Annika Joy Evans is Women's Health Nurse Practitioner at Baylor University Medical Center. I chose to focus on her due to the exemplary nurse leadership contribution she has given towards improving the health of the many women who have been visiting the medical center. She has demonstrated high levels of competence in the way she handles her clients at the facility leading to the growth of the numbers of women clients who visit the health center for treatment and wellness consultancy. Her commitment to leading a team of nurses at the facility towards ensuring that patients are satisfied with the service has made her popular at the facility. I chose to conduct the interview with her at her office due to her busy schedule since she had indicated she intended to continue with her daily work schedule after my interview. As a result, her office became a setting for convenience.
Annika Joy Evans, the Women's Health Nurse Practitioner at Baylor University Medical Center carries out a number of duties each working day of her life. However, the primary roles that she performs as the Women's Health Nurse Practitioner at the facility if offering comprehensive care to women clients at the health center. The comprehensive care for the women she offers cuts across different areas including the reproductive, obstetric, and gynecological health areas in the life of women. She offers diagnostic care and treatment to the clients who visit the health facility. The second major role she plays under her office is preventive health care in the primary care environment. She offers medical consultancy and counsel on many issues as pertains women health to her clients, as well as, other referral clients (Brown, 2000).
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
Personal Vision, Values, and Leadership Style
Annika’s personal vision, values, and leadership style are enshrined on the need to protect life and promote wellness of all clients irrespective of their diversity. She has a vision of seeing all women within her reach access the necessary primary and secondary care that they need to lead a healthy life. Her core values include the need to protect lives, respect diversity of opinions, act with compassion, demonstrate integrity, and embrace professional clinical practice in care provision to her clients. A clear analysis of these values and leadership style reveals that Annika is committed to effective leadership in her nursing profession. The priority she gives to observing both clinical and professional leadership practices reveals her commitment to serving her patients in the best way possible (Truax, 2008).
Leadership Competencies
Annika Joy Evans, the Women's Health Nurse Practitioner at Baylor University Medical Center; has the strength of being highly trained as a nurse practitioner. This strength allows her to work with or without a physician. Her trained skills make her competent to handle the different responsibilities in the clinical setting. On the contrary, her training as a Women's Health Nurse Practitioner limits her to offering primary care to male patients (Brown, 2000). The fact that she works in a center that has both the female and male gender means that different patients would come to the facility. However, her training limits her from offering care to people of the male gender even if there is need.
Personal Leadership Challenges and Goals
In executing her role at the health facility as its Women's Health Nurse Practitioner, the short-term challenge she faces is that of attending to the many clients that she has to attend to each day. Currently, she is the only Women's Health Nurse Practitioner at the facility making her to work beyond the recommended 8 hours per day. This is a major challenge considering the shortage of highly skilled Women's Health Nurse Practitioners in the city and the country as a whole. On the other end, her short-term goal in carrying out her current leadership role is that of developing and training other nurses that work with her on key competencies they need to become effective. She hopes to do this in the next three months (Truax, 2008).
Influences of Powers and Politics
One current healthcare issue that is greatly influenced by power and politics is the issue of handling transgender persons. The major issue that affects her practice and one requires much skills and competency to handle. For instance, the persons who have changed their gender identity from male to female and want to be recognized and treated as females at the facility. The methods that should be employed to resolve the issue is developing facilities that would handle such persons in the event there is crisis where they feel they were not handled or treated as they want(Brown, 2000). Secondly, increased training of nurse practitioners on handling such patients would also go a long way in addressing this crisis/issue.
Personal Reflection
I find the nurse leader as one who effectively integrates (or displays) the SON learning outcomes into nursing practice. Clearly, her approach to care giving at the facility demonstrates her commitment to professional values guiding the nursing practice. Additionally, Annika’s plays the role of this nurse leader as a change agent by promoting health equity and social justice for vulnerable populations such as transgender patients who visit the health facility (Graham, 2009).
Conclusion
The solution I propose for improving education and preparation for future nurse leaders is creating periodic and continued conference trainings to nurse leaders on issues that come up in the nursing care profession.
References
Brown, K. (2000). Management Guidelines for Women's Health Nurse Practitioners. Texas: F.A. Davis.
Graham, J. (2009). Women's Health Nurse Practitioner: Certification Review. New York, NY: W.B. Saunders.
Truax, D. (2008). The Nurse Practitioner in Long-Term Care: Guidelines for Clinical Practice. New York, NY: Jones & Bartlett Publishers.