Factors Contributing to Nursing Leadership

Nursing Issue 

One of the critical issues that I consider as being of significant interest within the nursing profession is a nursing shortage, which creates a substantial challenge in trying to work out effective approaches that would help in the delivery of an enhanced quality of health services. Nursing is considered one of the most dynamic professions requiring effective leadership attributed to its role in promoting positive health outcomes. The dynamic nature of this profession can be seen from the fact that nurses play a critical role in dealing with a wide array of medical and health issues. From that perspective, it can be argued that indeed nurses play a crucial role in promoting positive health outcomes for their patients. That means that health facilities tend to focus much of their attention on trying to boost favorable leadership frameworks with the focus being towards advancing the overall effectiveness of nursing as a profession. From that perspective, this report seeks to example the issue of nursing shortage with the emphasis being towards exploring a critical strategy that would be of value towards dealing with the item in question adequately.

Literature Review 

Murray (2017) argues that through effective leadership in the nursing profession, it becomes much easier to identify and implement critical changes focused on ensuring that the quality of healthcare services offered matches the needs and expectations of the patients. The idea of providing patient-centered care means that nurses must work towards ensuring that the health services provided to meet the needs of their patients. That can only be achieved through progressive nursing leadership, which can provide a framework from which nurses can operate in their bid to advance the quality of health services. Lack of effectiveness in nursing leadership may create a situation where nurses may fail to recognize their respective roles as part of the healthcare delivery system. The long-term effect that this may have a negative impact on the abilities to offer the expected quality of healthcare services.

Nursing leaders may also be viewed as being useful in the idea of nurturing teamwork, as they would focus more on the idea of having to encourage nurses to operate as part of team units. Murray (2017) argues that the effectiveness of nursing leaders in their bid to helping nurses to work as part of teams acts as a clear indication of the fact that these leaders must have strong interpersonal skills. These skills will play a critical role in ensuring that they identify some of the key strengths and weaknesses associated with individual members of the healthcare teams. From that perspective, it becomes easier for these nursing leaders to work out effective avenues from which to capitalize on the nurses' strengths while setting out effective strategies to minimize the underlying impacts associated with the weaknesses projected from individual team members.

For nursing teams to achieve expected results, it is essential for them to operate in a given order, which allows them to reflect on critical areas that they would need to consider in their bid to defining overall success (Glassman & Withall, 2018). In cases where the nursing teams operate without proper organization, the chances of success tend to reduce significantly considering that it becomes hard for the individual team members to determine their roles as part of the teams. Ultimately, this highlights the importance of having to embrace nursing leadership with the focus being towards boosting prospective outcomes in organizations.

If the nursing teams encounter any essential issues, the ability of nursing leaders to promote or define proper organization acts as one of the critical determinants of the effectiveness of the teams in overcoming the problems. Adequate organization in nursing leadership also reflects on the fact that nursing leaders may play a crucial role in the assignment of duties and responsibilities for individual team members (Moura, Bernardes, Balsanelli, Zanetti, & Gabriel, 2017). The long-term effect is that this would mean that each of the team members has a clear understanding of his or her role in the team, thus, paving the way for better performance. That will help in avoiding instances where some of the team members tend to clash in their duties, which may have a significant impact on the ability for the teams to meet some of their set out goals and objectives.

Impacts of the Issue 

The issue associated with nursing shortage results in a significant challenge for healthcare facilities in their bid towards delivering quality health care services to their patients. In most cases, the health facilities experience a crucial issue in their effort towards providing their patients with personalized health care services matching their set out expectations. That can be seen effectively from the perspective of nursing leadership, which experiences a key challenge as part of its approach towards meeting some of the set-out nursing goals. The long-term effect that this tends to have on nurses is that it creates a negative dynamic in which patients are not in a position allowing them to receive the best quality of health services.

Strategies for Nursing Leaders 

The following are some of the critical strategies that nursing leaders may adopt as part of their approach towards ensuring that they are well positioned towards not only understanding the issue but also working towards dealing with it effectively.

Nurturing Teamwork 

Nursing is one of the professions that require individuals to work as part of teams with the focus being towards ensuring that they meet to set out goals and expectations. However, one of the critical challenges that majority of nurses encounter in their bid to defining their performance revolves around lack of a clear-cut understanding of expected qualities that may boost their abilities to work in teams. Thus, this seeks to highlight the role of nursing leadership, as nursing leaders can set out useful frameworks from which to ensure that nurses work in team settings (Murray, 2017). In this role, nursing leaders may be viewed as playing a critical position towards defining performance based on their abilities to offer a vision for their followers.

