Leadership Critique Paper
The textbook, Concepts for Nursing Practice, defines leadership as, “an interactive process that provides needed guidance and direction.” (Giddens, J., 2013, p.375). Leaders can be informal, a coworker that everyone looks up to, or formal, a manager that has authority that has been given to them (Giddens, J., 2013, p.375). In the case of the nurse manager I have been shadowing, she is a formal leader. The hospital has appointed her as the Surgical Services Nurse Manager to lead the Surgical Services departments and act as their spokesperson when addressing upper management. Her position within the heath care team is as a liaison between upper management and lower tier health care leaders. The Surgical Services
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The most common styles she employs are democratic leadership, laissez-faire leadership, and shared leadership. Her position as a liaison between upper management and the nurse leads contributes to her need to regularly switch from a position of leader to follower and back again, keeping her not only extremely busy, but out of the office for most of the day. To lead her team, she must change tactics all day long, from one task to another. The leadership styles democratic leadership, laissez-faire leadership, and shared leadership all have one thing in common, these styles allow for the nurse manager to permit her team of nurse leads, the power to lead themselves. The nurse manager is capable of putting large amounts of responsibility in their subordinate’s hands, knowing that they are skilled and qualified to make decisions without interference (Giddens, J., 2013, p.376). These styles tend to work effectively for the Surgical Services Nurse Manager because her team of nurse leads are experienced and capable of performing their jobs with little to no feedback. While each of these three leadership styles: democratic leadership, laissez-faire leadership, and shared leadership, share some similarities, they are all slightly different, with some being more effective than others. Of the leadership styles she engages in, her use of shared leadership is most effective, while her use of the laissez-faire
This paper aims to address and discuss about the leadership and management of the nurse leader interviewed. This experience was a great opportunity to witness first hand how a nurse leader cultivate and manage their staffs in real life setting. Moreover, it provides a great access to gain insight and knowledge about nurse leaders’ vital responsibilities and role diversities in the organizations they work with. Nurse leaders pay more specific and close attention in handling the staffs and most importantly, patient care.
In this essay I will discuss the leadership style of 3 nursing leaders, which I chose from Nursing Leadership DVD (Orazietti & Singh, 2014). I will then describe impact the leaders ' style has on improving nursing care, organizational processes, and inter-professional collaboration. In addition, I will provide some examples of a change process or difficult situation which leaders encountered. Finally, I will explain how I have dealt with difficult situation involving my colleague and one of physician in the hospital department where I worked. Throughout this essay I will analyze what leaders should have done differently. 3 Leaders which I have chosen were Debra Bournes from group 1 because of her political and administrative success, Mina Singh from group 2 because she is renowned for her educational style at York University, and Esther Green from group 3 because she is the sound and knowledgeable practitioner.
Leadership at times can be a complex topic to delve into and may appear to be a simple and graspable concept for a certain few. Leadership skills are not simply acquired through position, seniority, pay scale, or the amount of titles an individual holds but is a characteristic acquired or is an innate trait for the fortunate few who possess it. Leadership can be misconstrued with management; a manager “manages” the daily operations of a company’s work while a leader envisions, influences, and empowers the individuals around them.
In healthcare it is very important to have strong leaders, especially in the nursing profession. A nurse leader typically uses several styles of leadership depending on the situation presented; this is known as situational leadership. It is important that the professional nurse choose the right style of leadership for any given situation to ensure their employees are performing at their highest potential. Depending on which leadership style a nurse leader uses, it can affect staff retention and the morale of the employees as well as nurse job satisfaction (Azaare & Gross, 2011.) “Nursing leaders have the responsibility to create and maintain a work environment which not only promotes positive patient outcomes but also
Leadership is a skill some are born with the other can learn. There are many styles of leadership. This paper will focus on three main styles of leadership including autocratic, democratic and laissez-faire. Transformational leadership is a type a leadership that is very difficult to teach and we will explore the great effects of this type of leadership. Wells and Wells (2010) explain several aspects of leadership that leaders should portray, no matter what style they use. These including :articulating a vision, explaining what is expected of himself or herself as leader as well as what is expected of staff members, providing guidance and mentoring, developing staff members by coaching them one on one, understanding the importance of teamwork,
In the nursing health care profession, there are different leadership styles in which can have an impact on the organization, staff, and even the outcome of the patient health. With the changes in the trends of the current health care system, nurses are being placed in a position to lead and take the necessary actions to reshape their organization. The leadership style of the nurse is influenced by their nursing experience, educational background and their personality. After this writer completed the strength finder assessment, the five themes identified as a part of the personality are: positivity, relator, discipline, woo and self-assurance After completing strength finder assessment, this writer was able to identify five
Martin Luther King, Florence Nightingale, Harriet Tubman, and Rosa Parks. These are all leaders the United States population has followed in the past. Being a leader does not mean you must be known by the world, but it does require certain characteristics. Leadership qualities include focusing on the future to see a change, bringing possibilities to a negative situation, adapting oneself based on the environment, and communicating effectively. Throughout my work experience I have seen leader qualities in different people and situations. Leading in the nursing or healthcare field can be challenging as it is often the patient's life on the line. As a leader, it is important to be able to differentiate between being a
