The Roles Of The Nurse Leaders

Now, the graduate level nurse’s leadership attributes have been described in scholarly sources. Based on the documents of the American Association of College of Nursing (AACN) (2013), essentials of graduate nursing must be skilled in organizational and systems leadership role. Specifically, they are supposed to assume leadership roles in quality improvement and patient safety initiatives while working in the interprofessional team context. APN must use communication in an effective way, with regards to speaking, scholarly writing, and group interaction. Nurse leaders should also demonstrate the working knowledge of the current healthcare system and its essential components, including delivery and payment models, sites of care, roles of various stakeholders in the process of care delivery (AACN, 2013).

As nursing leaders, the empowerment of staff to improve the delivery of safe quality care is imperative in today’s healthcare environment. The Management and Leadership track of the American Sentinel MSN program has provided the guidance to cultivate and prepare future nurse leaders to develop a sense of ownership and commitment to their work and organization. The evidenced based practice (EBP) project that is proposed will be implemented at the Veterans Administration Medical Center (VAMC); it will support the staff to improve the quality of care for the veteran population at this facility.

Nurse leaders have historically played a significant role in using research to guide patient care and improve practice (Huber, 2014). As

Clinical Nurse Leaders: Fulfilling the Promise of the Role. MEDSURG Nursing, 26(1),

The experience nurses have in taking care of patient is studied by other experienced nurses. These expert observations of patient care, patient input in the care they receive, and the resulting patient care outcomes is a simple definition of evidence base practice (EBP). In this discussion I will explain the role of nurse leaders in promoting EBP, and the strategies used to implement EBP into a medical organization’s patient care practices. I will discuss how nurses implement EBP into cultures that seem etched in stone, the current issues with implementing EBP, current trends, and how organizational infrastructure and culture help or hinder implementation of EBP. Finally I will explain how EBP is implemented in the hospital organization I work for, and give a comparison of nursing work group culture with organizational cultures.

In the area of nursing administration, an article by Schuettner, Van Shell, and Sheriff (2015), is aimed at promoting a minimum of graduate level degree for nurse administrators in order to better prepare them for leadership roles. The authors indicate that a shortage of nursing leaders is expected by the year 2020 due to a majority of qualified leaders retiring. Accordingly, this will create the need for competent nurse leaders to alleviate the deficiencies. Mandating a graduate level education for future nurse leaders, will influence their ability to be more effective in the administrative role (Schuettner, Van Shell, & Sheriff, 2015). This article depicts the urgency and need of professionally trained and educated nurse administrators to meet the future demand created by the retiring professionals.

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In nursing profession the role of a nurse leader is indeed a rewarding profession, however without a doubt there are many challenges that a nurse leader will encounter. Researchers had identified the common challenges that a nurse leader faced is, team building, recruiting and retaining the staffs, teamwork, time management, generation gaps, communication and many more. In this paper the writer would like to share her own experiences being a leader. The write is currently working in a well known private hospital in town and she is the Sister in charge of the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) which consists of twelve beds. An ICU that has twelve and more beds is referred as a large ICU (Matlakala, Bezuidenhout & Annail,

A recent “study revealed that nurses named leaders and managers as the one thing that prevented them from implementing evidence-based practice” (pg 326). “Therefore, it is critical that leaders and managers be targeted in change efforts as their role modeling and support is necessary if point-of-care

Considering the changes in the advanced nursing education, are the DNP essentials with the systems and organizational leadership for quality improvement, and interprofessional collaboration to improve the health outcome of the patients and the population (Starck, & Rooney, 2015). These DNP essentials are of significance to the DNP scholars, because they assist to prepare nurses to be able to implement evidenced based practice change during the course of their education. In addition, collaborate with other professional in caring for the patients in the clinical settings (Kirkpatrick, & Weaver, 2013). Hence, the following sequence is the reflection of my exposure to the applied organizational and leadership concepts class.

Helping with the Leadership role while the we are without a CNO. Assisted with scheduling of the Nurses. Work as a Infection Control Coordinator.

Table 4.0 –Contributing factors to challenges of nursing leadership Table 4.1 Administrative challenges Variables % response Remarks Acute shortage 40% Remarkably in the rural health centres visited Low salary for nurses 30% NGO nurses get better salaries Overcrowding 10% Nurses are sharing in some health units visited Poor living/working enviroment 5% Dilapidated houses were seen Inadequate funding for career advancement 5% This might be due to lack of priorities

Major changes need to take place within the nursing leadership in order to change the culture of the nursing practice. Evidenced- based research has proven that a transformational leadership style, solid emotional intelligence, effective communication skills, and a new culture of nursing leadership are the key for growing the nursing practice. The problem is change is not happening at the top level of nursing administration, so the entry level, or clinical nurse is still practicing in the manner that they were taught by their predecessors. New nurses and participants in the healthcare workforce are having leadership theories, patient- centered care models, and other newer concepts instilled in them during their education. Once the new graduates enter the world of medicine, they are confronted with a workforce that has not made the necessary requirements to meet the needs of today’s healthcare. This can happen in the nursing practice, but there needs to be a change in the roles and scopes of the nurse executive and nurse manager. Through a literary review, it was determined that to foster a new nursing practice the educational requirements of the nursing leadership needs to be at a minimum of a master degree in nursing. Other conclusions were to adopt the evidenced- based patient- centered care model of a High Reliability Organization (HRO) and to promote a Culture of Safety. It was further concluded this change in the nursing practice will have to be done

A nurse leader has a responsibility to use evidenced-based practice to improve patient and organizational outcomes (Huber, 2014). To begin evidence-based practice changes the nurse leader must follow the implementation strategy guidelines. These guidelines involve creating awareness and interest, building knowledge and commitment, promotion action and adoption, and pursue integration and sustained use (Huber, 2014). Once the guidelines are established, the team can begin the process of change. A team includes many different members from bedside nurse to CEO of the organization. The bottom-up approach is used in this scenario to facilitate change (Huber, 2014).

The nursing experience and practice in patient care is studied at length by other experienced nurses. These expert observations of patient care, patient input in their care, and the resulting patient care outcomes is a simple definition of evidence base practice (EBP). In this discussion I will explain the role of nurse leaders in promoting EBP, and the strategies used to implement EBP into medical organization’s patient care practices. I will discuss how nurses implement EBP into cultures that seem etched in stone, the current issues with implementing EBP, current trends, and how organizational infrastructure and culture help or hinder the implementation of EBP. Finally, I will explain how EBP is implemented in the hospital organization I work for, and give a comparison between nursing work group culture and organizational cultures.