Nurse leadership

Introduction

Three weeks ago, I visited Inspira Hospital at Vineland, New Jersey. The purpose of the visitation was to observe the type of leadership style that the nurse leadership adopted at the facility. Nurse leadership is a critical element of nursing practice as it involves motivating nurses to work together and achieve nursing excellence. Effective nurse leadership emphasizes on the adoption of competent and engages the practice of nursing to the extent that their nursing endeavors rely on evidence. Effective nurse leadership is about having the highest level of accountability and engaging in well-informed decision-making processes. Effective leadership involves encouraging nurses to embrace positive changes in their profession so as to enhance continuous growth.

Nursing leadership encompasses establishing the best leadership style to adopt. Leadership is a process that involves goal identification, motivation of subordinate and driving followers towards the attainment of organizational goals. At Inspira Hospital, I intended to talk to the nurse manager about nurse leadership and its influence on the facility. The leadership style that nurse managers adopt influences the ability of the facility to execute its responsibility. According to Negussie & Demissier (2013) the leadership styles of nurse management play a vital role in nurse job satisfaction. Nurse Managers must adopt leadership styles that provide a positive influence to nurses by providing guidance, motivation, guidance and direction (Negussie & Demissier, 2013). There is numerous leadership styles that nurse manager can adopt and implement in their workstations. It is the task of the nurse manager to determine the leadership style that will yield the greatest outcome for the facility.

Analysis

Prior to visiting Inspira hospital, I was nervous about whether I will find a receptive management. Ordinarily, organizations are often precarious about studies and or investigations to their organization. I was aware that I may encounter a leadership that may be unwilling to disclose their operations at the facility. However, I was determined to talk to the nurse manager and attain his views on leadership and the leadership style that he employs at the health facility. Prior to the visitation, I also engage in self-reflection, to determine the leadership experiences that I have encountered in previous workplaces.

 I was aware that the existence of an authoritative form of leadership would mean that I would have a difficult time speaking to the nurse manager. The authoritative form of leadership emphasizes on instilling fear and adhering to commands without question (Vesterinen, 2013). However, my first encounter at Inspira Hospital put to rest my worries on the overall operations of the Nursing team. I met a very professional and competent nurse manager. The nurse manager was willing to talk to me about nursing leadership, and it influences the performance of nurses in the facility. From the first contact, I was sure that I had developed unwarranted concerns about the visitation. Inspira Hospital is a small health care facility that has realized tremendous growth due to excellent performance. The excellent performance of the facility reflects on effective leadership. The nurse manager revealed that he adopted the transformational and transactional type of leadership.

Transformational leadership emphasizes on encouraging employees to perform their best. Transformation leaders motivate their employees to perform well through positive incentives rather than negative incentives. The transformational leader pushes his subordinates to perform beyond their set targets. The transformational leaders also take note of his subordinate’s achievement and give rewards and recognitions. I realized that the nurse manager manages to adopt transformation leadership because he has personality traits that enable his to bring out the best of his subordinates. The nurse manager at Inspira hospital is a performer. He emphasizes on showing rather than telling his subordinate what to do. The nurse manager works with his team rather than delegate duties and engages in supervisory activities (Giltinane, 2013). The nurse manager is a source of motivation for his employees and always strives to adopt positive changes that would enhance nursing excellence.

The nurse manager also pointed out he adopts the transactional form of leadership at the facility. Transactional leadership involves the provision of rewards and punishments when employees perform tasks. The nurse manager acknowledged that the adoption of transactional leadership was mandatory as a strategy of ensuring that nurses demonstrate quality performance. The transactional theory arises from the assumption that rewards motivate employees to performance. The implementation of transactional leadership provides the nurses with clear expectation of the nurse manager’s expectation in terms of ascertaining the effective operation of affairs. The nurse manager perceives nursing as a critical step in the delivery of quality health services. Nurses are part of an elaborate of healthcare professionals who ascertain that patients make a holistic recovery.

