Team Leader Role-Nurse in Charge - Personal Statement Example

Name: Institution: Title: Team leader role (Nurse in Charge) Tutor: Course : Date: Introduction Team leaders play crucial roles in the development and the encouragement of their teams. They ensure that the standards are maintained and the tasks assigned are efficiently done. The role of team leaders began in the early 1950s and this was also when team nursing was developed. Team nursing was influenced by the needs and desires of improving satisfaction of patients since initially used system. The main objective of team nursing is offering the best quality of care for the patients by taking chance of the abilities of every member of the staff and having a close supervision of both care of the patient and the operations of those who are offering it. The nursing profession is facing the greatest challenge of developing nurse leaders because of the high demand of the profession brought about by regular changes in the operations and demand of the societies to handle complications of the patients. Nurses at all levels ranging from the ones on the ground offering direct care to the patients to those at the management levels because they are all considered as an authority and responsible to offer assistance to members of the society. Any clinical nursing leader is involved in direct patient care and is able to continuously improve the quality of the services that they offer as an organization by influencing the other professionals to work very hard. I worked as a team leader with the nurses caring for the in patients with cardiovascular complications. These are patients who needed extra attention because of the nature of their complications which affects the heart or blood vessels. Managing the operations of professionals in this area was not easy because they were many and worked in different shifts (Barbara, 2005). The essay below concerns the roles of team leader in nursing and refers to such factors as clinical decision making, leadership or management of a team, delegation and supervision of others, quality assurance and continuing professional development. Description Taking clinical decisions was not easy since it is considered to be one of the most essential components of the practice of nursing. This was my first work experience after completing my training course of management in nursing. We were two leaders in the area but worked in shifts since our services were expected to be offered throughout without any break. This means that good records of all that which happened during ones shift were to be kept for the others to catch up and all the knowledge and professional skills had to be reflected in the operations. One day during my 3 years assignment as one of the team leaders of the nurses in the wards of patients suffering from mental complications, I experience an episode which challenged my operations. We worked in shifts with another male nurse who was also a team leader of the group. As I came in for my night shift I was not sure of how it would be because I was allocated some new nurses and students who were on their internship. My colleague added me some files which had records of all the activities which took place including the conditions of the inpatients and the progress after the treatments were administered. This ward was very busy with many activities taking place and all the patients calling for special attention. There were some three patients who were reported with severe symptoms of the complication; one lady was reported having serious and regular occurrences of convulsions and hostile behaviors thus causing commotions in the ward. Some two gentle men were having complications of increased irritability, heightened activity, bad temper towards the others in the ward. The other patients were calm in their beds although they all called for some attention. The operating nurses who were allocated to work during my shift looked up to me to direct them on what to do so as to effectively attend to the needs of all the patients. I assigned the older and most experienced nurses to handle the most severe cases and asked them to record and report any changes immediately. The other nurses had to attend to the less complicated cases and I had to work so close to them so as to help if need be. Clinical decision making is the responsibility of any practitioner or nurse who is qualified to be a leader in the group. This is also referred to as clinical reasoning, judgment, inference or diagnostic reasoning to avoid confusion or making unnecessary mistakes. While making these sensitive decisions the practitioners are expected to follow the information provided or observed from the patients. This gives guidance on the type of treatment to give or any other action to take against the complications indicated by signs and symptoms portrayed by the condition or complains of the patient. My first decision was to have the patients with severe symptoms administered anti-anxiety medications. This medication is typically fast-acting and helps to reduce the severity of eth symptoms as the patients awaited full treatment. I gave them two options of the medications to consider: alprazolam (Xanax) and Lorazepam (Ativan). This was done as the nurses closely observed the behavior of the patients after they administered the drugs and keep a record of the report made. Two of the patients with severe complications were taken to the intensive care units since their conditions were worsening even after administering all the drugs and other forms of treatments recommended by the doctor. As the team leader, I was expected to rule out the physical problems causing the symptoms of the patients by pinpointing the diagnosis and checking for any related complications. The steps considered included: physical