Engaging Others With Leadership. The Healthcare System

In today’s healthcare system, effective leadership is essential to improving and reaching organizational outcomes. A leader is someone with the ability to influence others but, an effective leader uses positive strategies to inspire employees to work towards the same goal. Leadership in nursing requires a constant effort to motivate others to become part of the organizational transformation. This can be achieved using a transformational leadership style with a focus on communication, motivation, and empowerment.

The field of nursing is one of the quintessential servant roles in our society today. We serve by taking care of our patient’s physical and mental (and sometimes spiritual) health. As a nursing student, there are three main characteristics that I have seen modeled in leaders that I think are most important to a servant-leader’s success. In my own practice, I hope to focus on all servant-leader characteristics, but these in particular as I strive for a lengthy and fulfilling career.

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.

Nurses are increasingly becoming the strong leadership in developing all aspects of health care policy and decisions. Unfortunately the shared consensus is that most nurses do not possess leadership skills adequate enough to keep up with the ever-evolving field. The IOM reports on this by stating: “Nurses at all levels need strong leadership skills to contribute to patient safety and quality of care.” (IOM, 2010 pp.223) It is felt that nurses are depicted as people who carry out

Throughout the readings communication was identified as a vital component for establishing and maintaining relationships. Porter-O Grady sanctioned for leaders to establish firm rules of engagement to help support a positive group dynamic (2013). While Kelly & Tazbir explained that friction and conflict were a normal part of group development and were representative of the Storming stage of group process (2014). Moreover, they explained that with assistance from the team leader the team can overcome these obstacles, strengthen inter-professional relationships, and enter into the Norming stage (Kelly & Tazbir, 2014). Here the team is able to participate in the effective exchange of communication and begin making progress toward goals. This represents progression into the Performing stage of group process (Kelly & Tazbir, 2014). When the team has met its intended target they are ready to anylze the outcomes of their work and enter the final stage of group process—Adjourning (Kelly & Tazbir,

In healthcare it is very important to have strong leaders, especially in the nursing profession. A nurse leader typically uses several styles of leadership depending on the situation presented; this is known as situational leadership. It is important that the professional nurse choose the right style of leadership for any given situation to ensure their employees are performing at their highest potential. Depending on which leadership style a nurse leader uses, it can affect staff retention and the morale of the employees as well as nurse job satisfaction (Azaare & Gross, 2011.) “Nursing leaders have the responsibility to create and maintain a work environment which not only promotes positive patient outcomes but also

Nursing leadership plays an important role in the ability to improve the quality of care that is available to the patient, but in order to be able to reach this capacity of “change and innovation [it] requires a clinical leader mind-set that includes a strong personal awareness of one’s strengths and vulnerability, openness to other ideas, courage to challenge the status quo, and a highly developed comfort with rational risk taking” (Porter-O’Grady, 2013, p.71). The application of these leadership characteristics empowers the nurse to identify gaps in patient care, integrate evidence based research, and find alternate solutions to the problems identified in patient care (Committee, O. T. R. W. J., 2010).

Challenges to effective team performance can be overcome by the organisation being clear about the values and objectives in relation to staff and service users and communicating these and the time frame in which these are expected to be achieved. Support should be given to those who are capable of sharing the organisations objectives so they can become committed to ensuring that the service outcomes are met. If this is not done then it can be difficult to maintain effective team working. Dawes and Handscomb performed a review on team leadership in 2005 and suggested that these difficulties stemmed from competing professional interests. In different settings they reviewed the relationship between team working and care outcomes and it was found that within a long term care setting the care outcomes required effective team working to be met.

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 essential in providing excellent health care in nursing. Being a nurse is not for the faint of heart. Nor is it easy to develop leadership skills that will enable a nurse to become the best that he or she can become in their career. High demands of taking care of patience that are in critical condition to the typical situations that cause nurses to carry heavy workloads. All of these aspects can contribute to pressure and stress in the work place when not handled correctly. According to two articles; the first article was written by Elizabeth A. Curtis, “Developing leadership in nursing: the impact of education and training.” The second article “Obstacles and problems of ethical leadership from the perspective

Not all nurses go into the profession with leadership ideas. The nursing profession must produce leaders throughout the health care system. Leaders must function as workers, and administrators with leadership qualities, while still meeting their budgets and running effective units with high functioning and happy staff members. They need to trouble shoot necessary and work with the medical faculty while pleasing their staff and the administers.

Leadership may mean different things to different people, the consensus opinion of experts in this field is that leadership is using power to direct and influence activities of people to achieve set goals or targets. Nursing leadership is all about every nurse providing, facilitating and promoting the best healthcare services to client and to the public. Leadership is a shared responsibility. (CNO 2012). The nursing profession need leaders that can build the capacity of nurses through mentoring, coaching, supporting, developing the expertise and management skills of nurses to make a difference to the quality of patient care at all levels of the profession ( McIntyre & McDonald, 2014 ). At the core of every leadership either political or managerial is power and how the leader uses it. While it is practically impossible to lead without power, how the nurse leader uses this power not only determine the leadership style but also the results or outcomes of what is achieved through the process.

Leadership does not always come with a title or prestige. Every nurse has within themselves qualities that make them a great leader. Leadership by definition, “is a combination of intrinsic personality traits, learned leadership skills, and characteristics of the situation (Cherry& Jacob (2013 p. 335). A leader is one who has the capacity and skills to direct or encourage others in efforts to achieve an outcome. I recently completed a self-assessment on my perceived leadership abilities. The survey was called the Nurse Manager Skills Inventory (Nurse Manager Leadership Partnership, 2008). It consists of four content areas of which I will address and identify my strengths and weaknesses.

In the healthcare field, nursing leaders and managers face consistent issues in their respective practices that force them to alter the way they work and the way they think. In taking on a role as a leader within the field, nursing leaders and managers also take on the role of ensuring that work within an organization runs smoothly regardless of new issues that may arise in the healthcare arena. For instance, in today's healthcare environment, the issues of nurse shortage and nurse turnover have the capacity to alter the healthcare field and many of its respective branches and organizations should these problems not be managed properly by the leaders in the field. In viewing the issue at hand and in discovering how nursing leaders and managers are expected to act, and do act, in order to approach this issues, along with pinpointing the best approach possible to aid this issue, one can better understand which leadership styles are necessary for leaders to function.

Nursing is a very complex career that at many times requires one to be a leader. Nurses can be leaders in formal roles and also on the unit during any given shift. Nursing is a career that truly tests the character and attributes of those who choose to enter this career. Leadership in nursing is vital in creating a successful environment for patients. According to Stichler (2006), “effective leadership is essential to transforming organizations into environments that are safe for both patients and staff” (p. 422). Therefore, it is vital that as new nurses start out his or her careers that they learn from great leaders who are already in the profession. There are several great leaders working in the field who have a plethora of