Nursing Leadership in Nursing

Question: Define the Report about Nursing for Leadership in Nursing. Answer: Patients receive health care services in varied environments. Such environments rely on varied factors and complicated interactions like disease, treatment, technology, clinicians, procedures, patient care, policies, resources etc. When these factors merge or collide, if the sync is improper, there can be unpredicted harmful and unwanted outcomes. These errors can be life threatening. Hence, the environment under which a nurse or a doctor provides care to the patients directly affects the patients safety, care and recovery. At health care workplaces, nurses are expected to apply their skills, knowledge and experience for taking care of the varied and changing needs of the patients. The key contributors to the ability of a hospital to meet the challenges of patient safety are nurses and midwives. More than half of the entire registered workforce health practitioners are constituted of nurses and midwives. They are an integral part of health care system (ACN, 2015) If such care falls behind the standards, either because of negligence, unavailability of resource, lack of procedures in place or irresponsibility of the staff can lead to numerous complex results. So, this thesis is basically to understand the connection in between good leadership in a clinical system and how it impacts patient safety. When one is clear about the complexities of health care workplace, then one can engage into strategies and technique to improve the procedures. Nurses leadership is a bit different from general leadership. In leadership by nurses the major emphasis is on the speculation of the responsibility of the nurse for improving and influencing the environment of the patient (Curtis, 2011). Safety of patients is clearly defined as the measure that prevents any harm to patients. An example can be given that each year in US; 30-50% of injuries caused to patients are by falling within the health care unit. Such fall signifies added treatment and a longer stay. Prevention of such falls requires excellent leadership know how of the staff who is in constant communication with the patient. And in this case it is the nurse (Anonymous, 2015). During the 1990s a realization occurred that in spite of all the advanced medical knowledge and cure invented still hospitals or health care clinics were not safe places for complete healing. Instead there occurred risks of harms. As a result of this realization there was a growth in taking measures to ensure patient safety. Soon it became a disciple and a separate subject where members were taught how to take care of patients under their leadership (Emanuel, 2008). The IOM or the Institute of Medicine considers safety of patients associated with health care itself. Quality service under the leadership of staff in a clinical system is today a separate subject of research and constant development. The IOM defines quality service as the degree towards which any health related service for patients enhances the chances of recovery and are in sync with current body of professional health care knowledge (Mitchell, 2000). The definition of quality patient safety procedures is hence those steps that reduce the occurrences of adverse outcomes or events related to medical care, diagnosis or environment. It is a concrete definition but not the most complete of all. This is because there are many practices which have not studied well in terms of their effectiveness (Mitchell, 2000). Majority of the healthcare systems uses leadership paradigms where the main priority is role of administrators rather than development of leadership as a method to collaborate knowledge with real time requirements. This continued since the Industrial Age. Pos this time the values or leadership models devised were more relational and in sync with the collective objectives of any organization. In a health care system safety of patients lie greatly on the leadership of the health care professionals. Redefining health care services for better effective patient care can improve their safety outcomes. Organizations must redefine their practices of leadership in such a way that it promotes improvement and development (Uhl-Bien, 2007). The scenario of health care has been transforming dynamically and the challenges of working as a nurse has increased manifolds. More expert managerial training and leadership services are needed to fight important issues. For promoting patient safety nurses needs to undergo the following different leadership styles. Transformational leadership skill In this style of leadership the nurse is empowered to transform the belief, need and value of the follower for achieving a certain objective Transactional leadership skill - The outcomes of the transformational leadership skills are enhanced and completed by the transactional leadership style. Visionary leadership style Under this style of leadership nurses emphasizes on the vision of the health care organization and accordingly provides information to employees. Coaching leadership style- Both for the nurses and supervisors in a health care unity, under coaching leadership they take into account the professional