Leadership in Nursing

The field of Health Care is a very broad field with different areas of specialization. Quality leadership and management are vital in health care. In modern medicine, the majority of nursing tasks are performed by a team rather than individuals. The way a nurse manager leads her staff, not only affects her employees’ morale and productivity, it also affects the quality of patient care and it is for this reason, that good leadership is expected from individuals at every level of the health care system. In this essay the leadership and management in nursing will be will be defined and five important qualities of an effective leader will be discussed together with the examples observed in practical health care settings. What is leaderships? Leadership is a process of having a level of influence on others to accomplish the goals.

The leader establishes the vision and provides information, knowledge, guideless and ways to realise that vision. (Ref) A good leader does more than just delegate, dictate and direct. A good leader will help others achieve their highest potential. A nurse should be empowered to be a professional, competent leader in health care. Nursing leadership and management are crucial in the health care system. leadership is a process, involves influence, usually occurs in a group setting, involves the attainment of a goal, and exists at all levels (Faugier and Woolnough, 2002). In addition, there are several recognized leadership styles. For instance, autocratic leaders set an end goal without allowing others to participate in the decision-making process

Find out more from UK Essays here: http://www.ukessays.com/essays/nursing/leadership-in-nursing.php#ixzz3XX8bLlOD Leadership is defined as a combination of skills, internal motivation or personality traits and characteristics in any particular situation in which a person is able to influence the values, attitudes, beliefs or behaviour of a team (Daly, Speedy & Jackson, 2006).

Find out more from UK Essays here: http://www.ukessays.com/essays/nursing/discuss-seven-key-characteristics-of-leader-nursing-essay.php#ixzz3XYOebfHr QUALITIES OF NURSING LEADERSHIP
Since nurses lead patients out of illness into wellness, they lead families out of confusion into understanding; they also learn how to communicate with patients and families and how to follow orders and instructions from physicians, pharmacists and other health care professionals. Leadership and leadership skills are vital in nursing. The following qualities of nursing leadership below are some of the qualities one needs to identify oneself with as a good leader in nursing. Listen first, and respond directly and truthfully. If you cannot answer a question, say so. If you promise to do something, do it. Good communication will develop leadership and trust.

1. One needs to identify oneself as a leader
2. Demonstrate confidence
3. Be courageous
4. Communicate clearly and consistently and also be a good listener.
5. Pay attention to professional growth and stay current in the profession.
6. Manage your time well
7. Lead by example
8. Find a mentor of your own.

NURSING LEADERSHIP OBSERVED
It is sad to note that there has been a fall in the number of nursing leaders in the health sector. The numbers have been dropping steadily over the years. The two main reasons why the numbers have dropped are; firstly, small numbers are entering the profession and secondly, we are not developing leadership characteristics as we develop clinical nursing practice. B.M. Perra(2000) notes two main reasons influencing the nursing shortage. 1. The baby boomer retirement and 2. Fewer candidates entering the nursing field. On the other hand, Horton – Deutsch and Mohr (2001) wrote an opinion article based on BSN student clinical observations and evaluations. They found an “Absence of nursing leadership” (P.121) which directly contributes to students unfavourable opinions on their profession.

They believe that nursing leadership now faces a challenge, and the only answer to this is to “develop one’s own leadership skills as well as those of one’s staff” (P.60) At nearly every level of nursing, nurses are trained to operate complex medical equipment and stick to administrative procedures. The medical governing bodies decree that we stay current with continuing educational courses; in the same regard we should extend this same attitude towards learning by training nurses at every level to be highly competent leaders. Leadership should not only be in the hands of administrators and high level managers, but it can also be developed and executed by the bedside. CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF IMPACT OF LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT ON DELIVERY OF PATIENT CARE.

We all know that there are a lot of differences amongst the theorist definitions of leadership; however, there is a general agreement as to qualities needed to be an effective leader, (Murphy, 2005). An effective leader has different traits, one of them being visionary. Effective leaders need to have a clear vision about the future of the organisation which makes them seem effective. (Joyce, 2009). The fact that an effective leader has a vision for the future, helps him to set goals, objectives, aims and standards, and to achieve these goals, the leader has a plan to implement, (Fletner, Mitchell, Norris & Wolf, 2008). Tomey, (2009) also goes ahead and mentions some of the important leadership traits which assist in developing good leaders. Some of these are; being accessible, collaborative, and communicative, being flexible and a good listener, an honest person, having influence on the group, being knowledgeable, supportive and visible.

A good and effective leader, knows his job, has a positive attitude, delegates skills when necessary, he is a good role model, he is dependable, motivates others and is compassionate, (fletner et al., 2008; Cook & Leathard, 2004) Leaders who are not well trained become tired as they try to achieve the goals of the organisation. They burn out and this results in a spirit of dissatisfaction amongst their subordinates, (Chen, Beck & Amos, 2005). One of the greatest challenges in nursing currently is developing future nurse leaders (Jumaa, 2008; Kleinman, 2004; Murray & DiCroce, 2003). As a result, training effective leaders has been proposed as a key to increase professionalism in nursing (Chen, Beck and Amos, 2005), however, it is still unclear on how to best prepare effective leaders. Many suggestions have been brought to the fore e.g graduate education and onsite and distance education programs may offset obstacles of scheduling and geography (Kleinman, 2004).

