Supervision and leadership are two terms that are mostly used interchangeably but each is unique. However, there is chance of having a supervisor with leadership qualities. Both are instrumental in giving direction towards achieving set goals or accomplishing different tasks in a given setting. Nursing practice is a field that covers various components of human healthcare which demand collaboration between nursing professionals in departments in question. These collaborations form teams in most cases, which both have leaders and supervisors within them. However, the role of the two individuals within a team are different, both in the nature of their work and the level of impact created. Additionally, it is important to have a healthy work environment within a team, either under a leader or supervisor, or both. Bullying at the work place is a factor that disrupts normal functioning, and by extension the goals set by a leader or supervisor. Therefore, this paper discusses the differences between a leader and a supervisor, and bullying at the work place while focusing on nursing practice.
Application in Nursing Practice
In nursing practice, both leaders and supervisors play a significant role in ensuring delivery of better healthcare services to clients. Leaders are known to be visionary while supervisors are goal-oriented. A leader creates a vision for the team, helps the team believe in the vision and works together with the team towards making the vision a reality. On the other hand, a supervisor creates goals with specific timelines and deadlines, and a framework that provides guidelines for realization of set objectives (Blais, 2015). In the case of a bed side nurse, the supervisor is the Nurse in-charge. The Nurse in-charge sets objectives of the day related to patient care planning and quality improvement, and ensures that the bedside nurses carry out all assignments in an effective manner. The bedside nurses on the other hand hold various expectations from the Nurse in-charge such as clear communication, direction, and support in accomplishing their daily duties. A Nurse in-charge with leadership qualities will be less task-oriented in the same situation, they tend to be more focused on setting standards and inspiring the team of bedside nurses to fulfill the mission and vision of their unit. The bedside nurses look up to the leader for experience and knowledge.
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In public health, supervisors are responsible for overseeing resources such as the staff comprising of public health officers and equipment used for provision of better healthcare services. Therefore, the supervisor is always expected to demonstrate strong anilities in planning programs that relate to public healthcare delivery, managing the organizational risk, the budget, and evaluation functions. However, a supervisor with leadership qualities in public health is focused more on establishing an ethical culture within the public health unit, motivating other public health officers, and generally setting direction.
Nursing unit managers have a crucial role in overseeing all aspects of healthcare in a unit within a health facility. The unit manager is expected to handle all supervisory duties within the unit which include directing the registered nurses in their team, setting work schedules, assigning tasks, disciplining the team, evaluation of team performance, and establishment of policies meant to guide discharge of duty of the licensed nurses working in their team. Unit managers with leadership qualities tend to influence the registered nurses working in their unit to grow professionally and deliver quality services through motivation, inspiration, and mentorship.
In a pre-hospital setting, working as a director of emergency medical services, applying both supervisory duties and leadership qualities helps in achieving both the short-term goals and long-term visions for the unit. The EMS team and paramedics should always be a priority before the welfare of the director, to ensure that work is done effectively. Emergency medical services demands cooperation within the team of paramedics, hence, it is important as a director to recognize the value of servant leadership: therefore, ensuring that the team is well prepared, trained, and equipped is the responsibility of the leader. For effective discharge of duty, a director in EMS needs to be willing to change and embrace modern technological advancements, treatment modalities, and current trends in leadership. EMS is a sensitive unit, thus, leadership qualities are key to success; otherwise, the unit is likely to be left behind the curve, and record dismal performance if the director is an individual concerned more with maintaining the status quo, and achieving set objectives without caring about the welfare and satisfaction of the patients and paramedical team.
Bullying in the nursing profession is likely to result from supervisors and work mates within a team. Given the nature of the job of a supervisor and the pressure from the nursing profession, nurses are prone to bullying at the work place which might result from a frustrated supervisor without leadership qualities, and colleagues who feel entitled within the unit. A supervisor without leadership attributes creates an environment that is solely focused on achieving set targets and often ignores welfare of the team members (Allen et al., 2015). Nurses working within such an environment may tend to strain or slack while discharging their duty, which is likely to be met by harassment from the boss and bullying. In extreme circumstances, continuous bullying might lead to burnouts at the work place and ultimately poor delivery of healthcare services, hence, the failure of a supervisor.
