Nursing Leadership Styles And Management - Essay Example

Nursing leadership styles and management In the world of nursing, leadership capability is a must in order to keep everything tight, efficient and prepared, especially when emergency response is needed and necessary. Since the job of a nurse is to care for or take care of people, this is tenfold the pressure and responsibility for their leader. Therefore, the unit inn its self must be akin to a well oiled machine. This paper’s aim is to look into a specific leadership style that the writer feels is effective in most situations, as well as fits the writer’s preference.

It will also look into the difference of the terms “leadership” and management” in both a grammatical as well as a nursing stand point. Finally this paper will look at some sources that also discuss leadership and/or management. The topic break down is as follows: Leadership style identification and discussion Management VS. Leadership Additional source identification and discussion Leadership style identification and discussion As with any group, organization or profession, there are different types of leaders.

Some are jokers while others are very strict. Some are likened to a democratic government while others are that of a dictatorship. The world of nursing is no different. There are also different kinds of leaders and they are effective for different situations. Some of the examples of leadership styles we know are; charismatic leadership, participative and situational. This paper will mainly focus on the situational style of leadership. The reason being, that the writer feels that this is the type of leadership that fits his personality.

It is also potentially the most adaptive type of leadership. Based from sayeconomy.com in their article Situational Leadership by Kenneth Blanchard and Paul Hersey “managers must use different leadership styles depending on the situation. “. This basically means that managers and/or leaders must be responsive to the situations presented as well as the maturity and level of skill of their subordinates. This makes this style of leadership the most flexible type there is. This also makes this type of leadership adaptable for every type of leader and for every kind of team that will be doing certain tasks.

This is a great fit for the writer’s philosophy of nursing leadership as the writer maintains that a nursing leader must be flexible, prepared for multiple types of occasions and situations, as well as promotes the growth and development of his or her subordinates. The nursing leader is the person that is responsible for his or her subordinate's performance, growth, as well as the person eventually responsible for the overall care of his or her nurse's patients, and this type of leadership gives the leader the tools he or she needs to perform without restricting himself or herself.

Management VS. Leadership Although people may use both terms interchangeably, there are certain differences in their definitions and functions. According to teamtechnology.co.uk, in their article “Leadership And Management”, a leader sets “new direction or vision for a group that they follow” while a manager “controls or directs people/resources in a group according to principles or values that have already been established.” Essentially, this means that leaders present and spearhead improvements and changes and turns these improvements and changes into his or her team's new direction moving forward.

On the other hand, by definition, a manager maintains the direction that a team or group is already in and manages or maintains and mitigates the resources that a team will be working with. These two functional definitions greatly differentiate the use and function of both of these terms. This basically provides us with a guideline on how and when to use both of these terms. An example would be; in the perspective of business, a manager is the head of a long time family business while a leader could be a newly hired store head that is introducing new procedures and policies for the store's improvement.

In medical or nursing terms, a manager could be the president of the hospital that has been there for quite some time while a leader is a newly assigned nursing head that is taking the nursing team to new levels of performance with a new style of doing things. Additional source identification and discussion Another source to look at for leadership guidelines and techniques is one from thesykesgrp.com. Its an article called “Leadership Article: Eight Leadership Techniques for Outstanding Teams”.

It provides easy to follow, simple steps and techniques for effective leadership. Some of the techniques provided are “Provide clear expectations” and recognize good work” which are very healpful in guiding and motivating subordinates. References Blanchard, K., Hersey, P. (2009). Situational Leadership. http://www.sayeconomy.com/situational-leadership-by-kenneth-blanchard-and-paul-hersey/ Leadership And Management. (1995). http://www.teamtechnology.co.uk/leadership-basics.html Skyes, E. (2011). Leadership Article: Eight Leadership Techniques for Outstanding Teams.

http://thesykesgrp.com/LeadershipEightTechniquesArticle01.htm