Most healthcare organizations have accentuated patient care in the twenty-first century. Nurses have had to work extra to provide the quality patient care that matches the requirements of the various institutions and the patients themselves. Nurse leaders carry out the essential function of influencing their colleagues through effective communication and insight. Mostly, nurse leaders are usually responsible for the decision-making processes for the various tasks and functions that are carried out in the nursing profession. One of the integral functions of a nurse leader is to carry out advocacy for the patients, the profession, and the nurses. While carrying out their role of advocacy, the nurse leaders integrate effective communication, problem-solving, and collaboration with the patients and the other nurses. The role development of a nurse leader is a continuum that involves effective role development, which works for the improvement of patient care.
Role Development of a Nurse Leader
The level of experience an individual has in the nursing career determines the kind of leader they are. Nursing leaders have to possess particular characteristics and qualities that enable them to handle patient care for their various organizations. Firstly, the nurse leaders have to excellent communicators (Son, Park & Ko, 2017). Effective communication on the side of the nurses enables them to consolidate the nursing profession for their coworkers. Secondly, the nurses have to be professional in their work (Son, Park & Ko, 2017). That enables them to coordinate quality patient care in the institutions effectively.
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Having a personal philosophy for nurse leaders is a fundamental step towards the role development of a nurse leader. An example of philosophy is servant leadership. Servant leadership enables a nurse leader to form deeper connections with his or her patients while putting the needs of the other members of staff first (Darnell & Hickson, 2015). Transformational leadership in a modern nursing setting enables nurse leaders to embrace servant leadership. Such learning experiences in the nursing career enable a nurse leader to carry out their roles efficiently. To become a practical nurse leader, an individual also has to go through formal education, primarily through a master's degree to gain the essential aspects of nurse leadership (Darnell & Hickson, 2015). Additionally, a nurse leader has to go through subsequent learning to keep up with the current trends in the healthcare industry.
Nursing is a dynamic field with new trends and developments coming up with the advancement in the level of technology in the medical sector (Mollica, Litzelman, Rowland & Kent, 2017). Additionally, nurses have become more specialized in their roles, which have necessitated additional education and training to ensure that they deliver quality patient care. In the future, nurse leaders may have to diversify their education to sufficiently take care of the patients' needs in the nursing field (Mollica, Litzelman, Rowland & Kent, 2017). The increase in the level of technology in the nursing sector will also affect nursing and necessitate the nursing leaders to seek additional training to keep up with the technology.
Nursing leaders are faced with a myriad of setbacks as they carry out their day-to-day duties. The first challenge that the nurse leaders are faced with is meeting the demands of the stakeholders. More often than not, nursing leaders are faced with pressure to keep up with the current trends in the industry as well as deliver quality patient care and coordination at the workplace (Flagg, 2015). The other pitfall is balancing the generational differences in the workplace. The nurse leaders have to coordinate the duties of nurses who are of different ages, which may be problematic for them. The other challenge they may go through is adapting to the current regulations in the industry. Since nursing is a dynamic field, new regulations and trends come up regularly owing to the advancement of medical and nursing technology. Unless the nurses can educate themselves and receive training on the new regulations that are coming up, they may have difficulties executing their duties. Such challenges undermine the role of the nurse leaders in their capacities, and unless dealt with, the functions of nurse leaders may become diminished.
One of the ways that reduce the challenges that the nurse leaders face in their daily work is having mentors (Flagg, 2015). A mentor in the nursing industry provides light to the nurse leaders on the various tasks they can undertake to ensure effectiveness at the workplace. Mentors influence nurse leaders' leadership styles and philosophies. Mentors also advise the nurse leaders regarding the pressures that they face from the stakeholders and the best practices in patient care that they can integrate. For instance, the mentors may advise the nurse leaders to uphold effective communication at the workplace to ensure coordination among the members of staff, which contributes to quality patient care in the nursing sector of the various healthcare organizations.
Conclusion
The role of the nurse leader in a healthcare and nursing sector is fundamental to the efficiency and quality of patient care. The development of the role of a nurse leader involves particular steps that ensure they become competent in their day-to-day work. Some of the most fundamental qualities of nurse leaders are effective communication and professionalism. Effective communication makes the coordination of the nurses at the healthcare organization more convenient. Professionalism ensures that the nurse leader makes decisions and firmly stands by them. Both formal education and constant training are essential to the role development of a nurse leader. They are codependent in advancing the role of a nurse leader. Mentorship is an essential factor in the role development of a nurse leader. That is because the mentors give essential advice to the nurse leaders regarding their day-to-day duties.
References
Darnell, L. K., & Hickson, S. V. (2015). Cultural Competent Patient-centered Nursing Care.
Nursing Clinics , 50 (1), 99-108.
Flagg, A. J. (2015). The Role of Patient-centered Care in Nursing. Nursing Clinics , 50 (1), 75-86.
Mollica, M. A., Litzelman, K., Rowland, J. H., & Kent, E. E. (2017). The Role of
Medical/nursing Skills Training in Caregiver Confidence and Burden: A CanCORS Study. Cancer , 123 (22), 4481-4487.
Son, Y. L., Park, P. N., & Ko, S. H. (2017). The Effects of Preclinical Objective Structured
Clininal Examination (OSCE) on Knowledge, Nursing Students Confidence in Core Fundamental Nursing Skills and Self-efficacy. Journal of Korean Clinical Health Science , 5 (2), 850-863.
