Effective Leadership in Nursing
Introduction:
Transformational leadership can be described as the approach that helps in causing various kinds of modifications in the individuals as well as in the social systems. This approach helps in creating valuable as well as positive changes in the followers with the end goal of development of the followers into the leaders (Lin et al. 2015). Researchers are of the opinion that this form of leadership enhances the motivations, morale and the performance of the followers through the variety of different mechanism (Boamah et al. 2018). This assignment would be mainly covering the different aspects of this form of leadership and the ways by which it helps registered nurses to excel in their profession and become best future leaders.
Overview of the approach:
This form of leaders prefers being the role model for the followers and this in turn inspires the subordinates. The leadership approach challenges the followers to take greater ownership of their tasks. The approach helps to understand the strengths and weakness of the followers and accordingly helps the leaders to align the subordinates with the tasks for optimizing the performance (Salas et al. 2017).
The healthcare environment is the domain, where the employees as the healthcare professionals need to be knowledgeable and skilled in order to ensure best quality service to the patients. Only providing quality service is not sufficient as they have to ensure safety of the patient and have to be always active on the floor. This is mainly because different patients have different requirements as well as needs and accordingly they need to modify their care to provide person centered approach (Banks et al. 2016). Therefore, with the advancement of medical treatments and more evidence based information being published daily, it is extremely important for the registered nurses to continue developing their clinical knowledge and non-pharmacological approaches effectively. Therefore, they need to continue their professional development throughout their career and might face various kinds of barriers in their journey. Leaders who undertake transformational approach can act as friend, philosopher and guide and can pave the pathways for the registered nurses to become effective leaders of the future (Richter et al. 2015). The leaders handle the various barriers faced by the nurses in providing quality and safe care effectively. They also guide, and motivate them to develop as an expert in the future.
Different traits according to the literature:
One of the most important traits that the leaders maintain is the internal motivation as well as self-management. Such leaders are able to find motivation from within and accordingly they use this skill as the motivation from within. They use this as the driving force for effectively managing the employees to work beyond their potential and meet the organizational goals and objectives. Another important aspect that this leader also ensures is their willingness to listen as well as entertaining to the different new ideas. They provide enough time for ensuring a two-way communication and feedback session and hence they are able to know about the concern of the employees and also provide effective suggestions for their betterment (Fischer 2016). Another very important trait is inspiration and the leaders are seen to inspire the subordinates. Moreover, such leaders often represent themselves as role model and tend to work with the subordinates by guiding them in the same tasks. Therefore, the employees can visualize them as an example and feel that the goals set for them are easily achievable. The leaders pave the way for the subordinates and guide them to work through the way to reach the goals easily.
Application for registered nurses: an example
While working in the healthcare wards, registered nurses have to take on a lot of work-burden during the busy shifts. This often makes them physically and emotionally burnt out and hence this attributes make them lose their motivation and enthusiasm. In such scenario, the transformational leaders play an important role as burned out nurses can make medication errors, miss intervention, may provide uncompassionate care to patients, do not maintain hand-hygiene and many others. It is very important to prevent the occurrences of such errors and accidents and hence transformational leaders take the lead in this situation (Top et al. 2015). Therefore, it becomes important for them to inspire the nurses and motivate them to change their thinking procedures as their contribution is towards the humankind. Acknowledging their contribution as well as attending their concerns and developing strategies for them to help them overcome their burning out symptoms become important. These aspects help in the development of the enthusiasm in the nurses by which she can overcome the burnout barriers and hence work effectively and in dedicating manner in the team (Weng et al. 2015).
Leadership approach and the ways this system works:
INDIVIDUALIZED CONSIDERATION:
One of the most important traits that this leadership skill practices is the individualized consideration. This trait involves offering of the support and encouragement to that of the different followers. In order to foster supportive relationships, this form of leaders keeps the lines of communication open. Researchers state that this aspect helps the followers to feel free for sharing their ideas. Leaders can offer direct recognition of the unique contributions of each of the followers to acknowledge their dedications towards the organizations (Jordan et al. 2015).
