Introduction
Clinical leadership is a concept growing in usage. Word frequency in the English lexicon shows the term increasing in the last two decades, despite its composite words remaining static over the same period (Graphs 1 and 2).
Graph 1: Word frequency in the British Lexicon of “leadership” and “clinical” (Google 2015)
Graph 2: Word frequency in the British Lexicon of “clinical leadership” (Google 2015)
Clinical leadership as a term grew out of opposition to New Public Management (Hood 1991) and the corporatisation of health services in the 1970s to 1990s. The recent focus on catastrophic medical errors in the United Kingdom National Health Service (NHS), in particular at the Mid Staffordshire trust, has resulted in
…show more content…
Organisations are doing more to foster it, with some success, but barriers remain. Background
Leadership is often juxtaposed against management. In classical business teaching, Kotter (2001, reprint p4) defines the difference: ‘Management is about coping with complexity. Leadership (by contrast) is about coping with change.’ Leadership is more commonly distributed across all organisational levels, and leaders are seen as those who empower others to significantly improve organisation performance. Managers are those involved in performance monitoring, target setting, and most importantly with the operational oversight of employees. They organise resources and maintain stability. This is a large field, but for current purposes we accept that, though there is overlap, Kotter’s definition serves to highlight a valid distinction.
Leadership as a term has differing meanings through time. The influence of ‘Great Man’ theories stem form the socio-politico models prevalent in much of the first half of the twentieth century. However, personality traits map poorly to successful leaders, and this theory has waned. Post-war good leadership was thought to be based more around behaviours. It was out of this that models for behaviour arose, including Adair’s (1973) three circles model (task, team and individual). Truly good leadership will undoubtedly involve a mixture of nature (or traits) and nurture (behaviours). Current theory is
The purpose of this essay is to examine theories of leadership using a reflective account. The author intends to discuss how the identified theories and/or models influence clinical practice in healthcare settings. Additionally, the essay will include discussions on the ways of measuring the effectiveness of these models. Finally, recommendations for the improvement of patient and staff experiences will be provided. The essay first defines leadership in general terms, and then focuses on leadership in the health care system.
Clinical and administrative leaders of a healthcare organization are critical to the success of the EHR adoption. Right leadership would mean coming together to initiate and be committed to bringing change to the organization. “When it comes to introducing new concepts and tools to your staff, unconditional leadership support, knowledge and project management are
There has been vast amounts of research done on the topic of leadership, and yet despite this it continues to be ‘‘riddled with paradoxes, inconsistencies, and contradictions’’
Leadership has been defined in a number of ways, but the concept is still indefinable (Barr and Dowding 2016). Buchanan and Huczynski (2010, p. 596) define leadership as “a process of influencing the activities of an organised group in its efforts towards goal-setting and goal achievement”. In clinical practice, leadership translates to an ability to direct other to achieve evidence-based practice that supports enhanced patient outcomes (Kelly-Hiedenthal 2004). Like any other industries and organisations, an effective leadership skill is vital in the healthcare sector to improve the standards of the care and to achieve organisational goals (Bach and Ellis 2015). Sullivan and Decker (2004) stated that nurses often step up to the
West, M., Eckert, R., Steward, K., & Pasmore, B. (2014). Developing collective leadership for health care. London: The King’s
Level 5 Diploma in Leadership for Health and Social Care and Children and Young People’s Services (England) 3978 19+ There are no entry requirements Portfolio of Evidence, Practical Demonstration/Assignment. Automatic approval is available for centres offering the 3172 Level 4 NVQ in Health and Social Care – Adults 100/4794/3 and the 3078 Level 4 NVQ in Leadership and Management for Care Services 500/4105/8 Learner
There is no doubt organisations must have leaders to achieve share goals. In health care settings, leadership is essential and significant to promote patient safety. An effective leadership will inspire and motivate nurses to create the right culture in clinical setting. Not only will effective leadership reduce preventable harms and errors but also it accelerates the speed of achieving a satisfying health environment for both patients and health care workers. This essay will highlight the importance of effective leadership in clinical setting by starting with a clear definition of patient safety and patient safety culture, then it will explain the relationship in between patient safety and leadership. This essay will also introduce three leadership styles of authoritarian, democratic, and laissez-faire, followed by comparing their essential characteristics. Furthermore, a critical analyses will be demonstrated on how different leadership styles can help promote patient safety and reduce medication error in the inpatient hospital setting.
Leadership at times can be a complex topic to delve into and may appear to be a simple and graspable concept for a certain few. Leadership skills are not simply acquired through position, seniority, pay scale, or the amount of titles an individual holds but is a characteristic acquired or is an innate trait for the fortunate few who possess it. Leadership can be misconstrued with management; a manager “manages” the daily operations of a company’s work while a leader envisions, influences, and empowers the individuals around them.
Healthcare clinical workers have differing needs for supervision than administrative staff, this may be on account of clinical provider’s clinical knowledge and responsibilities that may not be shared by administrative leaders. The position of leaders to allow this autonomy is supported, Kerfoot (2003) states that poorly lead healthcare
Working in the health care environment the world needs effective, wise and visionary leaders, leadership matters in every organisation to change the health care environment so it may continue to grow to ensure it gives us better evidence based practice (Evans & M.L, 2015, p 34-50). All health care professionals are required at some point in their position to engage in management or leadership. As an AIN, EN or RN they all have a responsibility to educate, lead and manage within the health care profession (Innis & Berta, 2016, p.2-22). This allows each individual to develop useful and excellent leadership skills and management strategies to be able to educate and lead an exceptional team (Innis & Berta, 2016, p. 2-22). Although our greatest
Leadership is increasingly important in today's society. Many experts and scholars point out that the current leadership crisis concerns moral and character problems in many leaders (Ahn, Ettner, & Loupin, 2012; Callahan, 2004; Wright & Quick, 2011). The following interview report is intended primarily for exploration and comparison of the traits and characteristics of leadership. A leader of a clinical medicine centre was interviewed for this report. The purpose of this report is to explore the leadership characters and traits, and how they can be developed in this turbulent environment. First, I make a brief introduction regarding the background of the respondent and her working environment. The report also describes this
Some theorists use the terms ‘leadership’ and ‘management’ reciprocally as if they are tantamount with one another, while others use them in a very purposeful sense to express that they are, in effect, rather different (Bush, 2003). Organisational successfulness, it is generally accepted, is dependant on both competent leadership and consistent management (Dimmock and Walker, 2005) According to Grace (1995) they do not follow from one or the other, but
Leadership is about inspiring the confidence and support of people needed to achieve organisational goals, a dynamic relationship between leaders and group members and the facilitation of contribution (DuBrin 2016, p. 3: McShane and Von Glinow 2013, p.351). Kotter (1992, p. 102) draws a distinction between management and leadership, saying the former deals with getting things done while the latter decides what to do and why, but in practice they overlap and complement each other.
Leadership is defined as utilizing an individual’s interpersonal skills to influence other individuals in order to achieve a certain goal (Sullivan and Garland 2010). In clinical practice, the principle of leadership is motivating, inspiring and promoting the values of the NHS, in order to be able to focus on all the needs of the clients. Furthermore, it helps to establish good
Leadership, according to theorist John Kotter, “…is about… coping with change” (Kotter, 1990, p. 4). By this definition, one should consider leadership to be the product of change in context and the ways in which the response to this change informs strategy. “Leadership is…a set of traits, qualities and behavior possessed by the leader that encourage the participation, development, and