My Ideal Vision, Transformational Leadership

The role of a nurse leader is invaluable to the performance and ultimate success of an entire nursing team whose goal is to provide excellent patient care. There are a few key characteristics that define a nursing leader. The first characteristic is one who communicates effectively and is accountable on all levels, from the patient and their family to the interdisciplinary members and senior staff. Effective communication and accountability are characteristics of an individual who

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.

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.

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

Good leadership is demonstrated through educating future nurses, leading within the workplace, and being part of a nursing groups and organizations. Nurses should be working together to improve the care for all patients.

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

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.

In this Paper, I will analyse my personal values and beliefs about leadership in nursing. I will utilise the transformational leadership theory; a leadership style that is congruent with my personal beliefs and values to outline my vision about future nursing leaders in order to achieve maximum effectiveness in the clinical settings. Finally, I will explore my personal policy in promoting leadership in nursing, within the context of your own values/beliefs and the vision for nursing leadership that will prepare future nurses to take on the role of a nursing leader. Personal values and beliefs about leadership in nursing During my placement in the mental health unit, a geriatric patient informed me about her abusive husband during a mental

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.

A transformational leadership style along with good communication skills can be used to manage the multiples issues Hartland Memorial faces. “Transformational leadership involves anticipating future trends, inspiring followers to understand and embrace a new vision of possibilities, developing others to be leaders, and reward learners” (Hellriegal & Slocum, 2009, p. 301). Elizabeth and her associates should have the necessary qualities of a transformational leader; integrity, accountability, and motivation, so the staff can identify with them. The nurse manager could give nurses opportunities to demonstrate and experience leadership in their profession on a regular basis. Effective leadership is critical in delivering high quality care; equally

Excellence in nursing leadership continues to be the adhesive force that holds the health care system together. Effective leaders have the ability to motivate and engage the people they lead. ‘The leader who is engaged and passionate about work will communicate this to staff who will then feel the contagion and the excitement’ (Kerfoot 2016). ‘The leader who is engaged and passionate about work will communicate this to staff who will then feel the contagion and the excitement’. Transformational leadership is most generally the preferred style of leadership

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