Synthesis and Discussion

The nurse manager adopts an integrated form of leadership style for the effective management of nurse functions at the facility. The adoption of a mix of transactional and transformation leadership style is critical to the effective running of the organization. The nurse manager can switch from one type of leadership style to another so as to enhance nurse performance. The nurse manager must demonstrate familiarity with the leadership style that suits a specific situation. The transformation leader motivates his team member through shared visions.

The team leaders demonstrate exceptional communication skills that he utilizes when communicating the overall vision. The transformation leader also demonstrates a high level of humility that endears him to his followers (Vesterinen, 2013). The followers adhere to his instructions because he feels motivated to share the same vision as their manager. The nurse manager demonstrates transactional leadership when he awards and recognizes his team’s efforts for effective and successful execution of tasks. The transactional leader clarifies the role and responsibility of each employee.

The adoption of an integrated leadership style (transformational and transactional leadership) ascertains effective team building at the hospital. The leader ensures that all nurses understand and work towards achieving the shared vision of the facility. Specifically, the nurse manager ensures that the nurses strive to perform a quality service that enhances positive patient outcomes. The leadership styles ensure that the nursing operations at the facility proceed as planned thus improving customer satisfaction levels. The application of transactional leadership ascertains a reduction of conflict associated with roles and responsibilities.

 The nurse manager ensures that he outlines the specific roles and responsibilities of each employee must undertake so as to attain the hospital’s vision. The transformation style of leadership also enables the nurse manager to motivate the employee to operate as a team. The nurse manager visits different nurse station and observes their functions and also assists where possible (Suliman, 2009). The strategy motivates the nurses as it eliminates the leader-subordinate barrier. The nurse manager’s participation in different nursing activities at the hospital motivates other nurses to work as a team and aid each other whenever necessary.

Conclusion and Recommendations

Inspira hospital has a nurse manager who implements the transformational and transactional form of leadership. The mixed method of leadership is ideal as it helps the nurse manager to switch from one form of leadership to another based on the situation at the hospital. Nursing leadership is a critical element of the nursing profession. It is essential that all nurses strive to achieve critical leadership skill. The provision of leadership skills as a core requirement in nursing will ensure that all nurses embrace accountability and effective nursing practices part of their nursing profession. The attainment of leadership skill will eliminate the need for continued supervision by the nurse managers.

Nurses will work through their individual initiative rather than the push for their leaders. Additionally, the provision of leadership skill will give nurses the power to engage in evidence-based decision-making irrespective of their nursing position. Nurse Managers must be at the forefront of championing for continued learning and imparting of leadership skills among nurses. Nurses who acquire nursing skills as well as leadership skills can become exceptional nursing experts, as well as leaders in their right (Curtis, 2011). Secondly, I recommend that nurse leaders adopt different leadership styles (autocratic, democratic, visionary, transformational, and transactional leadership). The diversity of leadership style enables the nurse leader to execute his leadership role by employing different leadership styles for different situations. Different leadership styles have their individual’s benefits and demerits. The adoption of a mix of leadership styles minimizes the risk of limitations in terms of the execution of leadership responsibilities.

Reference

Curtis, E. (2011). Developing leadership in nursing. British journal of nursing. Vol. 20(5)

Giltinane, L. (2013). Leadership styles and theories. Nursing Standard. 27, 41, 35-39

 Negussie, N. & Demissie, A. (2013). Relationship between leadership systoles nurse managers and nurse’ job satisfaction. Journal of health sciences.  Vol. 23(1): 49-58

Suliman, W. (2009). Leadership styles of nurse managers in a multinational environment. Journal of nursing administration.  Vol. 3394):301-309

Vesterinen, S. (2013). Nurse Manager’s perception related to their leadership status, knowledge and skills. International scholarly research notices.

Sherry Roberts is the author of this paper. A senior editor at MeldaResearch.Com in nursing essay writing service services. If you need a similar paper you can place your order from research paper services.