A Study On Clinical Nurse Leader

Observing and analyzing my leader opened my eyes to the amount of responsibility and knowledge one needs to be a great leader. These responsibilities that were witnessed during the shadowing project included aspects of role modeling, mentoring and educating fellow staff and colleagues alike. My leader possessed a well-rounded amount of experience, skills and knowledge about nursing and her management role. All of these aspects we observed and I feel my leader is not only strong nurse, manger and mentor; all these aspects contribute to making her a fine and valuable assets to our organization.

This paper aims to address and discuss about the leadership and management of the nurse leader interviewed. This experience was a great opportunity to witness first hand how a nurse leader cultivate and manage their staffs in real life setting. Moreover, it provides a great access to gain insight and knowledge about nurse leaders’ vital responsibilities and role diversities in the organizations they work with. Nurse leaders pay more specific and close attention in handling the staffs and most importantly, patient care.

American Association of College of Nursing (2012).White Paper on The Role of the Clinical Nurse Leader Retrived from: http://www.aacn.nche.edu/publications/white-papers/cnl

The Institute of Medicine’s 2010 report on The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health acknowledges the changing healthcare sector in the US and describes future vision of healthcare and the role of nurses to fulfill that vision. The United States always strives to provide affordable and quality healthcare to the entire population of the country. In order to achieve this goal an overall restructuring of the healthcare system was necessitated. Nurses are considered to be the central part of the healthcare system to provide high quality and safe patient care. Nursing in the US is the single largest segment of the healthcare workforce with almost 3 million nurses working in different areas across the county. The changing

Slide 2: A Nurse Executive is a master’s educated individual who is knowledgeable and has developed strong interpersonal relationships with the interdisciplinary team. This individual is accountable and compassionate, showing respect and excellence in their practice. The nurse leader is able to adapt to change especially in regards to technological advances and innovative methods of caring for patients. A driven leader empowers their staff to create an environment that is inclusive and ultimately productive using the team-nursing concept. Individual weaknesses are noted and built upon using team training and consistent educational in-services. This

Nurse leaders are the background to the nursing care. Effective nurse leaders can promote a positive workforce and a healthy work place for other nurses. Workplace dynamics is an essential part of how each nurse functions. Nurses, being mentally and physically stressed, need to have support and guidance from a nurse leader to feel confident about performance. The impact of nursing leaders can be a positive and guiding force for the younger or more inexperienced nurse. Having strong relationships with solid leaders can instill values in the beginning stages of a newer nurses’ career. Gaining insight and core concepts from a more experienced leader can make a world of difference in the way a new nurse performs, provides patient care, and sets future goals for themselves. A newer nurse with a positive role model and nurse leader can model themselves to become a leader for future nurses.

There are many way in which nurses could contribute leadership to improve the health care system to provide advance patient care. IOM states that, “serving as strong patient advocates, nurses must be involved in decision making about how to improve the delivery of care” (IOM, 2011, p. 222). In order to have a voice in the health care reform, nurses need to take opportunities to be involve in committees or board meetings and participate in making policies. The IOM “committee believes there will be numerous opportunities for nurses to help develop and implement care

The position of Clinical Nurse Leader (CNL) was designed specifically to address poor patient outcomes, including death and misdiagnoses, at significant numbers of health facilities. According to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing, in 1999, fewer people were enrolling in baccalaureate nursing programs, and the Institute of Medicine was very concerned with the high numbers of medical errors being reported, and overall patient safety. In 2007, the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN), the Department of Veteran Affairs (DVA), and other organizations, put forward the proposal of adding a clinical nurse leader position into the nursing profession, its first new nursing position in 35

Leadership is encountered in every occupation and in everyday life. In nursing, leadership is not only prevalent; it is crucial to patient care and employee satisfaction. The nurse leader that was interviewed was a nurse at the Newport Hospital in Newport, Washington. This is a small hospital in a rural community. She is a charge nurse in the acute care unit, as well as in charge of leading infection control in the hospital. With these roles comes a lot of responsibility, and tasks that must be completed in a timely manner to create a workflow for the rest of the staff. There is a lot of juggling and balancing everything that is included in all of those positions.

One thing is for certain, I listen and encourage the nurses’ inputs and opinions when it comes to changes regarding the department. I empower the nurses to have their voices heard and their actions be seen throughout the company and give credit where credit is due. I also encourage them to be better nurses and utilize their skills to the max, i.e. applying their rehabilitative nursing certification through trainings throughout the company.

The CNL provides direct clinical leadership at point of care in order to advance care delivery that is safe, evidence based and targeted towards optimal quality outcomes. The CNL education is focused on analyzing the microstructure to improve patient outcomes, streamline processes and facilitate cost reduction therefore I see the CNL benefiting 4S/3S/ACE as a point of care leader wh focuses on nursing quality indicators, JCAHO standards/initiatives, as well as organizational goals.

In the Sotomayor’s report (2017), from 2010 to 2015, CNLs led substantial improvement in the incidence of patient falls, catheter-associated urinary tract infection, central line-associated blood stream infection, and hospital-acquired pressure ulcer on medical-surgical units. The CNLs are able to detect issues of the environment, cooperate with other health professionals, lead the health care team and comply with the trend in providing quality care and changes to improve the care in the diverse healthcare settings.

There are many skills, traits, and behaviors one must possess in order to be an effective leader. The American Organization of Nurse Executives (AONE) has compiled a list of competencies and skills that nurse leaders should be proficient in. The five competency domains identified by AONE (2011) are “communication and relationship building, knowledge of health care environment, leadership skills, professionalism, and business skills” (p. 3). The competency domain I believe is essential for one to possess in order to be an effective executive nurse leader is communication and relationship building. The competencies AONE (2011) listed under the domain communication and relationship building are “effective communication, relationship management, influence of behavior, ability to work with diversity, shared decision-making, community involvement, medical staff relationship, and academic relationships” (p.3). I will discuss how Tom (nurse manager of a psychiatric unit) did not meet these specific characteristics under that domain.

In recent years, the healthcare industry has seen a significant decline in the quality of patient care it provides. This has been the result of reduced staffing levels, overworked nurses, and an extremely high nurse to patient ratio. The importance of nurse staffing in hospital settings is an issue of great controversy. Too much staff results in costs that are too great for the facility to bear, but too little staffing results in patient care that is greatly hindered. Moreover, the shaky economy has led to widespread budget cuts; this, combined with the financial pressures associated with Medicare and private insurance companies have forced facilities to make due with fewer

Nurses are known as the heart of health care. Being a nurse is a demanding job that requires commitment, but does not lack rewards. A fact stated by the American Association of Colleges of Nurses claims that “Nurses comprise the largest single component of hospital staff, are the primary providers of hospital patient care, and deliver most of the nation 's long-term care” (“Nursing Fact Sheet”). With many roles throughout the healthcare system as a whole, nurses are a large, very important role that interacts with every other part of the health care system. They have great qualities that not everyone has. They are highly compassionate, caring, professional, diligent and understanding individuals. A nurse experiences people at their worst and still care for patients in a way that no one else would. All these honest points prove that nurses are the most important members of the health care system because, nurses spend the most time with patients, nurses are the managers of patient care; they are teachers and are great with conflict resolution.