Also the leaders in nursing should develop a relationship with academic providers of Registered Nurses to Bachelor of Science in nursing programs and so on. They should also consider providing monetary incentives and enough time to be spent on course work, as this will encourage more nurses to take part in these leadership courses. Nursing leaders should also be taught about the history of the profession, especially about those founders like Florence Nightingale who greatly influenced the development of nursing. (Kosinska & Niebroj, 2004). The failure of hospitals to retain staff nurses threatens the adequacy of health care delivery and it increases personnel and patient care costs (Kleinman, 2004). Nurses, just like everybody else needs to be satisfied with their work. Job satisfaction has been described as the most important predictor for nurses to remain employed. (Sellgren et at., 2006; Carney, 2008). The nursing staff’s job satisfaction is significantly related to the leadership behaviour of their manager (Sellgren et al., 2006; Kleinman, 2004).

When nurses are not happy or nurses are dissatisfied with their jobs, it leads to a lot of absenteeism, low morale, problems of grievances and a high turnover,(Wong & Cummings, 2007). Research showed that poor leadership was one of the main reasons for dissatisfaction and most nurses’ intention to leave (Neilsen, Yarker, Brenner, Randall and Borg, 2008 and Sellgren et al., 2006). Wong and Cummings (2007) and Kenmore,(2008) conducted studies in which they suggested that there is a relationship between leadership and patient satisfaction, patient mortality, patient safety outcomes and adverse events and complications. It was also noted that positive leadership behaviour increased patient satisfaction and decreased incidences of patient mortality, adverse events and complications (Wong & Cummings, 2007) The studies done by Wong and Cummings (2007), in Singapore to see the effect of leadership behaviour on employee outcome, shows that in times of stress and chaos, leadership styles that transform are able to create meaning in the midst of turmoil. CONCLUSION

In conclusion, I would say that positive or effective leadership is vital to achieving organisational goals. In order for nurses to be recognised as effective health care leaders, they need to possess the knowledge, skills and correct attitudes necessary to push their organisations forward. They also need to remember that their leadership styles have to fit the organisation they work in. They need to be flexible and remember that the way they lead a group of nurses in a hospital, might be different from when they work with doctors in the examination room. It is also important to remember that there is a difference between leadership and management. Not all managers are good leaders. Leadership comes from your confidence, your ability to communicate and set a good example to others.

An conclusion, the role of the nursing leader in a clinical leadership and management in the nursing industry is more concerned with the fundamental goal of effectively and efficiently executing the conceptualized plan of actions in order to reach the set organizational goals and objectives than changing and or challenging the people’s vision of the future. At some point this is true but there is more to being a leader than just introducing changes to the organization and stimulating changes among one’s subordinates. The idea is to see the bigger picture of being a leader and just by doing so, one would be able to determine that being a nursing leader is not just about changing or challenging the people’s vision of the future. In ttheir role is not defined by an 8-hour workday and that adapting to the schedule is simply part of their position. Variability and flexibility are important elements for leaders to embrace. Likewise, good leaders will communicate and provide How leaders present the value of this added responsibility is vitally important.

People who become nurse leaders tend to have two qualities.
First and foremost, they are excellent clinicians

“The ability to deal with ambiguity while developing physician relationships and partnerships [is] integral to the work of the nurse leaders. It is also important that leaders demonstrate work-life balance so that our young talented nurses will desire to move into leadership positions.”
—Patricia Crome, RN, MN, CNA, FACMPE Principal, Rona Consulting Group; past member, AONE Board of Directors, Seattle,Washington

Self–confidence. Do you do what you know you need to do? Are you happy with the real you deep down? Do you even remember the real you?

Courage. Do you play it ultra safe or are you willing to take thought out risks?
Growth. Are you willing to deal with the unknown aspect of change, rather than stay stuck? Are you continually moving forward and growing?
Communication. When leading others, are you able to make your requests and/or thoughts known, and be clear and concise?
Appreciation. As you appreciate others, do you appreciate yourself? Please leave a comment below sharing your thoughts on nurse leadership. – See more at: http://www.nursetogether.com/5-leadership-qualities-every-nurse-should-have#sthash.uYieDuPS.dpuf a context for their peers to help them understand why schedules and workloads appear as they do.

REFERENCES

Antrobus, S. &Kitson, A.(1999).Nursing Leadership: Influencing and shaping healthy policy and nursing practice. Journal of Advanced Nursing 29, 7846 – 753. Benefield, L.E.Clifford, J., Cos, S. Hagenow, N.R, Hastings, C., Kobs, A.,et al (2000). Nursing Leaders Predict Trends for 2000. Nursing Management 31 (1), 21 – 23 Horton – Deutsch, S.L., & Mohr, W.H.(2000). The Fading of Nursing Leadership. Nursing Outlook, 49, 121 – 126. Huber, D. (2014). Leadership & nursing care management. St. Louis: Saunders/Elsevier. Marquis, B. L., & Huston, C. J. (2009). Leadership roles and management functions in nursing: Theory and application. Philadelphia: Wolters Kluwer Health/Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.