Communication and teamwork
In the multidisciplinary teams, various kinds of healthcare professionals work together and different people might have different viewpoints and ways of decision-making and handling situations. Therefore, there often may be conflicts among the team members regarding their different viewpoints. Teams can never work in a collaborative manner if there is absence of bond and no mutual respect with each other. There might be also chances of power struggles among the members, misunderstandings, ego clashes and many others. Again, communication issues may also take place among the team members as well as between the nursing professionals and the leaders. Poor communication disrupts effective teamwork and increases the chances of medication errors, improper delegation, unsafe practices, inappropriate and many others. Therefore, such leaders with the help of this trait can nurse development of effective teamwork and effective communication (Allen et al. 2016). The leaders are seen to engage in two-way communication mode. They encourage group meetings where each of the members are requested to share their concerns and accordingly the causes of the misunderstandings, power struggles, communication errors and many others are identified. As the concerns of the team-members are attended with importance and care, they feel that the organization cares about them and this aspect makes them develop dedication and prevent job dissatisfaction. The leaders provide constructive feedback to each of the members according to their concerns. Thereby, they help in development of bond and trust among the members. They are often seen to put importance on different strategies that help in effective teamwork like fun games between members, informal outings, resolving their conflicts and many others. As a result, communication between the members also takes place effectively as power struggles, ego-clashes and complexity issues do not occur among the team members. They encourage team bonding and show them the importance of maintaining mutual respect to each other’s. They attain and guide them in way by which they can work in a team collaboratively. This develops effective teamwork in the multidisciplinary teams that provide high-quality care that ensures patient satisfaction.
INTELLECTUAL STIMULATION:
This trait of the individual helps the leaders to not only challenge the status quo but also help in encouraging the creativity among the followers. Studies say that such leaders are mainly seen to encourage the followers for exploring different way of doing things and developing new opportunities for learning. This important attribute of the leader is exceptionally important in the healthcare organizations as well.
Documentation:
Manual documentation is the traditional procedure by which professionals need to jot down different information of the patient’s health as well as the details of the diagnostic tests and interventions applied to the patient. However, manual documentation is found to result in various kinds of human errors. Poor handwriting, half-filled documents and many others often create issues that result in medication errors, missed interventions, losing of documented papers and many others. Transformational leaders can encourage the registered nurses to explore new ways of doing things and undertake new opportunities for learning (Brewer et al. 2016). They can encourage the registered nurses to document the details on electronic health records, learn the ways of handing them and accordingly provide safe care. This creative procedure when accepted by professionals will help in overcoming the different errors mentioned and help in provide quality care.
INSPIRATIONAL MOTIVATION:
The leaders have a clear vision that they want to articulate to the followers. These leaders are able to help the followers in gaining experience, passion and motivation for fulfilling the goals.
Scope of practice:
The registered nurses are constantly motivated and inspired by the healthcare leaders to provide best quality and safe care to the patients. Often burn-out symptoms may affect their motivation and do not allow them to ensure effective care. However, such traits help the leaders to motivate the employees about their scope of practice constantly engage them in a learning continuum throughout their life. This learning procedure through them helps them to develop skills and knowledge throughout life, engage in safe care and provide compassionate and holistic care to patients being within their scope of practice (Thomson et al. 2016). They motivate the employees to explore their skills, learn new ways of handling stressful situations and others. They are motivated to work beyond their potential and fulfill the organizational vision successfully.
IDEALIZED INFLUENCE:
The transformational leaders are mainly seen to serve as a role model for the followers. When they see their leaders are performing them in the same tasks that they are advised to perform, they become confident. They develop trust and respect the leaders. They emulate this individual and internalize his or her ideals.