examination, psychological exam and laboratory tests although they are not very essential with mental health. It is not easy to determine the type of mental complication that a patient has by analyzing the symptoms since most of the illnesses share common symptoms. These symptoms are well defined in a manual called Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders which is used by most of the mental health providers while diagnosing mental conditions. Thoughts and feelings According to my thoughts and feelings, all the professional nurses should have good knowledge and ideas of making wise clinical decisions concerning the conditions of the patients they are handling instead of looking onto to the group leaders. These decisions should be on the minor complications but in case of severe ones or persisted the leader or the doctor can be consulted. All the professional nurses should have power and authority because they serve the public hence should be allowed to freely make decisions on the nature of the services that they offer to the patients although they should have a team leader whose duty is ensuring that all the decisions made enhances the achievement of best quality services. The leader supervises the operations of the nurses to ensure that they do them in a more professional way for achievement of the set goals and objectives. The wards for the patients with mental complications call for more attention than any other ward thus more officers should be allocated to serve them for shorter shifts for them to be very attentive. There are many factors which influence effective clinical decision making, these include: experience and knowledge, creative thinking, self concept, stress and inadequate staffing. I had good experience and knowledge of the skills which were required to cater for the mentally affected patients and manage a group of nurses’ work towards the achievement of goals and objectives of their operations. Evaluation There are challenges and strengths of acting as a team leader in the course of the operations. Group work has positive impacts in the achievement of the set goals and objectives of an organization as well as meeting the needs and expectations of the patients. Difficulties are however felt when different officers come up with their own views that seem to differ with those of the others. Some of the nurses may not be willing to shift or attend to different patients thus it becomes hard for the leader to reshuffle them. The nurses are all trained in nursing operations thus they sometimes tend to challenge the decisions made by the leaders. Some of the members feel that the leader is dictating them instead of controlling them or working together as a group (Davies, 2009). Working as a team enables the department to effectively achieve the set goals and objectives. There were many patients in the ward with differing complication which required special attention of the nurses. I therefore allocated various nurses different responsibilities thus it was possible to meet the targets of offering medical care to all the patients. Dealing with the patients with mental disorders was also a challenge since they were not able to express their complications and the symptoms that they had. We had to struggle to realize the disorder by keenly observing their behavior and judging by the symptoms that they displayed. Analysis Nursing management is a branch of nursing field which is concern about managing the operations of nurses and patients care standards. This general entails the art of performing some functions of leadership to govern and make decisions on the areas of operations of nurses. The processes which are considered include: planning, organizing, directing and controlling. To ensure that the nurses are motivated to perform their duties for the benefits of the patients by improving the quality of the services that they offer, the leaders should be keen and conscious in the course of their operations. They should always consider having a good relationship with their junior workers so as to easily communicate to them and motivate them to work hard (Marianne, 2006). The team leaders in nursing need to work together with the other nurses as one group. This enables the leaders to realize the strengths and weaknesses of their workers hence it is possible to know how to make decisions when allocating duties. Some of the nurses are very keen on observing the complications of the patients thus they are able to realize even the minor most changes in the symptoms and are quick in decision making. During my shift I allocated such nurses to the patients whose conditions were worse. These nurses keenly observed the condition of the patients and realized when the conditions of two of them worsened and took the decision of having them injected with anti-anxiety medication. This would help them to overcome the severe symptoms hence respond positively to the treatment (Daly & Sandra, 2004). There are many ways through which the leaders in nursing can manage and supervise nurses and their nursing programs. Some may prefer supervising the facilities and delegate duties to the other nurses and wait to judge the operations by the results of the operations after a while. While managing the nurses in a health institution, issues like consistency, standardized procedures, transfer protocols and cooperation and these are essential part of the operation. As a team leader in nursing, the leader is expected to be a role model or guide the other workers on what is the best for them in the course of their duties. Nursing management is a branch of the nursing field which focuses on managing nurses and patient care standards. An effective nursing management program is critical for most facilities which use nurses, such as hospitals, clinics, and residential care