Experience with Leadership Issues at Work as a Nurse - Essay Example

Management 14 March Experience with Leadership Issues at Work as a Nurse Nursing leadership has in the past been associated with numerous linked conflicts among the staff unit (nurses), either because of the different leadership practices, styles, behavior, or associated characteristics. As a result, a nurse leader has to be well established to deal with the range of challenges, from adjustment as a leader, to enforcing management, and ensuring the staffs they lead effectively accomplish their roles in nursing. It is not an easy task as those who desire it think; rather it requires discipline and integrated efforts to determine the success of the organization. Creativity in nurse leadership: With the changing environmental trends, there has been a need for the nursing profession and leadership to rethink their strategy in operation, and adopt advanced practices to embrace technology. According to Clark, a nurse leader is expected to use all her knowledge and problem solving skills to offer a creative solution to healthcare situations (4). Meaning, the holding on to former knowledge could not be relevant to the certain problems that exist in line with duty. Creativity comes in when the nurse leadership is well equipped with leadership skills whether one is an inborn leader or achieved it by learning. Female nurse leaders have to be recommended in their majority in the profession, but they have to make efforts to integrate most of the medical nursing theories into practice to make work easier for the few/ diverse staff available. Remember their functions matter a lot to attract client services into their organizations and sometimes, patients judge an institution based on the service being offered and the leadership available. Female nurse leaders have been keen to offer quality service by embracing information technology, coordinating the staff, and communicating efficiently, thereby adjusting with the health care trend and generally improving the practice. Creativity is very essential to manage tumultuous situations in healthcare; that is where they are challenged and seek to employ flexibility and collaborative approaches, which reinforce creativity and better yet improve the safety of their patients with speed. Perception of women nursing leadership as inferior: Although women are the majority in nursing, as leaders, they at times experience hostility and lack of support to boost their morale in their new roles. Surprisingly, one would think such a conduct arises with men in the profession alone, but other previous peer nurses also contribute to such discriminative view. Daly, Speedy, and Jackson (57), mention how women’s nursing leadership skills are devalued, since the female gender is implied to be frivolous and unfit to lead. This is a stereotype that is always there for most women leadership, even in other organizations and existing in a female dominated profession (nursing) is rather awkward though a reality. Even if a female nurse could be an excellent clinician and possessing innate leadership acumen, struggles of adopting the informal leadership capability in the formal role once she attains a leadership position, creates room for her peers to criticize her leadership (Sanford 6-7). Their leadership is always under scrutiny; this makes most of them to be frustrated very young in their leadership, which could lead to failure in their new appointed nursing leadership. However, critics and misjudgment never lack; even though their integrity, behavior, and personality get to be scrutinized, the success in the position surpasses all after the adjustment, countering the inferiority stereotype with confidence and demonstrating the leadership by practice no matter the misaligned expectations. Dealing with ethical issues: In their roles in healthcare, the nurse leaders experience certain ethical conflicts dealing with the profession, organization and even at their interpersonal level, but in the end have to rely on justice brought forth by the established rules and care, which is dependent on the relationship with the participants, to solve the different ethical problems. Today, most of the nurses and leadership get into conflicts because of the many ethical issues that affect the trust and cooperation in the nursing profession. Nursing leadership stands at the middle of coordinating operations in healthcare facilities. Hence, as a leader one is called to ensure their presence availability and connect themselves to other colleagues, the team they are leading, the patients or their families, and even the general public, through communicating of decisions according to the legal profession, and sometimes altering them when need be for the safety of the clients. The altering aspect of decisions made could be a risky process and could be accused of disloyalty to the organization’s code o ethics, but remember the leadership holds them accountable of making sure the patients are offered safe and quality service. At such a leadership position, the staff one is dealing with may exhibit various characters or attitudes towards work or other colleagues. Some staffs are ignorant and incompetent to certain profession and organization ethics; hence one has to look for an ethical way to handle the situations by involving self discipline as a leadership ethic so as to avoid making decisions out of fear, vengeance, or anger. As part of their nursing care duties in leadership, most female nurses have been involved in confronting the human rights issues that challenge their team in duty. Nursing leaders experiences ethical issues occasionally if not frequently, depending on the area of nursing, which are well linked to staff management, patient care and quality, and quality of service offered to the clients. It may be stressful depending on the experience in practice and the personal integrity. In nursing managerial and leadership, dealing with the staff management holds some ethical issues, this emphasizes on the need for team cooperation and reasoning based on the requirements as indicated by the code of ethics. Another key issue is the representation of the nurses’ team concerns the top management in the organizations, where crucial decision making by top executives is made. They act as the ambassadors representing nursing needs in the organization and in the public, such that as leaders, they use their ability to reach out to the people and even organization board, conveying the patients care needs in an appreciative manner and easy to understand (Rowland, H. and Rowland, B. 6).At times the nurse leaders could be accused of siding with the organization executives instead of their team, which puts them in a controversial position. Nursing leadership experience involves problems and skills associated with leadership and health care roles. The leaders get challenged, but learn to cope with the emerging issues in the profession and healthcare duty by leading as examples, availing themselves, coordinating their team, communicating to and from teams of nurses, as well as delegating certain roles. When a nurse leader understands her role, builds confidence in practice, and overcomes her intrapersonal and interpersonal negative perceptions, then the strong leadership skills she possesses can easily be functional and effective. Works Cited Clark, Carolyn. Creative Nursing Leadership and Management. Sudbury, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning, 2009. Print  Daly, J., Speedy, S., and Debra Jackson. Nursing Leadership. Marrickville: Elsevier Australia, 2004. Print.  Rowland, H. S., and Rowland B. L. Nursing Administration Handbook. 4th edition. Sudbury, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning, 1997. Print. Sanford, Kathleen. “Chapter 1: Overview of Nursing leadership.” mhprofessional.com .n.d. Web. 14 March, 2013. Read More