing is a noble profession in which the aim is to alleviate
human sufferings. I considered it to be desirable to commence on the discussion about
leadership with a special focus on distinct leadership styles. I then engaged in understanding
the definition of leadership as perceived by her. According to Anne, healthcare leadership is the
behavior of the individual that directs the activities of the followers towards the shared goal of
enabling better healthcare service delivery. The key aspects of the leadership role are enabling
group activities and coping with change. According to her, a strong component of leadership is
to focus on the strengths of the followers and influence them to fulfil a certainly agreed aim. The
idea given by her led me to further understand the importance of appropriate leadership in
healthcare service. Good leadership is a way of caring for the work environment and advocating
for individual’s rights is crucial (Al-Sawai, 2013). According to Swanwick and McKimm (2017),
leadership and delegation lead to a caring environment and patient’s safety is ensured in this
process. Leadership further makes the employee’s secure about their ownership of patient care.
Notably, suitable leadership is advantageous for both the employees and the patients.
As per my understanding, leadership is viewed by different people in a different manner.
The idea of which leadership approach is suitable might vary between individuals. I was
interested in knowing more about the qualities and features of a good leader. Anne answered
my query and stated that a good leader is defined by the discreet leadership style she exhibits.
However, at the core of an effective leadership styles lies the need of improving patient’s care. I
was overwhelmed to know that Anne perceived listening to the follower’s ideas as the hallmark
of leadership. She believed that the transition from working at the bedside to taking up the
responsibility of a leader needs immense efforts. She commented that she had been fair in her
decision making processes and established honest relationships with her colleagues. I later took
interest on learning more about this aspect. According to Ward (2017), a leader is not to make
judgments in a hasty manner without involving the concerned stakeholders. An effective
relationship with the followers ensures that integrity is defended at all levels. Anne further
commented that she had been following the set guidelines and rules and delivering

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compassionate care. An intricacy when bearing in mind leadership of healthcare professionals
is the fact that the styles have not evolved within the healthcare context (Boyd et al., 2017).
Though I had a preconceived idea that there are different forms of leadership as
applicable in diverse settings, I lacked a clear understanding of the leadership styles that have
been more relevance to healthcare settings as evident from practice and literature. Anne
reflected that the leadership styles that are more relevant in healthcare context are autocratic
leadership, democratic leadership, transformational leadership, and transactional leadership.
She took interest in describing in short the implications of apply these leadership styles and the
benefits and challenges of the same. In her viewpoint, autocratic leadership revolves around the
sole viewpoints of the leader. In such a leadership form, a leader has the sole responsibility and
authority for taking decisions. Leaders do not consider the input of the followers in the decision
making process. Anne commented that she had witnessed other leader exhibit such form of
leadership wherein the autocratic leader only added to policies, procedures and guidelines in
the setting. Autocratic leadership leads to poor healthcare delivery as a collaboration between
healthcare workers are missing. Coming to democratic leadership, subordinates are involved in
the decision making process and thus is highly contrasting with autocratic leadership.
Transformational leadership, on the other hand, is mainly involves the initiation of the key
change in organizations and individuals. Transactional leadership continues and maintains the
status quo.
At this juncture I was interested to know which leadership style she preferred and why.
Anne proceeded to discuss her preferred leadership style and how she exhibits the same. Anne
was glad to inform that her favorite styles of leadership were democratic leadership style and
transformation leadership style that she exhibited in per practice as per the needs of the
situation. Since I believed that Anne was competent enough to act as a good leader and had
already gained an immense reputation for her contributions, I decided to explore more about
these two leadership styles through the interview and successive literature search.
Upon requested, Anne pondered over her experiences and opinions about the two
leadership styles that she felt was very important in the present era. She felt that democratic
leadership and transformational leadership holds the potential to enable professionals to
address the evolving needs of patients presenting with diverse conditions. Anne stated that she
prefers using democratic leadership style when the inclusion of other staff members is needed
for completion of a task. At the time of need of active role of staff members, democratic