Encouraging Success 

Effectiveness in leadership depends wholly on the ability for leaders to create an environment that not only defines performance but also creates enthusiasm for followers to achieve set out goals. In nursing, this can translate from the perspective that nursing leaders play a critical role in their bid to ensuring that nurses remain passionate and motivate towards their respective workplace environments. Nursing, being an essential professional in health care, exposes Registered Nurses to a vast array of challenges or situations that may result in reduced motivation towards performance (Glassman & Withall, 2018). Thus, this highlights the role of nursing leaders, who are expected to act as support structures for these nurses in their bid to ensure that they boost or project positive performance outcomes focusing on motivation towards improving their performance.

For a nursing leader to be considered as being useful, he or she must be methodological, in the sense that, he or she must understand how to handle specific issues arising as part of the workplace environment. Additionally, the nursing leader must also be detail oriented from the perspective that he or she must seek to learn more information especially in areas that would require prospective decision making. Another critical aspect to note when reflecting on the idea of encouraging success in nursing is that nursing leaders must learn how to inspire others towards performance regardless of the diversities that may exist. For example, nursing leaders may find themselves in environments where they are expected to work with nurses from diverse cultural backgrounds(Davis-Ajami, Costa, & Kulik, 2014). In that view, it becomes essential for the nursing leaders to learn how to handle the issue of diversity as it arises within the workplace environment. The ability of nursing leaders to deal with the problem of difference acts as a critical determinant of overall success for nurses.

Positive Growth 

Another key factor to note in the evaluation of nursing leadership is the need for growth among nurses, which is one of the critical areas where nurses have been experiencing significant challenges. Lack of positive growth as part of nurses’ connection to the nursing profession means that nurses find themselves in a situation where it becomes harmful for them to determine their roles as part of the health care delivery system (Davis-Ajami, Costa, & Kulik, 2014). This is an area that requires effective nursing leadership with the focus being towards ensuring that the nurses develop a positive framework from which to define their growth capacities. Nursing leaders may find themselves in a position where they are inspiring a vision among individual nurses, which, in turn, acts as a critical element to help in projecting positive growth.

Alternatively, positive growth can be seen from the fact that nursing leaders find themselves in platforms from which to engage in an in-depth evaluation of their teams’ performance with the focus being on the individual team members. In the event of an opportunity for growth, it becomes much more comfortable for the nursing leaders to highlight such opportunities with the focus being towards paving the way for better performance in future for the individual nurses. Lack of effective leadership means that nursing leaders may fail in their bid towards reflecting on useful frameworks from which to determine what to expect from a leadership perspective (Moura, Bernardes, Balsanelli, Zanetti, & Gabriel, 2017). Ultimately, this would mean that the nursing leaders are well positioned towards ensuring that they can influence others towards promoting positive performance outcomes. Additionally, the nursing leaders also find it much more accessible in their bid towards setting out effective platforms from which to establish or reflect on expected aspects that will help towards taking nursing a new level altogether.

Conclusion 

In summary, nursing, being a critical part of the healthcare delivery system, is one of the most dynamic professions, thus, boosting the need and importance of having to ensure that leaders work towards maintaining their effectiveness. Some of the contributing factors that have been noted to play a critical role in defining the value and importance of nursing leadership include improved health on patient-centered care, nurturing teamwork, encouraging success, proper organization, and positive growth. Each of these factors creates a platform on which to view nursing leadership as one of the critical elements that define positive performance. Additionally, the factors seek to the clear-cut platform from which to project positive outcomes considering that they reflect on the idea of having to improve on nursing leadership.

References

Davis-Ajami, M. L., Costa, L., & Kulik, S. (2014). Gap analysis: Synergies and opportunities for effective nursing leadership.  Nursing Economics ,  32 (1), 17-25.

Glassman, K. S., & Withall, J. (2018). Nurse Manager Learning Agility and Observed Leadership Ability: A Case Study.  Nursing Economics ,  36 (2), 74-82.

Moura, A. A. D., Bernardes, A., Balsanelli, A. P., Zanetti, A. C. B., & Gabriel, C. S. (2017). Leadership and nursing work satisfaction: an integrative review.  Acta Paulista de Enfermagem ,  30 (4), 442-450.

Murray, E. (2017).  Nursing Leadership and Management: For Patient Safety and Quality Care . New York, NY: FA Davis.