Leadership and the Management of Change Process - Assignment Example

Running Head: LEADERSHIP AND THE CHANGE PROCESS Leadership and the Management of Change Process Assignment Nurses play an important role in the health care system. As a practical nurse, my first and foremost priority would be to ensure proper delivery of health care to the patient. This will be possible only through acquisition of proper knowledge and professional skills. Along with these attributes, since I have deal with patients intimately and also coordinate with other nursing colleagues and health professionals, I need to possess qualities of leader and have empowerment. Professional knowledge, skills, leadership attributes and empowerment come only through change and enahanced learning through reflecive activiities. In this assignment, I will be discussing some situations in my career which demonstrate my leadership qualities, empowerment, change process and reflection. The relationship between a nurse and a patient is of therapeutic nature and based on the provision of care, guidance and assistance to the patient (Neal, 2007). It is shaped mainly by four concepts namely, trust, power, intimacy and respect (Neal, 2007). Power is important not only for good relationship between nurse and patient but also for collaborative team work amongst health professionals. There are about 7 seven types of powers. As a student nurse, I am possessed with four types of power. During my high school days, my grandfather, a 75 year old man used to live with us. He suffered from repeated acute exacerbations of chronic back ache and his medication dose needed to be titrated based on pain rating scale. My grand father appeared depressed and would not cooperate in ascertaining the intensity of pain and response to the medications given. I knew that my grand father was very fond of chocolates. I communicated to him that if he cooperated with the treatment, he would get one chocolate everyday. He agreed and we could successfully adjust his medication. This is an example of my reward power. During my college days, I had gone on a trip to one of the sub-urb regions with few of my friends and cousins. It was raining and I warned my cousin who was driving the car to go slow as the car could skid any moment. However, without heeding my warning, my cousin continued to drive rashly and accidently knocked a little pup. One of the limbs of the pup got hurt. I then ordered my cousin to take the pup to a veterinary hospital and make arrangements for the treatment and recovery of the pup. This is one of the examples of my coercive power. On one of my trips to the Northern part of the country, I saw a devastating road traffic accident on the high way. I was travelling by a bus with my college mates, lecturers and mentors. We stopped and tried to attend to the injured inmates of the car. All the six inmates of the car were injured badly and not in a position to call for help. My cotravellers also were helpless as they were not aware of what to do in such remote areas. I immediately called the local helpline, ambulance and police. Within minutes, the ambulance arrived and took all the injured people to the hospital. My lecturers were amazed with my knowledge of emergency services and were in all praise for me. There have been many situations in which I have helped by co-staff friends and others. Such and other experiences have made me a likeable and respectable person bestowing upon me referent power and information powers. Due to these attributes, I was made a leader in my class. I was asked to lead many charity programmes. I also was given ample opportunities to present and organise many educational seminars and programmes. The experience and power I have gained during my early educational years will help me develop empowerment in nuring profession. Competence for nurses is important for the kind of profession it is and the expectations that the profession arouses. Nursing profession involves complex combinations of performance, knowledge, attitudes and skills (David, 2005). Developing professional knowledge, skills and competence is a way of meeting the demands of modern professional practice. Currently, in many parts of the world, education, assessment and training in nursing are based on competency-based approach (David, 2005). After I become a registered nurse, I will have another two powers by virtue of competence. They are legitimate power and expert power. Legitimate power is by virtue of the right of the manager to make a request because of the authority that stems form association with the job and also the rank that the nurse posseses in the hierarchy of the organisation (Kozier et al., 2004). The members of the group follow the nurse because of the managers prerogative to provide sanctions, impose requirements and grant rewards in keeping with the aims and objectives of the organisation. Expert power stems from the possession by the manager of certain unique skills, competence and knowledge. The knowledge is gained through experience and advanced education. The members follow the manager because of the respect they posssess for the expertise of the manager (Kozier et al., 2004). I have always enjoyed the benefits of various powers I possess. I am also aware that the powers I have can abuse and hurt others. Hence I must exert my powers with caution and rightful thinking. This understanding has come to me due to some of my experiences in life in which others power caused pain and hurt to me. During my early school years, when I was about 10 years of age, one of classmates lost his pen. The pen was actually taken by another class mate who was the sone of a politician. I was sitting next to this boy and the teacher, instead of confronting and punishing him, addressed me in a rude manner and threatened to inform my parents if I did not return the pen immediately. I was very upset and pleaded that I did not take the pen. This incident dawned upon me the fact that power can cause fear in people and power can make people take wrong decisions. Every nurse must be aware of this and exert power only to benefit the patients and also enhance collaborative team work. Power must never be misused for negative personal accomplishments. Good leadership qualities are one of important attributes of an efficient nurse. Through leadership, it is possible to influence others to accomplish a specific goal (Kozier et al, 2004). I believe that I will have good leadership qualities because of the appropriate knowledge I possess, my experience and perseverance to learn, my trustworthiness, my ability to be mobile and easily adjustable to any situation, my sense of effectiveness and perfection and my interest to be in the leading role. I will devote good time and effort to any task entrusted to me. During my holidays after the first semester, I worked along with registered nurse who organised weekly health camps in remote villages. I collected medicines from physicians who get medicine samples from medical representatives. I also approached a few medical representatives and asked them to provide