Nursing - Nursing Leadership - Research Paper Example

? Nursing Leadership of the Nursing of the Concerned Teacher March 19, Nursing Leadership Introduction It goes without saying that the health care in a contemporary context is open to diverse challenges emanating from enhanced consumer demands and expectations, a health care system that is getting increasingly dysfunctional and stressed owing to limited resources, a faulty sense of direction, courtesy the choice of misplaced priorities, and a plethora of incentives that are shifting rapidly. However, there still exists much hope and good news for the health care leaders accruing from the ever increasing involvement of consumers in the delivery of health care systems, a rising idea in the national health care structure that health issues do need to be treated on a priority basis, new avenues and opportunities being brought into existence by the novel technological developments, and a passion for service amongst the students entering the health care services. Being a nursing leader in the current times amounts to leading and aiding people through choices that nobody wants to make. It also means accompanying one’s clients and colleagues on a journey that could be customized, reconfigured and redesigned along the way. It is about understanding the context in which a specific healthcare service is delivered. It may not be exactly about having a solid vision, but still it does involve having a nascent idea as to how things ought to be. It definitely involves having the ability to connect to other people. When one analyzes these salient attributes of nursing leadership, the one name that propitiously comes to my mind is that of Florence Nightingale. Florence Nightingale not only revolutionized the nursing practices as they existed in her times, but also happened to be an instrument of change. Comparing oneself with such a leadership icon is indeed humbling. Still, on doing so I have realized that I do share some attributes with Florence Nightingale, while I need to strive hard to muster some other attributes ascribed to this great nursing leader. Florence Nightingale as a Nursing Leader The one attribute of Florence Nightingale was that she came into nursing with a sense of passion. She happened to be from a well to do family and could have opted for some easy life by marrying into a status family as her family wanted her to do (Donahue, 2007, p. 199). However, contrary to this, Florence decided to be a nurse at the age of twenty five. There is no denying the fact that Florence’s choice of a career was imbued with a sense of purpose, a marked sense of direction and a passion for doing something extraordinary in the career she choose. For Florence, it was not about doing something great, but rather about doing little things with great love. That is indeed true that Florence Nightingale was a luminary and it is not possible for every nurse to achieve that exalted level of vision and purpose, still, considering the present state of healthcare, one indeed pines for that level of passion and zeal in the nursing services. The other big thing about Florence was that she had a clear cut sense of how things were at her times and how they should have been. In the Crimean War, Florence, though still lacking much serious experience, was appalled by the circumstances at the hospital at Scutari (Donahue, 2007, p. 201). In fact, learning from such experience, when Florence proposed for change in the way military hospitals were run and managed, she witnessed a stiff resistance from most of the health care personnel deployed in the military hospitals (Donahue, 2007, p. 202). I intensely believe that no matter how inexperienced a nurse happens to be, still every health care professional has an innate sense of how the things should be, at least a vague idea. In that context, Florence Nightingale not only served as a leader who acted as an instrument of change, but also played a pivotal role in the management and administration of change. With little hope of help from the military establishment, Florence did her best to solicit the public and professional attention towards the need for change. It is this innate conviction of Florence Nightingale that things could be done better than the way they were actually done, which indeed revolutionized the nursing profession for the ages to come. The one major thing about Florence was her resourcefulness. With little help from the state, she mustered her little band of followers who believed in change, to extend the health care facilities and services, which were far ahead of their times (Donahue, 2007, p. 207). In the current times, when the healthcare services complain of a severe dearth of resources, any health care professional in general and the nurses in particular could learn much from the resourcefulness and ingenuity of Florence Nightingale. Literature The leadership style chosen by any nurse should be such that it should reflect one’s professional ideal and should be such that one could effectively use it (Zilembo & Monterosso, 2008). In that context, there does not stand one standard, specific leadership style that caters to all nursing professionals. Hence, in a pragmatic context, once the nursing professionals are conversant with varied types of leadership styles, they could opt for the leadership style that suits them the best (Zilembo & Monterosso, 2008). It goes without saying that the very nature of the nursing profession is such that nurses are more than often expected to and encouraged to opt for leadership roles. No wonder, most of the curricula in the nursing schools do have some course element dealing with leadership. Though many of the nursing students tend to do well in their leadership courses at the school level, the real leadership problems begin to arise in the actual professional settings sans any follow ups (Zilembo & Monterosso, 2008). Nurses could and can extend leadership at varied levels. One essential thing about all nursing leaders is that they most of them also happen to be clinically proficient. So would be nurses need to get themselves conversant with the essentials of leadership while gaining proficiency and competency in their chosen profession (Zilembo & Monterosso, 2008). Many theoreticians do disagree with the notion that a good nursing leader could also be a good clinician. They believe that a good nursing leader’s primary