Examples Of Exemplary Leadership In Nursing

“Nursing is informed caring for the well-being of others” (Swanson, 1993, p. 352). Kristen Swanson’s relationship-based caring theory encompasses maintaining belief, knowing, being with, doing for, and enabling. Nursing is a profession with vast opportunities for growth and development. Each nurse has his or her individual passions; mine reside within obstetrics, women’s health, and nursing leadership. Nurse leaders play an integral role in the success of healthcare organizations. Nurse leaders shape the roles of nurses within their organizations. Nurse leaders seek methods to improve patient care. They also use innovation to gain efficiencies in care delivery and decrease healthcare cost. Many nurse leaders have an ultimate goal to aspire to be a chief nursing officer in a healthcare

This level of exhaustion can lead to high levels of nonattendance and, eventually, a nursing shortage. A leader can play an integral role in changing this all too common culture among nurses. A nurse manager who is an authentic leader can help to create a healthy work environment. This style of leadership in healthcare has been shown to drastically reduce high levels of burn out and nursing shortages, especially in critical care settings. It is believed that a leader who operates authentically can be viewed as the integral piece of the puzzle that holds a team together (Shirey, 2006). According to the research findings of Leigh (2014), the positive effects of authentic leadership on nurses were found to be substantial. Further, the level of perceived authenticity of a leader is shown to bestow more formal power to nurses who work along side the leader, and overall job satisfaction was ranked higher (Leigh,

Leadership is not a word that is uncommon in today’s society. We hear this term in the media, on TV shows, and in our everyday lives. However, the idea of leadership and the different definitions of types of leaders are less understood. In this paper, an examination of transformational leadership is discussed. This paper also delves into transformational leadership in nursing and how learning about leadership has supported personal growth for me now and in future practice.

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.

Nursing leaders are crucial to any nursing organization. They motivate, empower, influence, and communicate the organization’s vision to create change within the organization. Great nursing leadership depends on great nursing leaders. This paper will define nursing leadership and describe leadership characteristics. It will further depict the democratic style and transformational theory of nursing leadership. While exploring leadership in action, this paper will illustrate the aspects of nursing.

Every day, a set team of nurses and nursing managers set out to ensure the health and well-being of their patients. To achieve this goal, a nurse manager must adhere to a specific style of nursing leadership. There are many different styles of leadership in the healthcare field. Bass and Barnes (1985) stated that the two most common are transformational and transactional (as cited in Frankel, 2008, p.24). This paper will define leadership, the two different styles, how each are executed, as well as pros and cons of each.

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

Cultivating the leaders of today and tomorrow will be indispensable to the execution of the impressive objectives delineated for the health service (NHS Scotland 2004). Leadership in nursing involves an amalgamation of clinical, academic, executive and political facets. Hence, there is the contingency for nurses to be leaders at the bedside, in universities, in the boardroom and in a political capacity (Gallagher and Tschudin 2010). The clinical nurse leader position is an emergent dynamism as health care endeavours to cope with the challenges of today’s intricacy and result orientation. (Gerard, Grossman and Godfrey). Nursing leadership is critical for effective practice as nurses emblematise the greatest discipline in health care (Sullivan and Garland 2010). Additionally, leadership in nursing has been established as a cost-effectual approach to enhance patient outcomes in times of constrained monetary reserves, when leaders can administer direction, impel change and embolden others (Murphy 2009).

My nursing leadership philosophy is based on transformational leadership to which I ascribe. Transformational nurse leaders have a vested interest in the success of those they lead and their organization’s vision. They are visionaries in the pursuit of cutting-edge ways of completing the tasks and goals of the team and organization. They are able to inspire, encourage, open to mentorship, see the potential in those they lead while challenging them, and knowing their strengths and weaknesses. I am cognizant of my own limitations, strengths and weaknesses, acknowledge my mistakes and open to change.

Leading a health care organization comes with immense responsibility and is not an easy task. Transformational leadership has proven to be an effective leadership style in the nursing profession, demonstrating a clear mission, a commitment to excellence, and the ability to motivate and lead others to higher levels of achievement (Schwartz, Spencer, Wilson, & Wood, 2001). Characteristics and qualities of an effective leader include

Being a leader is not a simple task. It involves planning and professionalism. A leader must have the trust and respect of its members to be able to form a strong system. A manager must be able to lead and communicate employees to achieve goals. Nursing involves strong leadership because the aim is to care and nurture patients. Chaotic work environments will not allow nurses to prosper in providing proper care. The right leadership and management style allow for more efficiency among members. Leadership is critical and should have a clear vision, inspire, and

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.

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.

The main focus of the theory is motivation, inspiration and empowerment to create changes. It is based on the idea of empowering others to facilitate overall goal. Bennis and Nanus (1985) describe this new leader as a leader who “commits people to action, who converts leaders into leaders, and who converts leaders into agents of change” (p.3).177. According to processes to engage and motivate staff article “Transformational leadership is important for high quality care delivery, and behaviors that nurse leaders inspire, role model and reinforce are instrumental in creating work practice that deliver optimum care”.

Transformational leadership is an emerging type of leadership that is more adaptable the changing environment within healthcare and has the ability to guide and empower staff to embrace the changes (Finkelman, 2012). This type of leadership is especially important today with many nurses felling unsatisfied, or unappreciated. In order to have a successful organization, it must first have the ability to retain nurses through job satisfaction. Transformational leaders have the ability to encourage staff members to embrace the changes to come, by promoting such things as team work, and recognition of hard work done by staff members (Smith, 2011). Having the ability to recognize staffing needs along with the compassion to try and meet those needs while maintaining the functionality of the organization, is the key to future