Nursing Leadership Essay

The textbook, Concepts for Nursing Practice, defines leadership as, “an interactive process that provides needed guidance and direction.” (Giddens, J., 2013, p.375). Leaders can be informal, a coworker that everyone looks up to, or formal, a manager that has authority that has been given to them (Giddens, J., 2013, p.375). In the case of the nurse manager I have been shadowing, she is a formal leader. The hospital has appointed her as the Surgical Services Nurse Manager to lead the Surgical Services departments and act as their spokesperson when addressing upper management. Her position within the heath care team is as a liaison between upper management and lower tier health care leaders. The Surgical Services

identify the educational preparation and role(s) of the clinical nurse leader (CNL) designation. Give an example of how the CNL influences direct patient care whether in a hospital or out in the community.

In this essay we are going to explore the connection between professional nursing practice and professional caring. I will outline the terms of professional nursing practice and what makes nursing a profession? I will describe the term of professional caring and the connection to the nursing practice and discuss the dilemma of care and cure. And also determine the importance of both in professional nursing practice.

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3). In this relationship, each must work through phases including conflict resolution and negotiation as part of the process. Transformational theory further explains leadership must include exhibiting a degree of emotional intelligence. This occurs when perceiving how others feel, understanding how the feelings lead to thinking, understanding the emotions, and managing emotions internally. In respects to this theory, emotional intelligence enhances this bi-directional relationship between the leader and the followers (Spears, 2002).

Believe it or not, nurses can be lazy. This is especially true towards the end of a 12-hour shift after working three days in a row. Critical pieces of information about hospitalized patients can be lost in the realm of communication due to one thing: a poor hand-off report. Quality handoff report enables nurses to recognize changes in patient status and anticipate risks thus ensuring patient safety. When a shift-change occurs, the seamless transfer of knowledge relevant to each patient must be accurate and complete. The Quality and Safety Education for Nurses (QSEN) movement was initiated in 2005 as a response to summons for improved quality and safety in nursing practice. Nursing leaders joined forces to create consistent competencies to integrate into nursing education with the goal to prepare future nurses to develop the necessary knowledge, skills, and attitudes focused on quality and safety. The QSEN initiative has flourished in the realm of healthcare and become a national resource for nursing educators and transformed into a framework of competency for all nurses. Based on the Institute of Medicine’s competencies (2003), the QSEN faculty and National Advisory Board designed six specific competency categories including patient-centered care, teamwork and collaboration, evidence-based practice, quality improvement, safety, and informatics. As a major contribution to healthcare practices, these statements serve as a

Leadership is all about having the right amount of heart and determination to help make a difference in someone’s life. It takes certain qualities to be considered a good leader. A leader should want to help inspire others to make a change and to be the best that they can be. A true leader does not need to feel powerful, instead they empower those around them. Throughout my life I have come across various leaders who have made an impact on my life. It takes a very special person to inspire and touch people’s lives. Leadership is so much deeper than having power and bossing people around.

The Quality and Safety Education for Nurses (QSEN) Institute developed six core competencies: patient-centered care, teamwork and collaboration, evidence-based practice, quality improvement, safety, and informatics (Quality and Safety Education for Nurses Institute, 2017). At my facility, it is clearly evident that they have adopted these six core competencies to improve patient quality and safety. My facility created the Office of Patient Experience which supports care that is safe, of high quality and high value. Patient satisfaction is a top priority which is why our guiding principle is known as “Patients First”. Through teamwork and collaboration, we deliver care that is patient-centered by working together in multidisciplinary rounds on the inpatient units. Also, the nursing education department supports quality, safety and consistent nursing care through a database of policies and procedures developed using evidence-based research. Lastly, the nursing informatics department is working towards making our EPIC system more patient-centered. They are doing this by decreasing the redundancy in charting for the nursing staff and finding ways to improve processes which automate tasks. This in turn will reduce the time that the nursing staff spends with their computer and increase the time that the nursing staff can spend with their patients.

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.

Generation Y nurses are expected to make up 50 percent of the nursing workforce by 2020, presenting them with a unique leadership opportunity that will shape the future of healthcare. The current healthcare environment, however, may be taking a toll on their desire to lead.

Leadership occurs when an individual is able to affect the behaviour or actions of others without having to make threats or use violence to implement changes (Ellis & Abbott, 2013). Nursing leadership involves all roles and aspects of nursing practice. It revolves around the ability to use critical thinking related to patient care, act upon those decisions and advocate for change whenever necessary. Nursing leadership has an important role in the lives of nurses’, influences the entire health care systems and the delivery of care (Canadian Nurses Association, 2009). Values and beliefs are what form and guide an individual’s thought processes and actions in everyday life. Being open, honest and sensitive are my values that guide my behaviour in my everyday life. I value openness because it allows me to feel comfortable to express my feelings and ideas. This value became important to me in my previous clinical setting. I was always afraid to openly inform my clinical instructor about whenever I did not agrees with changes that were being made on the unit. I was always scared that if I did voice my opinion and she did not agree with me, it would lead to failure of clinical. Honesty and being sensitive to one’s emotions is a value I believe are important. This value is imperative because the truth is known, but at the same time, it allows for one to be aware of individual feelings in relation to how to deliver this truth. This creates the knowledge of which tone of voice to use

Motivating- empowers others to perform at their best, promotes a sense of responsibility, encourages and assists other to excel in their profession

For my leadership rotation, I will be following the nurse navigator for orthopedic unit at Saint Mary’s hospital, Laura Goodfellow. The first day of shadowing her was primarily spent understanding her role as a nurse navigator. As the nurse navigator, she is responsible for overseeing and coordinating orthopedic surgeries at Saint Mary’s. She works closely with the orthopedic surgeons, nurse educators, director of nursing, and unit manager to ensure orthopedic patients receive top quality care.

Nurse leaders are faced with issues or problems on a daily basis that are often expected and sometimes unexpected. It “comes with the territory” so to speak. If there were no issues to solve or hurdles to overcome the necessity of designating a leader would not seem quite as important. Nurse leaders can tackle issues that occur in their work environment using nursing theory to guide them. Nursing theory provides a framework that nurse leaders can use to implement interventions or changes to positively impact the staff they lead. This framework of the theory will set the standards for achieving the desired outcomes and is based on knowledge that is gleaned from practice and/or research.

However, this was never to be the case during the evaluation conference as the nurse manager mainly focused on the weak points of the nurse staff as far as the entire appraisal exercise is concerned. Such development does not go down well with several other practicing nurses who feel that the nurse manager and other high-ranking officials are skeptical and doubtful as regards their potentialities (Seiden & Sowa 2011). Hence, their skills and knowledge about