Leadership in the healthcare environment is an essential aspect that influences patient outcomes and employee interactions significantly. When leaders embody the transformational leadership strategy, they enable followers to be highly productive. Healthcare managers should also employ analytical decision-making skills to propel followers’ output aimed to achieve hospital goals, vision, and mission. Moreover, leaders in the medical context should promote team work fostered by effective communication to attain desired objectives. Further, healthcare leaders, primarily in the nursing field, should adhere to the American Nursing Association (ANA) ‘s professional code of ethics that prescribes non-maleficence, justice, autonomy, and beneficence. The extensive analysis of my response to the Western Medical Application Questionnaire shows how collaboration, ethical decision-making, motivation, and approach to transformational leadership should be executed in the healthcare context.
Leadership and Collaboration Experience
In January, 2021, I was tasked with leading an interdisciplinary team to assess the impacts of a new non-invasive treatment procedure for cancer on patients. My team comprised the nurse head, oncologist, pharmacist, nutritionist, general practitioner, and laboratorist. The clinic had procured a treatment routine from an upcoming research center that had fewer side effects than chemotherapy and proved successful for 50% of patients who had been subjected to it for the past 6 months. After much consideration, my employer decided to procure the intervention and assigned me the role of assessing its effectiveness on our regular patients. I requested a team meeting to discuss the mission and vision of the project, which we termed “venture x.” During the meeting, team members determined the vision to be to achieve at least 40% success rates in 5 months. The team’s shared the mentioned vision statement and then set guidelines on ways to achieve it.
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Cancer patients under the new treatment procedure would be hospitalized throughout the treatment course to facilitate the close monitoring of its outcomes. In the sixth month of treatment, if a patient was non-responsive to the new treatment routine, they would be switched back to chemotherapy sessions to minimize mortality rates. Patients would be informed treatment had a 5% success rate, to avoid legal consequences if their intervention procedures using the new routine were unsuccessful. All patients would sign a non-disclosure form and then begin treatment five days after undergoing intensive counseling sessions on what to expect during and post being subjected to the new intervention routine.
I used the transformational leadership approach to lead “venture x.” After meeting to discuss project goals, I assigned every team member specific roles and emphasized the need to constantly update other members of noted changes through a shared email address ( Bucăţa & Rizescu, 2017) . As the project progressed, I began encouraging followers to transcend their highest selves by being reading extensively on the new treatment routine, expected challenges, and ways to counter it. Every week, team members met to discuss their observations and the challenges experienced ( Lai et al., 2020) . I encouraged and reinforced mutual respect, compassion, and trust amongst team members as key values that guided project outcomes. Occasionally, a member would approach me to share a grievance, and I responded by affirming the importance of their concerns and then address it. Further, team members were aware they could share their ideas and not receive harsh judgment from other members.
Problems were discussed openly during weekly team meetings and then we used the analytical decision-making approach to resolve them ( Hallo et al., 2020) . One time, a member expressed open displeasure at the lack of appreciation patients showed and reported that a patient had insulted them during their weekly progress assessment sessions. The team member wanted the patient discontinued from the new treatment routine because they were constantly negative and refused to share how they felt. Other team members also complained of the patient’s negative attitude and also emphasized they wanted them discontinued from receiving the treatment. I requested the project’s secretary to record the complaint and then asked the team to brainstorm ways to help the mentioned patient other than releasing them from treatment procedures.
The head nurse then suggested the patient be placed under psychiatry care for two days because their response could stem from a myriad of issues. I asked the team to vote for or against the head nurse’s suggestion because as a leader, I highly valued my followers’ opinions and feelings ( Steinmann et al., 2018) . Every team member voted for subjecting the nagging patient to psychiatric care and then we agreed to review the strategy’s outcome during the next meeting. After one week, the team members agreed the patient’s attitude was positive; they were scared the treatment gave them false hope and did not want to die. The psychiatrist had helped the patient understand the value of the procedure we placed them under and the strategy had changed their perception. By the end of the project, team members were pleased with their productivity results, 80% of patients placed under the new routine had complete remission.
Ethical Experience
The patient with a negative attitude during treatment effects’ assessment sessions presented an ethical dilemma to me. If I had allowed them to continue receiving treatment, I risked losing my team members’ enthusiasm and the project would fail. However, if I accepted that the patient be relieved from treatment, I would disregard the Hippocratic Oath and risked legal consequences. I resolved the issue through ANA’s professional code of ethics. ANA mandates nurses to exhibit autonomy by making informed individualized decisions, treating patients with their best interest at heart, protect convalescents from danger, and treat all patients fairly ( Levitt, 2014) . My decision to endorse the head nurse’s suggestion embodied all four ethical mandates of ANA’s professional code for nurses. By allowing team members to vote for psychiatric care for the patient, manifested autonomy. Additionally, I advanced beneficence and non-maleficence by requesting team members to brainstorm on alternative ways to help the patient have a positive attitude towards treatment. Finally, I evidenced justice by creating a way for the patient to remain under treatment as agreed when starting “venture X.” Overall, I feel I am a good fit for the role because I am an ethical leader who embodies transformational leadership skills, as explained.
Conclusion
I was assigned a team leadership position in January that helped my practice transformational leadership skills, analytical decision making, and ethical decisions. I manifested transformation leadership by promoting positive values and beliefs, knowledge seeking, self-efficacy and motivation, and consideration for other people’s opinions in members. Additionally, I analyzed problem root causes and designed their solutions with the help of my followers. Moreover, I practiced the ANA code of ethics for nurses that enforce autonomy, justice, consideration for others, and need to protect vulnerable patients.
In the future, the leadership and ethical decision-making skills I acquired will help me provide excellent patient care. I will treat all patients equally despite their diversity and protect their confidentiality. I will also use ANA ‘s professional code of ethics to solve dilemmas and ensure all my decisions are based on the analytical decision-making model. Therefore, in the future, I will use the skills I acquired leading an interdisciplinary team as explained.
References
Bucăţa, G., & Rizescu, M. A. (2017). The Role of communication in enhancing work effectiveness of an organization. Land Forces Academy Review , 22 (1), 49-57. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/316360042_The_Role_of_Communication_in_Enhancing_Work_Effectiveness_of_an_Organization
Hallo, L., Nguyen, T., Gorod, A., & Tran, P. (2020). Effectiveness of leadership decision-making in complex systems. Systems , 8 (1), 5. https://doi.org/10.3390/systems8010005
Lai, F., Tang, H., Lu, S., Lee, Y., & Lin, C. (2020). Transformational Leadership and Job Performance: The Mediating Role of Work Engagement. SAGE Open , 10 (1), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244019899085
Levitt, D. (2014). Ethical decision-making in a caring environment: The four principles and LEADS. Healthcare Management Forum , 27 (2), 105-107. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hcmf.2014.03.013
Steinmann, B., Klug, H. J., & Maier, G. W. (2018). The path is the goal: How transformational leaders enhance followers’ job attitudes and proactive behavior. Frontiers in Psychology , 9 (1), 1-15. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02338