Leadership and management are essential to any health care organization, balancing patient care, employees, physicians, and the organization. Nursing is founded on interpersonal relationships. As a people-oriented profession, nursing leadership styles are influenced by humanism. The mission, attitude, and behaviors of a health care organization begins with its leadership, which creates the direction and purpose of the organization. The purpose of this paper is to differentiate between leadership and management, describe views of leadership, and explain the
In the increasingly complex, ever changing environment of today’s healthcare, effective leaders are essential to help drive positive change resulting in increased access to care with positive outcomes for as many as possible. In its 2010 report, The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) recognized that nurses are well positioned to play a key role in the transformation of our healthcare system in the United States (U.S.) (Institute of Medicine [IOM], 2010). In The Essentials of Doctoral Education for Advanced Nursing Practice, the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) specifically identifies organizational and systems leadership as a core competency for advanced
“Managers with leadership styles that seek and value contributions from staff, promote a climate in which information is shared effectively, promote decision making at the staff nurse level, exert position power, and influence coordination of work to provide a milieu that maintains a stable cadre of nurses”, (Boyle, Bott, Hansen, Woods & Taunton, 2009). This statement describes the large impact a leadership style can make on the work environment, and the morale of the team. In nursing history, several theories and leadership
Leaders are often called upon to be innovative and flexible, able to be inventive in an unpredictable environment (Nibley, 1987), which makes talented leaders a tremendous asset to the nursing field, where human behavior can alter from what is typically considered to be the norm. Effective leaders should be able to lead not only others, but themselves too. Additionally, leaders who solicit successful input from others, and develop coalitions through teamwork to achieve results (Kelly & Crawford, 2013). Some head nurses are tasked with being both a leader and a manager, which can become troublesome if an established leadership style has not been learned and mastered (Sorensen, Delmar, & Pedersen, 2011). Being able to navigate the responsibilities of both a leader and a manager, working with doctors, fellow nurses, and patients, in a cohesive manner can be challenging. While the evaluation of leadership styles and the importance of effective leadership in a healthcare setting in the current paper is being evaluated through the view of a newly graduated nursing student, it is important to keep the roles of a head nurse in mind due to potential career goals. Doing such also helps to understand the stresses that the head nurses are under as they fulfill the roles of nursing and leadership within the department.
Leadership may mean different things to different people, the consensus opinion of experts in this field is that leadership is using power to direct and influence activities of people to achieve set goals or targets. Nursing leadership is all about every nurse providing, facilitating and promoting the best healthcare services to client and to the public. Leadership is a shared responsibility. (CNO 2012). The nursing profession need leaders that can build the capacity of nurses through mentoring, coaching, supporting, developing the expertise and management skills of nurses to make a difference to the quality of patient care at all levels of the profession ( McIntyre & McDonald, 2014 ). At the core of every leadership either political or managerial is power and how the leader uses it. While it is practically impossible to lead without power, how the nurse leader uses this power not only determine the leadership style but also the results or outcomes of what is achieved through the process.
Leadership does not always come with a title or prestige. Every nurse has within themselves qualities that make them a great leader. Leadership by definition, “is a combination of intrinsic personality traits, learned leadership skills, and characteristics of the situation (Cherry& Jacob (2013 p. 335). A leader is one who has the capacity and skills to direct or encourage others in efforts to achieve an outcome. I recently completed a self-assessment on my perceived leadership abilities. The survey was called the Nurse Manager Skills Inventory (Nurse Manager Leadership Partnership, 2008). It consists of four content areas of which I will address and identify my strengths and weaknesses.
In the healthcare field, nursing leaders and managers face consistent issues in their respective practices that force them to alter the way they work and the way they think. In taking on a role as a leader within the field, nursing leaders and managers also take on the role of ensuring that work within an organization runs smoothly regardless of new issues that may arise in the healthcare arena. For instance, in today's healthcare environment, the issues of nurse shortage and nurse turnover have the capacity to alter the healthcare field and many of its respective branches and organizations should these problems not be managed properly by the leaders in the field. In viewing the issue at hand and in discovering how nursing leaders and managers are expected to act, and do act, in order to approach this issues, along with pinpointing the best approach possible to aid this issue, one can better understand which leadership styles are necessary for leaders to function.
Before I started this leadership/management coarse I had no idea what qualities a good leader manager needs to hold. I had no idea a registered nurse was considered a leader/manager. Now that I have reviewed all the chapters in the Leadership Roles and Management Functions in Nursing (Marquis & Huston, 2015) I have a full understanding of how important leadership/management functions play in a nurse’s career. Chapters 12-25 describe roles and functions that are needed for a nurse to become a successful leader/manager. These chapters discussed the roles and functioning of organizing, staffing, directing, and controlling.