Personal Growth
I have been working in the pre-hospital sector for several years before progressing along administrative positions to finally become the director for Emergency Medical Services. The director position is a supervisory role that demands focus on administrative duties but at the same time calls for keenness on the bigger picture of creating a vision and making it a reality with the team. Understanding that being solely a manager in the EMS field has less impact on the quality of service delivery and the growth of the facility has helped me work on my leadership philosophy over the years. Therefore, I have grown to become a servant leader where I put the interests of my team first before myself: at all times, my team has been motivated and inspired by this attribute hence they keep working diligently to deliver high quality services. Additionally, understanding that all members in the team are equal and every person’s idea is deserves a hearing and consideration has helped me become a better decision maker in both personal matters and the profession. I have grown to respect different ideas and opinions, appreciating diversity, and maximizing on the advantage of diversification of ideas. Professionally, what matters most is the quality of service delivered to the society which often is dependent on the productivity levels of the staff; a motivated staff is a productive staff. As a leader in the healthcare space, that concept has helped me focus more on working with the team to give services needed by the people rather than assigning and directing them at all times. Therefore, I have progressively grown to become a visionary leader with the ability to set a course for realization of bigger dreams and propulsion towards success.
SWOT Analysis
Strengths
I am team oriented and team focused. I believe that collaboration tends to achieve better results than working solely on a particular project. Therefore, as a leader I put effort on forming teams that can perfectly work together, welcome ideas for every person involved, and support each other to realize given expectations or meet set objectives.
Weaknesses
I am the kind of person who must see a task to its completion once it is started: it is difficult for me to take a break from a task or project before it is finished because I believe that will affect work quality. With awareness about this weakness, if I find myself in a situation that demands multitasking, I increase my productivity levels and speed to ensure that I meet the deadline and still maintain high quality work.
Opportunities
There exists an opportunity to implement procedures and standard of care modalities that are advanced, with the aim of increasing outcomes for out patients. Modern technological advancement especially in machine learning and artificial intelligence has offered a wide platform for improvement of process flows and service offerings within the healthcare sector. Therefore, for out patient services and pre-hospital environments, there is an opportunity to use such technologies to have faster response time to emergencies, and more efficient machines for patient care.
Threats
The local government dictates the financial budget for EMS. Interference from the local authorities has led to conflict with the commissioners from the local government every time they want to cut services or make policies that will negatively affect patient care. However, through liaising with foreign partners, this threat is under control because we are able to source funds externally to meet budget deficits.
Qualities for a Good Nurse Leader
Willingness to Change
A good nurse leader should understand that change is constant and there exist many variables that might affect the equation of success at any given point in time. Therefore, a leader who is ready to embrace change as it unfolds makes a highly effective nurse leader (Wilkes et al., 2015). Such changes include technological advancement and trends in organizational structures and leadership, whose impact when embraced by a leader is transformational in making a given facility cutting-edge.
Selflessness
A good nurse leader should be selfless in a manner that they consider the welfare of others before their own: the welfare of heir team and that of the patients. Selflessness is part of servant leadership and ensures that the team formed by the leader is well equipped, properly trained, and motivated enough to deliver high quality services.
Decisiveness
A good nurse leader must be confident to make important decisions. An effective leader should know the right time to make a certain decision with rationality, and ensure that proper communication is made before hand to the people likely to be affected by the decision.
Conclusion
Supervisors and leaders both have a significant role to play in nursing practice. However, supervisors are expected to be leaders at the same time because leadership attributes are crucial to drive performance, organizational expansion, employee motivation, and productivity. In nursing practice, good leadership is important in realization of high-quality healthcare services. The responsibility of being a leader is a huge task and often requires passion and people skills to be successful especially in the healthcare sector. Therefore, a good leader in nursing must be willing to embrace change at all times, be dedicated to make important decisions, and care about the welfare of the subordinates before their own.
References
Blais, K. (2015). Professional nursing practice: Concepts and perspectives . Pearson.
Wilkes, L., Cross, W., Jackson, D., & Daly, J. (2015). A repertoire of leadership attributes: An international study of deans of nursing. Journal of Nursing Management , 23 (3), 279-286.
Allen, B. C., Holland, P., & Reynolds, R. (2015). The effect of bullying on burnout in nurses: the moderating role of psychological detachment. Journal of Advanced Nursing , 71 (2), 381-390.
