Nursing Leadership Theory Paper

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.

Slide 1: The expectations of nurses today are higher than ever with goals such as achieving top percentiles in nursing and patient satisfaction, to being among the top leaders in quality outcomes, and to build productive work relationships and environments. Nursing leaders serve as the primary link between staff, physicians, and the community. They are expected to be innovative, highly skilled, possess a certain degree of nursing knowledge, and produce qualified individuals to care for the growing population. According to Lorber, Treven, and Mumel (2016) “nursing leadership is pivotal because nurses represent the most extensive discipline in health care”. Because of this growing need for diversity in leadership and my background in the military, I decided to focus on the MSN Executive Track at Chamberlain College of Nursing.

Malloch, T. P.-O. (2013). Leadership in Nursing Practice: Changing the Landscape of Health Care. Burlington MA: Jones &

Grossman, S. C., & Valiga, T. M. (2012). The new leadership challenge: Creating the future of nursing (4th ed.). [Proquest Ebook Central]. Retrieved from http://ebookcentral.proquest.com

It seems ironic that this aspect of nursing is overlooked especially when nurses have so much responsibility to know their skill alongside of working with patience and their families not to mention being a team player with other co-workers. Curtis said in her article, “…clinical leadership is often relegated to a space late in the delivery of nursing education…” (2011, p. 344). However, Curtis also alludes to the problem of leadership training by saying that most often when nursing programs incorporate leadership training into their programs, the training ends up coming from a business approach that is then adapted to clinical leadership. She also indicate that there needs to be more emphasis on leadership training that directly correlates with clinical leadership (2011, p. 346). In addition, Barkhordari-Sharifabad indicates that not equipping nurses with leadership skills results in little to no confidence, commitment and motivation as side effects to the lack of leadership (2017, p. 2). Both of these articles realize the importance of leadership playing an important role in creating an atmosphere that is efficient pleasant, and

In the increasingly complex, ever changing environment of today’s healthcare, effective leaders are essential to help drive positive change resulting in increased access to care with positive outcomes for as many as possible. In its 2010 report, The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) recognized that nurses are well positioned to play a key role in the transformation of our healthcare system in the United States (U.S.) (Institute of Medicine [IOM], 2010). In The Essentials of Doctoral Education for Advanced Nursing Practice, the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) specifically identifies organizational and systems leadership as a core competency for advanced

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.

Today’s modifications in health care reform will merit nurse executives to form associations with healthcare providers to remain viable and take a proactive stance on healthcare. Nurse leaders are essential players in regards to establishing standards and leading organizational change. The American Organization for Nursing Executives (AONE) established competencies that are foundational to transform an environment, which includes partnering with others for favorable outcomes. The AONE mission and vision is “to shape the future of health care through innovative and expert nursing leadership” (AONE, 2011, p. 3). Nurse leaders will need the skills established by the AONE competencies, which encompass communication and relationship building, knowledge of the healthcare environment, leadership, professionalism, and business skills (AONE, 2011).

Review the IOM report: The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health http://www.iom.edu/Reports/2010/The-Future-of-Nursing-Leading-Change-Advancing-Health.aspx, focusing on the following sections: Transforming Practice, Transforming Education, and Transforming Leadership. In order to access the report, locate “Get this Report” and click on “Read Report Online for Free”. When the report is downloaded, it will open up to page 1. Use the table of contents, located on the right, to navigate to the required sections.

“Managers with leadership styles that seek and value contributions from staff, promote a climate in which information is shared effectively, promote decision making at the staff nurse level, exert position power, and influence coordination of work to provide a milieu that maintains a stable cadre of nurses”, (Boyle, Bott, Hansen, Woods & Taunton, 2009). This statement describes the large impact a leadership style can make on the work environment, and the morale of the team. In nursing history, several theories and leadership

The nursing role has evolved over the last fifty years from being one of a subordinate style to that of a leader and valued member of the interdisciplinary healthcare team. It is important to know your own sense of leadership style and to know the leadership style that you may be working under in order to know if you are a good fit or not and if you are able to impact positive change and improved patient outcomes. One’s leadership style can make or break the nursing team and greatly impact the organization system either positively or negatively. We will look at the leadership styles and the impact as well as Supervisor Nurse A’s leadership issue.

Leadership is an essential part of the workplace. It determines how problems get handled and how efficiently work is done. Being able to work with a team is not a simple task. It involves a considerable amount of dedication. Leadership can be defined as the ability to work with others and guide them to reaching goals. This paper will further detail what leadership is and the role it plays in nursing. There are certain qualities that one must have to be a good leader. In addition, there are certain qualities that one must have to also be a good manager. There is not one set way to leading. In this paper, the different leadership styles will be discussed. Furthermore, there are several different approaches to management. In each case, there

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.

Before I started this leadership/management coarse I had no idea what qualities a good leader manager needs to hold. I had no idea a registered nurse was considered a leader/manager. Now that I have reviewed all the chapters in the Leadership Roles and Management Functions in Nursing (Marquis & Huston, 2015) I have a full understanding of how important leadership/management functions play in a nurse’s career. Chapters 12-25 describe roles and functions that are needed for a nurse to become a successful leader/manager. These chapters discussed the roles and functioning of organizing, staffing, directing, and controlling.