Leadership Philosophy and Diversity Statement in Nursing - Essay Example

Leadership Philosophy and Diversity ment Nursing leadership philosophy Leadership contains many qualities and definitions,therefore becoming complicated to define. Porter-O’Grady defined leadership as a process of goal identification, motivation of other people, and offering support for the achievement of negotiated goals that are mutual (Carey, Philippon, & Cummings, 2011). Heather and Laschin (2013) suggest that in clinical practices, leadership is precisely defined as a process of clinical care direct involvement while influencing others so that they can improve the care they provide to patients. The most important role of a leader is to elicit effective performance from the followers. Therefore, it is the responsibility of healthcare management to lead and influence the development of expectations, vision, and shared values to ensure overall effectiveness and direct the organisation towards the achievement of planned goals and objectives. Healthcare and hospital providers are today adjusting to changes of environment and redirecting their management policies. For every nurse to provide good quality care to his or her patients, he or she should become more efficient when administering care, should improve peer practices, elevate peer’s standards of care within the hospital environment, and advocate his or her patients. All these acts represent the attributes of an effective nurse leader. A nurse who sees the need for improvement, change, advancement, and innovation forms fundamental traits that are essential in active leadership (Sherman, Schwarzkopf, & Kiger, 2011). As conditions change day by day, the delivery of care also changes, therefore, the need for flexibility and versatility during care giving, for effective adaptation to these changes as they occur. Thus, my nursing practice has been mentored through programs that are directed by the theory of situational leadership that has helped me to nurture and develop my innate traits for the betterment of my peers and patients depending on how the situations occur. The senior leaders in my organisation encouraged subordinate leaders to develop various leadership styles to manage different circumstances and situations better. I have researched a number of leadership theories in nursing during self-evaluation, and I have concluded that my leadership styles can be well described by situational leadership theory. This is because of my capability to adapt to various situations as they occur, love to work in a team, my practice is evidence based, and allow my peers to contribute in decision-making. The situational leadership model by Hersey and Blanchard suggest that three fundamental characteristics describe leadership (Blank, Wetzel & Green, 1990). These levels are direction or guidance given by the leader, the level of emotional support that the same leader provides, and maturity level of the subordinates (Blank, Wetzel & Green, 1990). Maturity is the essential model in this theory. Maturity is defined as the subordinates’ willingness and ability to take responsibility for a particular task (Wong, Laschinger, Cummings, 2010). In addition, they described four styles of leadership in their model. These styles range from high task orientation to low socio-emotional support. This transition is experienced gradually as the employee grows to higher maturity levels. They further posit that leadership style is a pattern of behaviour that a leader uses to influence others. The perception the leader has about that pattern differs from what the employees have. Comparing both the perception of the leader and that of the subordinates helps to come up with the best leadership style. The capability of a leader to switch leadership styles depending on a particular situation is also covered by this model. Moreover, range of styles that can be exhibited by the leader and leadership adaptability that stresses on efficiency of a leader to adapt in various situations. Efficiency of the leadership style depends on various forces. Authoritarian leadership style is best used in situational model, because the leader can weigh the importance of a decision versus the likelihood of subordinates to follow that direction (Heather et al., 2013). Situational leadership helps the healthcare provider to be able to use strength-based leadership in any situation. On the other hand, engagement of employees is increased when a leader focuses on the strengths of their subordinates. While working in a team, it is important for a nurse leader to engage with followers who possess good qualities and understand their needs like hope, compassion, stability, and finally their trust. Not all good leaders possess a particular strength in one, but those who are effective are always aware of their unique talents and therefore use them in various situations to their best advantage. This self-discovery by the leader and their assistants help in building the confidence of the team and increases satisfaction and overall productivity. Another approach that ensures better care for patients is motivating team members to create new solutions and to give them a direction to follow. As a nurse leader, my focus would be to develop my peers’ talents, help them become self-reliant, and develop good care for my patients. By diagnosing the commitment, competence, and performance of others, during nursing practices, I have been able to use situational leadership effectively. I have also worked with my team members for better productivity in care services. According to Cummings et al., (2011), setting clear expectations and goals that are consistent to all team members is also vital as it helps a leader