Different aspects in nursing profession:
Effective communication, proper handling of EHR for documentation, effective teamwork, conflict management, delegation of care and many others are important actions that can ensure smooth workflow and best care to patients when carried with expertise. Therefore, professionals cannot develop knowledge on these aspects only through theoretical knowledge. When they see a living example conducting each of the actions with expertise, they get the scope to learn and follow their pathways (Merrill 2015). These aspects ensure the registered nurses to learn the proper ways, gather confidence and follow their leaders to achieve each of the actions successfully. Therefore, being a role model can help the professionals to understand that the goals are achievable and would help them to become leaders in their future lives.
Leadership approach contributes to the practice of quality health care:
Transformational leadership helps in developing a learning environment of the employees serving the organization. In the healthcare industry, the transformational leaders can develop a transparent environment of effective feedback sharing. Therefore, professionals can share their concerns and accordingly the leaders attend their concerns. Therefore, they feel that the organization care for them and therefore they feel dedicated to their profession. Therefore, their job satisfaction is increased and they tend to provide high quality care to the patients. By taking the example of the leaders as the role model, they are seen to develop personal accountability and this attribute helps them to provide responsible care to the patients (Nielson and Daniel 2016). They encourage two-way communication and show them the ways by which effective communication can be developed. Therefore, professionals can apply this knowledge and can ensure similar communication skills with the patients. This helps in maintaining the autonomy and dignity of the patients. The leaders put more importance to the maintenance of effective teamwork through development of trust and mutual respect. Such teamwork also helps in handling critical complex patient cases with expertise and ensures effective health of the patient.
Opportunities for graduate nurses to develop leadership skills:
The leaders undertaking transformational leadership approach guide the subordinates in ways by which they can develop their skills and knowledge and wok beyond their professionals. They follow the leaders as their role model and take up traits that not only help them excel in nursing professionals but also enable them to be effective leaders of future. The leaders solve their concerns and often the leaders provide them feedback (Bromley et al. 2015). All these aspects give them the chance of gaining new attributes that in turn help them develop their leadership skills. They constantly inspire them to overcome barriers and work beyond their limits. These would enable them to be effective leaders and help the organization reach the zenith of success.
Conclusion:
From the above conclusion, it becomes clear that the transformational leadership enable registered nurses to develop skills that help in effective patient delivery. They ensure two way communication, guides the nurses with their concerns and inspires them to excl in their profession. They act as role models motivating them to think in a creative manner during different difficult situations in the healthcare organization.
Part B:
Reflection part:
Emotional intelligence can be defined as the ability of the individuals for identifying and managing ones’ own emotions as well as the emotion of the others. I believe that in healthcare profession, every professional has to manage huge workloads without being burned out. As they have to interact with service users who have different opinions and may be of different nature, they have to be patient and handle each of the conflicts calmly without getting frustrated and disappointed. In such situation, self-regulation would help leaders to regulate their emotions without verbally attacking others, making rushed or emotional decisions, compromising their valued and stereotyping people (Vasimoardi et al. 2016). Therefore, chances of conflicts at workplace also reduce and effective teamwork and patient satisfaction can be ensured. I also need to develop self-awareness. This skill would help me to keep my emotions under control preventing my reactions to affect others and harming their emotions and bonds.
I would always ensure that I remain motivated to meet my goals and ensure that I engage in continuous professional development. The better clinical and non-pharmacological skill that I develop better will be my ability to care for individuals. Therefore, I need to remain motivated as long as I am in this profession and continue to serve the humanity. I also believe that empathy and social skills are two important attributes that would help me in strengthening my emotional intelligence. Better, I develop socializing skills, I would be able to interact with my team members and develop bonds with them. This would help me to work in a collaborative manner with them. Moreover, empathy would help me to develop therapeutic relationship with my patients. Application of empathy during the times of communication will make them feel that I am able to understand their issue completely and that I am genuinely interested in caring for their health. This would help me develop bonds with the patients and engaging them in their own care. Person centered care to the patients along with empathy helps in meeting the emotional needs of the patients along with attending to their physical needs. This ensures compliance of the patients with the medical treatment. Therefore, I need to develop the traits of emotional intelligence effectively to ensure best care to patients in my profession.
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