task is to create an environment in which other efficient and skilled people could extend good nursing care (Zilembo & Monterosso, 2008). However, a great many nursing practitioners tend to disagree with this view. In a practical scenario, a nurse could not afford to solely develop the leadership skills that dilute one’s nursing skills, knowledge and proficiency. Yes, it is so that the nurses serving at the lower rungs scarcely get the chance to exercise their leadership skills (Rigolosi, 2007). Yet, on the other side they do get ample opportunity to develop as a trainee leader (Rigolosi, 2007). It goes without saying that at the junior level, few junior nurses get the opportunity to extend inputs in the patient care, as this onus is primary left to the physicians and senior nurses (Rigolosi, 2007). However, one way the junior nurses could exercise leadership is by making the best of the status quo vested in them (Rigolosi, 2007). They could propose novel scheduling options, extend opinions regarding the issues related to recruitment and retention, and show initiative while presenting in service training. Thus, in the context of the trainee nurses, knowledge of the theories pertaining to leadership and clinical proficiency go hand in hand (Rigolosi, 2007). As per Boswell and Long, the real nursing leaders pursue their training in the light of many outcomes objectives (Boswell & Long, 2011, p. 108). True nursing leaders should be able to exploit their knowledge, training, critical thinking skills for the betterment of nursing profession (Boswell & Long, 2011, p. 108). Such aspiration to make things better should not be merely perfunctory, but should rather be an integral aspect of some innate zeal and passion for service. Eventually it is the nursing leaders of today who would have a great say in the framework of health care policies of the future (Boswell & Long, 2011, p. 108). Nursing leaders should be skilled enough to extend leadership in the delivery of health care services and in nursing education (Boswell & Long, 2011, p. 108). This certainly calls for much managerial and administrative skill (Boswell & Long, 2011, p. 108). The nursing leadership of the future should not only need to be astute in decision making, but also need to be proactively conscious about ethical behavior (Boswell & Long, 2011, p. 108). Disch proposes an idea of nursing leadership which he calls Generative Leadership. Simply speaking, as per Disch, Generative leadership is the ability to churn out new ideas pertaining to the set issues (Disch, 2009, p. 173). Generative Leaders are the leaders who have the ability to come out with new ideas and solutions pertaining to the old problems and issues (Disch, 2009, p. 173). Generative leaders have the ability to work with and through others to wrought meaningful change and innovation (Disch, 2009, p. 174). Generative leaders, as per Disch tend to be innately curious and ingenious and are seldom satisfied with the status quo (Disch, 2009, p. 174). Generative leaders happen to be optimist in their orientation and do look for opportunities, where others see problems (Disch, 2009, p. 174) . There is no denying the fact that much of the existing literature on nursing leadership does uphold the clinical proficiency of a nursing leader, backed by the ability to exploit one’s knowledge, skills and ingenuity to come out with new solutions to the existing problems. Comparison/Contrast In the context of the nursing leadership, after considering the attributes of Florence Nightingale as a nurse, I have come to the conclusion that I do resemble her in the sense that I have a firm conviction that nursing is my true vocation. However, I tend to differ from her in the sense that though at an intellectual level I do have an idea as to the changes that could be brought about in the current health care system, many a times I tend to shy away from the task of challenging the status quo. I am sure had Florence been in my place, should would not have been scared of shaking the status quo. The other attribute I share with Florence is that I do believe that big changes could be brought about in the current nursing practices, by making changes that tend to be small and often ignored. I certainly do believe that my innate passion for nursing do falls short of Florence, still I am confident that I do have the apt zeal and enthusiasm, so far as nursing is concerned. I believe that many gains can be made in the nursing profession through effective communication. Recently, when I was caring for a patient of Chinese origin, though I tried my best to help her, she seemed to be dissatisfied with my services owing to ineffective communication. Later I realized that communication is not merely about language (Adair, 2007). I could have made that patient feel comfortable by reciprocating through apt emotions, through the usage of right body language and gestures. Besides, that patient was old and I also failed partly owing to my lack of cultural literacy, as the Chinese extend much reverence to their old people (Hirsch Jr., 2008). Conclusion A perusal of the current literature pertaining to nursing leadership and the life and profession of Florence Nightingale do leads to the fact that to excel as a nursing leader; one does not need to develop skills that are solely managerial and administrative in their scope. Rather the crux of the matter is to hone one’s clinical skills while developing the additional leadership and managerial skills. A right approach backed by a firm conviction and a sense of direction could work wonders in the career graph of a nursing professional. References Adair, John. (2009). Effective Communication. New York: Pan Books. Boswell, Carol & Long, Joann. (2011). Validating Graduate Student Programmatic Outcomes. Nursing Education Perspectives, 32(2), 107-110. Disch, Joanne. (2009). Generative Leadership. Creative Nursing, 15(4), 172-175. Donahue, M Patricia. (2007). Nursing the Finest Art. St. Louis, MO: Mosby. Hirsch Jr., ED. (2008). Cultural Literacy. New York: Vintage. Rigolosi, Elaine La Monica. (2007). Management and Leadership in Nursing and Healthcare. New York: Springer. Zilembo, Melaine & Monterosso, Leanne. (2008). Nursing Students Perceptions of Desirable Leadership Qualities in Nurse Perceptors: a Descriptive Survey. Contemporary Nurse: A Journal for the Australian Nursing Profession, 27(2), 194-199. Read More