to assess the developmental or readiness level depending on specific tasks. Good communication and healthy personal relationships are enhanced. Not only does this process ensure that the patients are emotionally supported and well cared for, but also ensures that the developmental levels of my co-workers are increased. In managing performance, it is important to facilitate, define, and encourage performance. Therefore, obstacles that hinder performance should be eliminated and adequate resource provided to nurses to strengthen and motivate them to work harder and effectively, for high-quality care services. Moreover, evaluation of co-workers should be done by assessing patients’ satisfaction, quantity and quality of work completed, and ability to meet set deadlines. Goals and expectations while communicated in a positive manner, they help maintain the performance of employees. To improve performance further, communication is imperative, and various forms of feedbacks should be given to patients, peers, and also the senior management (Sherman et al., 2011). Thus, situational leadership has helped my nursing practice to be more adaptable than before. The level of development of my followers has been determined by their willingness, responsibility ability, and own experiences. Thus, both supportive and directive leadership has been used to ensure that my followers’ skills are developed to the point of maturity, where they can be able to provide high-quality health care. Since situational leadership approach depends on the level of confidence and experience of the follower, I mostly work with nursing students and newly qualified nurses. Most of the time, the newly qualified nurses lack experience and confidence but have considerable clinical knowledge. In such a case, directive leadership is applied until the nurses develop confidence and experience. They are given a large amount of direction by describing what constitute their roles. Each role is described and the activities to be completed by that role are communicated clearly. Furthermore, various ways of completing tasks are explained in a precise manner. When I am working as a mentor for nursing students, I take the responsibility of adapting my leadership style to fit the confidence and knowledge of the students. When the level of the student’s knowledge and confidence is low, I give more direction and information than when mentoring a more confident and advanced student. Telecommunication development has also been experienced in the field of medicine (Institute of Medicine, 2010). For this reason, the issue of telecommuter has been of concern to various nursing leaders. My organisation has developed programs that allow leaders to interact with telecommuters in an efficient and effective way. We work with them in a cooperative manner to best meet their needs. Adoption of effective techniques helps us to come up with better ways of communication, increase connection with peers, supervisors, and with the organisation. My clinical supervisors are also situational leaders. Not only are they approachable, but also, they provide a considerable amount of support to the junior nursing staffs. They are involved in the activities of the junior members and offers emotional support that are essential factors for better productivity. Sometimes, when the roles of these supervisors change, they are forced to change their leadership style. For example, my supervisor is very approachable and gives junior leaders great support, but when her role changes to the district nursing sister, her leadership style changes too, where she uses autocratic method of leadership. According to Laschin (2013), this style of leadership is critical when there is a call for making fundamental decisions concerning staff management and caseload. In conclusion, situational leadership allows flexibility, thus suitable for the changes that are ever occurring in National Health Service. So, when using this model of leadership, leaders can an excellent chance of adopting as many leadership theories and styles as possible. Every day, nurses are faced with different situations, and there is no one leadership theory or style can fit in all situations, hence the need to adopt situational leadership that allows flexibility for easy adaptability to different circumstances. Therefore, it becomes the best leadership style to use as it focuses on the identification of competence, commitment, and performance that are essential in ensuring that high-quality nursing practices are achieved. Moreover, nurses developmental levels are enhanced helping them to become effective leaders, the relationship between other peers and leaders are improved, thus dealing with situational challenges becomes easy. References Blank, W., Wetzel, J & Green, S. (1990). A Test of the Situational Leadership Theory. Personal Psychology, 43, 579-597. Carey, W., Philippon D., & Cummings, G.G. (2011). Coaching Models for Leadership Development: An Integrative Review. Journal of Leadership Studies, 5, 51-69. Heather, K. & Laschin, S. (2013). The Influence of Personal and Situational Predictors on Nurses’ Aspirations to Management Roles: Preliminary Findings of a National Survey of Canadian Nurses, Journal of Nursing Management, 21, 217-230. Institute of Medicine. (2010). The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. Sherman, R. O., Schwarzkopf, R. & Kiger, A. J. (2011). Charge Nurse Perspectives on Frontline Leadership in Acute Care Environments. International Scholarly Research Network, 2, 1- 8. Wong, C.A., Laschinger, H.K.S. & Cummings, G.G. (2010). Authentic Leadership and Nurses’ Voice Behaviour and Perceptions of Care Quality. Journal of Nursing Management, 18, 889-900. Read More