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Nursing 425 Leadership Case Study

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Nursing 425 Leadership paper
The nursing profession of today is considered the foundation of the healthcare system due to the increasing numbers of people involved and its impact on the whole healthcare. The nursing profession involves performing many tasks in patient care. The nurse also has to fill different roles such as educator, advocate, teacher, etc... Two important roles that can imply to the nurse are that of a manager or a leader. Managers and leaders are two people that influence tremendously patient care and also the whole nursing environment. The first part of my paper involves comparing and contrasting both the role of the manager and that of the leader including essential characteristics and qualities inherent to each role. In …show more content…

Finally, I will explore specific steps to take to continue developing leadership skills in my professional life.
Nurses are healthcare professionals who are expected to be leaders and managers in addition to fulfilling patient care tasks. Both roles have essential characteristics and qualities specific to each function. According to Yoder-Wise (2015), “leadership can be defined as the use of individual traits and abilities, in relationship with others, and the ability to interpret the environment where a situation is emerging, and enter that situation in the absence of a script or defined plan that could have been projected (pg. 4)”. A leader is definitely a person who has a vision, and who can interpret the situation and direct the staff in challenging situations without a pre-established plan. According to Flaherty (2014),”it is because of Florence Nightingale who went on saving thousands of lives by doing an extensive survey of hospitals throughout Europe that forever changed the way hospitals were built and organized”. Thanks to her vision, she

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forever changed the face of nursing in the world and has ever since been considered the …show more content…

As far as differences, both managers and leaders have to deal with different priorities and goals. Managers may be more focused on balancing the budget while leaders may be focused on the task at hand and reaching a set goal. The kind of skills used in each role also differs.
Managers use managerial skills in their decision making while leaders use critical thinking in theirs. Another difference lies in the fact that managers can be taught how to perform their job but a leader is a trait that is innate in a person; not everyone can be a leader as the role of leader requires a certain set of skills to possess. But nowadays, as Aduddell & Dorman (2010) noted
“many nursing schools have incorporated leadership classes in their curriculum”. This is based on the important role that leadership holds in the nursing profession.
The leadership style that I would like to emulate is that of a transformational leader.

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Transformational leadership according to Yoder-Wise (2015) “is based on an inspiring vision that changes the framework of the organization for employees” (pg.38). In this type of

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