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leadership is useful. Such conditions include decision making process regarding a patient care
when input from a multidisciplinary team is entailed. On one instance, a critical patient case was
to be handled by the team and Anne though that the only way to motivate the staffs to put in
their best efforts was to exhibit democratic leadership, thereby establishing a healthy
relationship with the staffs. On the other hand, Anne prefers using transformation leadership
when issues are highly complex and demands chief input from the leader. The need for
inclusion of increased inspiration from the leader guides her to adhere to this leadership style.
For instance, when there is an ethical issue to be resolved, she prefers this leadership form.
Further, she also said that her leadership views were evolving and that I must further engage in
continual research for understanding the core concepts of the leadership styles.
At this juncture, I was interested to know the advantages of democratic and
transformation leadership styles and requested Anne to say a few words on the same, reflecting
on her experience. Anne reported that while she worked previously at a different healthcare
setting, the unit had a high employee turnover rate. Under this situation, she decided on to
adhere to the democratic leadership style and met each subordinate in a private manner for
gaining insight into their work process. The aim was to understand the key reasons behind the
high attrition rate. Through the meetings, Anne learnt that the issues faced were lack of
supplies, misunderstandings and long working hour. These factors had comprehensively led to
increased burnout. After these issues were addressed, the turnover rates could be controlled.
While working at a differ healthcare setting, as described by Anne, Anne felt the need of
demonstrating transformational leadership style at many instances, due to the demand of
bringing practice change in the setting. She highlighted that the rising demands of the
healthcare system demanded an advanced health information system to be used within the
units. A large number of mistakes were being made to while maintaining a patient record and
thus use of electronic health record was necessary. Anne as the transformational leader needed
to instigate the change through a smooth process. She brought about the practice change in a
three-step process. First, she made the team realize the issue that was being faced and the
implications for it. This was done by carrying out one-on-one sessions with the members. Next,
the need was to create a vision of the required practice paradigm. The advantages of using
electronic health records were explained in details to the members. Lastly, the need of the hour
was to work in collaboration and enforce the change. Training was provided to ensure that the
members became acquainted with the process. Anne had concluded that transformational

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leadership was effective in influencing the members to support the change through persuasion.
Goal setting and goal achievement was successful
I had heard about Lassiez-Faire leadership style previously, and thought of asking Anne
about her opinion regarding the same. She opined that Laissez-Faire leadership style gives
significant authority to the followers and is least satisfying. Further research made me realize
that healthcare workers work under ineffective management supervision when this form of
leadership is implemented (Merrill, 2015). The leadership style has been denoted as a delegate
form of leadership where the guidance of the leaders is minimal. Since followers have the
complete freedom to make their decisions, it is unfavourable for health outcomes. Care
professionals might, under such a condition, take up inappropriate decisions regarding patient
care that is not aligned with the current need (Thomas, 2015).
The interview ended by thanking Anne for her valuable time and consideration. A small
token of appreciation was gifted to her for her valuable inputs and suggestions. The interview
was a valuable experience that exposed me to the in-depth concept of healthcare leadership
and more precisely the different styles of leadership that can influence care delivery. Anne
inspired me to engage in continuous professional development and walk in the path of veracity
and integrity. Anne has acted as a role model for me, and I want to become as hard-working
and dedicated as she is in future. As she is not opinionated and is free of prejudice, her
professionalism has guided me immensely.
At the end of the interview, I find it to be imperative to come up with desirable leadership
skills in future so that I can integrate innovation into my practice. As a leader, I would ensure
that my working environment is not dictatorial. Rather, I would want to make the same a
consultative one so that there is no place for malpractices within the setting. I further endeavour
to promote my professional morality and ethics in my concerned field. An aim would also be to
stay abreast of advances in leadership methods by researching for ensuring effectiveness
(Jumaa & Alleyne, 2017). In shall also uphold customer relations for inspiring confidence
through offering sympathy, affection and empowerment. This would help to boast an interactive
relationship with my clients and serve them better (Liang et al., 2016). A leader in a healthcare
setting is a person who is supposed to exhibit interpersonal skills for influencing others while
striving to accomplish a particular goal through a flexible repertoire of personal values and
behaviours (Holten & Brenner, 2015). I further understood that a healthcare leader must take up
the role of change enabler in alignment with the values and needs of the organization.