facilities. People in this field often have both nursing and management experience, and they have typically received special training to prepare them for employment as managers and supervisors (Ward, 2008). As team leaders in nursing, the managers are expected delegate duties to their junior nurses and be able to effectively achieve the set goals and objectives of offering the best health services to the patients. The nurse leader is not in opposition to provide all the attention needed to care for all the patients. During my shift in the mental health wards, I was in charge of more than twenty patients. The level of the attention needed for each differed with the severity of the complications. To ensure that all the desires were met, I had to allocate or delegate the responsibilities to various nurses depending on their abilities and disabilities (Ward, 2010). This enabled me to perform other duties which cannot be delegated like supervising of all the activities taking place in the whole ward and ensuring that all the needs of all the patients are attended to as expected. This also enhances the mobilization of the resources thus there will be more work output than if I physically offered all the services. The main aim of teamwork is to perform the duties as a group whereby an individual or group of nurses are expected to perform an identified task with the aim of achieving the main goals and objectives of the entire department or organization. The individual supervisors or leaders are in charge of specific departments like the physical examination center, psychological exam and laboratory tests. I requested the nurses to closely observe the changes in the conditions of the patients so as to determine when they are supposed to be taken to any unit. This is done with the consultation of the senior doctor or their team leader who is their supervisor. The supervisor then becomes the team leader of all the nurses working in this department (Guido, 2008). He maintains all the nurses, allocating them some responsibilities and overseeing the efforts of caring for the patients to ensure that they remain of high standard. I also had the responsibilities of formulating plans for nursing of specific patients and coordination of the efforts of other nurses to ensure that they all work towards the development and improvement of the conditions of patient’s medical care. As a role model, the leader is expected to have technical knowledge of the operations for the enhancement of team work. For example, he can demonstrate the operations to care for the patients by doing it practically, this also motivates the junior nurses to appreciate and love their work by knowing that even their leaders can do it. This also works to perfect the activities of the nurses by copying how their leaders perform. During my shift I kept on moving from one patient to the other and offered some of the services like administration of medicines and discussion with the nurses about the complications of eth patients. The knowledge of the operations of nursing also enhances effective decision making, by being aware of the skills needed to care for the patients with mental illnesses, I was able to decide the nurses to nurse them and how they would do it. This also enabled me to handle or manage issues of dealing with the employees by setting up standards of behaviour of all the nurses in reference to the policies of the organization (Ruth, 2004). The operation of supervising the operations of the nurses to ensure that they meet the expectations is not easy since most of the nurses view it in a negative perspective. Sometimes the nurses are not friendly or comfortable when they see their leaders observing their operations because they assume that they do not trust them or are not certain of perfection of their medical care. The leader should be careful when supervising the operations of the junior workers, for example, working with the nurse may be one of the most effective ways of observing the work of the nurse and also giving some new instructions without sounding like a dictator. The leader should be keen on his relationship with the other nurses and always work hard to organize them to achieve the general objectives of the entire organization (Marilynn, 2009). The aim of the leader should always be to enhance the achievement of services of the best quality. There are some policies that are set to guide the operations of a specified department for quality assurance of the services offered. The policies for the wards for patients suffering from mental disorders were well stipulated on publications that were regularly issued by the general management of the hospital. We were required to maintain a close attachment and relationship with the patients so as carefully observe their complications and make a conclusion of the conditions for determination of the treatment. Good relationship would also enhance good treatment of the complications. I kept on updating the nurses on these policies to always consider them in the course of their operations for assurance of quality performance at the end an specified period of time. Guidance and keen supervision of the leader are essential as efforts of working towards attainment of quality services (Cowen, 2006). There are some key functions of leaders in the departments that they represent. These include: planning, organizing, supervision and evaluation. Before the shift begun I had to formulate a good plan of the operations that were to take place, how and who were to do them. This included allocation of duties to the nurses on duty depending on their abilities and disabilities and experience in the field. There were some special cases of patients with serious complications to whom I assigned the nurses who had enough experience with the conditions and