development of the employees along with the delegation of their work. Affiliate leadership style In this style also, the nurse takes into account harmony and accepts differences with proper judgment. The priority here is for the best interest of patients, employees and the organizational goals. Democratic leadership style Here participation of employees and working in a team to ensure patient safety is the main objective of the nurses. Commanding leadership style- A clear and commanding leadership styles helps convey messages clearly and direct. This way every one is clear about their job roles. Leadership is itself an art and it is a subject of directing, guiding, motivating and inspiring an individual or an organization to achieve certain common objectives (Marshall, 2011). In nursing, leadership is what needs effective communication, self awareness and extreme social awareness (Taft, 2009). Here are the 3 different styles of leadership promoting patient safety in the maternity ward of the healthcare workplace and we will make an analysis of these. Transformational Creating a perfect environment is the basis for patient safety in a health care unit.To does this one needs to make certain changes based on their leadership capabilities. These can be about the employee deployment and an organizations role in ascertaining a safety environment. Such style of leadership is termed as transformational leadership (Anonymous, 2004). Dissonant and Commanding In the dissonant style of leadership there is less focus on the emotional well being of employees. Here the major concern is reaching the organizational goals. Resonant and Democratic In this type of leadership the nurse is concerned about the emotional and professional well being of his or her team of employees. By prioritizing on personal growth and values, nurses helps build up teamwork and loyalty. The next important component of the health care nursing leadership framework is working in a team to work towards patient safety effectively. There are two levels to this. One is the near leadership where the interpersonal skills are of utmost importance. Then there is distant leadership. This means scenarios where the immediate authority is not in the exact situation and is far. The main objective of leadership is to motivate the entire team to work in an emotional environment. The maternity unit of a hospital needs a lot of personalized care and services for an ultimate care and safety experience (Storey, 2013). Nursing leadership frameworks needs constant improvement based on real time needs of patients. There cannot be a predefined rule or strategy to do this. The framework clearly defines engaging the staff for improvement. Under this there are four components. First, Nurses as leaders must be always on alert for the needs of the patients. Secondly, there must be intellectual stimulations. Senior leaders must constantly help nurses in direct contact with patients learn and implement leadership ideas. Thirdly, nurses must be a constant source of inspiration to the patients. Fourth, they must act as a role model. In all the studies and findings one can conclude that there is a need of positive relationship in between relational health care leaders and patients. There is a correlation in between leadership style and patient satisfaction. Recruiting, retaining and redefining staff in lines with what is required will help create better clinical environment and ensure better patient safety at all levels in a health care workplace (Cummings, 2013) References Emanuel, L. (2008), Crossing the classroom-clinical practice divide in palliative care by using quality improvement Methods, Retrieved from https://www.ahrq.gov/downloads/pub/advances2/vol1/advances-emanuel-berwick_110.pdf Mitchell, P. (2000), Framing the problem of measuring and improving healthcare quality: has the Quality Health Outcomes Model been useful? Uhl-Bien, M. (2007), Complexity leadership theory: Shifting leadership from the industrial age to the knowledge age, Retrieved from www.antiochne.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/.../Uhl-Bien-et-al-2007-complexity.pdf Marshall, E. (2011), Transformational leadership in nursing: From expert clinician to influential leader, Retrieved from https://etd.ohiolink.edu/!etd.send_file?accession=walsh1398030398disposition=inline Taft, S. (2009), Emotionally intelligent leadership in nursing and health care organizations. Cummings, W. (2013), The relationship between nursing leadership and patient outcomes: a systematic review update. Retrieved from https://elearning.loyno.edu/masters-nursing-degree-online/resource/nurse-ldshp-patient-result ACN, (2015), Nurse Leadership, Retrieved from https://www.acn.edu.au/sites/default/files/leadership/ACN_Nurse_Leadership_White_Paper_FINAL.pdf Curtis, E. (2011), Developing leadership in nursing, Retrieved from https://www.nurse2nurse.ie/upload/na6873leadershp.pdf Anonymous, ( 2015), Preventing falls and Falls-related injuries in health care facilities, Retrieved from https://www.jointcommission.org/assets/1/18/SEA_55.pdf Anonymous, (2004), Keeping Patients Safe, Retrieved from https://www.nap.edu/catalog/10851/keeping-patients-safe-transforming-the-work-environment-of-nurses