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Based on the key insights gained from the interview, my preferred leadership style in
future would be transformational leadership and democratic leadership. As a leader, my role
would be critically important to my effectiveness and career advancement. According to Lin et
al., (2015) transformational leadership is the distinct process in which changes are transmitted
throughout the setting through persuasion. In this leadership theory, staff members are to be
motivated to perform certain actions within the expected level. Weng et al. (2015) in this regard
had mentioned that the four features of transformational leadership are confidence, trust,
respect and charisma. As a transformational leader, I would stimulate my staffs and change
their beliefs in alignment with the needs of thee organization. As opined by Spano-Szekely et
al., (2016) transformational leaders must lead the followers to carry out a critical examination of
their beliefs and viewpoints. However, there would be a need for providing inspirational
motivation to the staff members so that the vision of the setting could be communicated
appropriately (Fischer, 2016). I believe transformational leaders can motivate employees to look
into the wider perspectives of healthcare service. A critical analysis of transformational
leadership style would guide my future practice as a transformational leader. Transformational
leaders are born leaders and cultivate skills through the process of supervising followers. Such
form of leadership can lead to ineffective solutions under certain circumstances (Ross et al.,
2014).
From the research of McKeown and Carey (2015) and Barr and Dowding (2015), I have
gained an immense understanding of the democratic leadership that I would apply in my
practice. Democratic leaders are to encourage open communication and include team members
in the decision making process. I would pay attention to establish relationships with my follower
so that a strong rapport is created with them. Democratic leaders share the responsibility of
delegating tasks with the staff members, presenting the problem and asking for help.
Consultation would be at the core of leadership. Huber (2017) opined that democratic
leadership leads to less stress, rapid decision making, increased efficiency and less oversight.
In future, as a leader, I would communicate the vision of the organization in an exciting,
meaningful and creative manner. I would also empower them to put in their best efforts in
healthcare delivery. My motto would be to motivate staffs to perform beyond expectations
through the capability of influencing attitudes. The outlook would include broader aspects other
than management, supervision, an organization of work and monitoring of task. Personalizing
the leadership style as per the needs, skills and different personalities of the team would be
elementary (Xu, 2017). Acting as a mentor instead of a manager would be beneficial. Both

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transformational and democratic leadership would entail me to encourage creativity. Fostering
innovation through challenging assumptions is crucial for my success as a leader. As opined by
Finkelman (2015) providing intellectual stimulation and exuding inspirational motivation is crucial
for completion of tasks by team members. The importance of continual learning in professional
development deserves special mention. I would strive to carry out extensive research on the
updated information on key leadership styles.
In conclusion, conducting an interview with the notable healthcare leader gave me an
opportunity to learn more about the importance of leadership in the present era. It was an
informative experience for me as I gather a renewed understanding of the key concepts of
different leadership styles. Leadership theory is self-motivated and prolongs to change over
time. At this juncture, I would like to mention that I feel leadership encompasses a holistic focus
on shared culture and processes. Further, I have developed the understanding that for
becoming a successful leader, I would need to demonstrate the appropriate leadership style as
suited for the respective situation. Each leadership has its own merit and demerit, and the
multidimensional aspects are to be analyzed before deciding upon which style to exhibit. The
leadership styles that I came across through the interview were transformational leadership,
transactional leadership, democratic leadership, autocratic leadership and Lassiez-Faire
leadership. Some distinct examples of how these influence the task completion process was
known. A gained a clear picture regarding the applicability of transformational leadership and
democratic leadership in my practice. I would like to mention that my future practice would be
guided by key insights gained from the interview.

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