some others to assist them as they acquire skills of working to be able to offer these services on their own. After planning I organized all the nurses such that each was able to know where he or she was expected to work and the resources to be used. I worked together with them as I keenly supervised their operations. All the information I acquired during the process of supervision and the report of the outcome were necessary in the evaluation of the performance and I also used them to account for the strengths and challenges encountered (Williams, 2007). The team leader also ensures that there is continued professional development. Making sure that the nurses are aware of any advancement in the treatment services or changes in the drugs used to treat various complications makes this possible. This can be done by organizing seminars for the nurses or regularly updating the learning materials available in the library for the nurses to access new information. It was my responsibility to ensure that the nurses I worked with were informed of any new ideas in line with the services that they offer to the patients. The disorders related with mental health like dementia and epilepsies are considered being the most harmful to health of people and if not well handled easily ending up in death of the affected. Therefore the health researchers are concern on finding a more effective or permanent solution to such chronic conditions (Marquis & Huston, 2008). There are many nursing leadership theories that the team leaders should consider in the course of their operation. The three most considered are: quantum leadership, transformation leadership and dynamic leadership theory. These help to boost the relationship between the leader and his or her junior workers. Quantum theory enables the leader to make the most effective decisions concerning the entire team of nurses then the workers are all comfortable with the policies or plans formulated by the leader who is considered to be role model to the department that he represent. Transformation leadership theory is also considered to be effective as it merges the ideas or opinions of the senior nurses and their juniors. Its main focus is to unite both the members of the management group and their junior staffs thus they are able to join together in the processes of decision making for effective performance in reference to the set goals and objectives. This theory was the most effective in the department that I managed because of the changes needed in the allocation of duties since the nurses worked on shifts and had different situations to attend to; the mental complications differed with the type of disorder associated with it and the stage of the complication (Diane, 2006). The dynamic leadership theory concentrates on the process that the nurses are able to identify the distress of the patients and immediate needs. It promotes the interpersonal relationship between the leader and the junior staff. It promotes the importance of each party in the operations of the organization- medical care; the leader is expected to give directions to the nurses and not controlling them. Application of this theory facilitated the process of decision-making and participation of the junior nurses who offered direct services to the inpatients. The interaction I had with the nurses motivated their commitment at work because they had freedom of making decisions that they feel are effective in the giving the patients the services of the best qualities (Kuhn & Ellen, 2004). Conclusion The role of team leader in nursing is one of the most challenging and beneficial responsibility. As a leader in the wards of patients with mental disorders I had many challenges and strengths. I had the responsibilities of making some of the most sensitive clinical decisions. The challenges were felt during the process of organizing and delegating duties because it was hard to tell the qualification of all the nurses and there were many trainees and new nurses who needed to work with the experienced so as to acquire more skills of working under professional operations. Dealing with these patients was also a challenge since they were not in a position to communicate their problems or symptoms they had. Action plan I would recommend all the team work leaders in nursing to observe or consider all the functions of a good leader and apply all the necessary skills for achievement of their professional goals. They should consider observing the changes and formulating ways of implementing them together as a team with their junior nurses. This includes giving them freedom to make decision on behalf of the entire department or trying to apply all the tactics in the operations to ensure that the best is achieved. I would also recommend all the nurses to have a good record of the activities that take place while they are offering services to enable the other professionals to make wise decisions on what is best for the patient care. The records help in preventing the occurrence of such risks as overdose or under dose because the history of medication is available to everyone. The nurses are also able to judge the process of the patient by analyzing their progress during the treatment period. The nurses should be regularly trained to improve their skills and inform them of the changes in the treatment area. Bibliography Barbara, C., 2005, Contemporary nursing: issues, trends, & management, Elsevier Health Sciences, Oxford Daly, J. & Sandra, S., 2004, Nursing Leadership, Australia, Elsevier Australia, Ward, A., 2008, Leadership and management in nursing, Michigan, Pearson Prentice Hall, New Jersey. Ward, A., 2010, Professional nursing concepts: competencies for quality leadership, Jones & Bartlett Learning, Salt Lake. 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