me left-over and extra medicine samples. The nurse used these medicines for the treatment of poor patients. She collaborated with other nursing colleagues and physicians and put-up a rota as to who would go go for the camp every week. These camps were very successsful. This is an example of presence of democratic or participative leadership and I intend to develop these attributes of leadership during my training in nursing. In democratic leadership, the leader allows all the members of the group to carry equal vote. The leader consults other team memebers and encourages them to participate (Theofanidis, and Dikatpanidou, 2006). In the process of acquisition of professional knowledge, skills and competence, change process is a must. Change is a process by which the nurse stabilizes herself and gains control over inevitable changes she faces (Mintzberg, 1989). Change which is deliberate and occurs as a result of conscious reasoning and actions is known as planned change. I plan to implement a planned change in my education. The change I want to implement in my education is increase in the library hours. Currently, the library is open between 8:00 AM and 6: PM and I would like to change the timings to 7:00 AM and 10: PM. This is because, we as nurses work in shifts and find it difficult to access the library to the best use in the limited hours. An increase in the working hours of the library will help us in giving more flexibility in using the library. I would like to implement this change through Lewins Change Model. According to Lewin (1951), there are 3 stages of change: Unfeezing stage, Moving stage and Refreezing stage. Lewin (1951) proposed that it requires a shift in the balance of forces for and against the change and it is the stage of unfreezing that identification of forces that are in place which maintain the ‘status quo’ occurs. An issue in change that is a certainty is that there are going to be reactions to it but one can manage it in order to ensure the projection planned will fall into the correct place (Beitler, 2005). Lewin (1951) proposed that creating motivation for change is essential. In order to achieve superior results it is important that all team members like educators, supervisors, managers, librarian, administrators and colleagues are motivated by taking them into consideration and install feelings of value/self worth. This is because; all people need significance in their lives, and need to have feelings of value, worth and self esteem with regards to what they are doing. Patton and Mccalman (2006) suggested that providing all team members with feedback will help contribute to keeping an individual motivated, as well as providing them with new focus and direction. Of utmost importance in the process of change is education of the team members. It is important that the team members are fully informed and educated appropriately in order to achieve set goals in an appropriate manner. Thus I will provide information to the team members about the benefits of increase in library hours and motivate them. The second stage of Lewin’s change model is called ‘moving stage’ It is in this stage that change actually occurs. This stage focuses on new ideas, beliefs and the actual initiation of change whilst also trying to manage resistance. The team members have to be kept up to date with practice policies and any changes that may have been made the change. In order to meet these requirements, I will arrange a seminar which will discuss the benefits of increase in library hours. I will initaiate a discussion during the presentation in which the benefits and disadvantages of increased library hours will be elaborated. Once the benefits are agreed upon, I will draw a plan of action as to how the change must be implemented and from when it should be implemented. Thus the team members can be educated about the importance and benefits of increase in library hours. Once the changes have been effectively implemented, it is important that they are Re-Frozen. This is the third and final stage in Lewin’s model. This is the stage in which all the team members involved in change are in a stable and productive state with no change efforts. Burnes (2004) proposed that at this stage focus needs to be directed towards stabilizing the group at a new equilibrium in order to make sure a new behavior is protected from regression and that it is important for the nursing staff to understand that accepting change rather than resisting it will have long term effects which will benefit themselves and other newcomers. The team members should not be tempted to return to previous working habits and continue to embrace the change (Patton and Mccalma, 2006). Support for all involved in the change should be freely available and accessible. The ways to sustain change are enduring support from the leader, having a reward system, establishing feedbacks and adapting the organizational structure. All those involved in the change should be suitable informed, trained and supported. Reflective activity is a big part in the development of nursing practice. With the current trends in the nursing practice, and the advancement in the nursing profession, nurses are able to look into the concept of effective practice. While reflection is the key to successful learning process, current literature plays a major role in these developments (Bulman & Schutz, 2004). Through updated journals and texts, present studies by critics and writers, we are able to meet the goals for the improvement of analytical thinking skills such as being able to identify problems that might arise, being aware to new or different ideas, and anticipating the consequences of one’s actions. In using reflection as a tool for the development of the professional nursing practice, a plan can be designed to meet the goals of the reflective activity by recording thoughts, observations, feelings, activities and questions. Through this, the effective practitioner can be challenged to think in new ways, raise new questions and explore new ways of problem-solving (Charalambous, 2003). Professional nursing practice can be defined as the proper approach to care in the highest possible expectations rearing positive outcomes. Through reflective activity, and exploring the current trends of nursing, professionals will be able to meet the standards that the nursing profession will require. I intend to reflect on the use of my power in professional practice through LEARN model of reflection. Look back: I did not know the importance of power when I entered the nursing profession, although I was aware that power is essential to influence others to work towards a goal. Elaborate: I was not experienced and had no leadership qualities when I entered the nursing profession. However, soon after my practical sessions started, I learnt the skills of leadership from my peers and mentors. It then dawned upon me that power and leadership attriibutes are very essential not only for appropriate patient care but also for survival and thriving in the profession. These skills are essential to mature and come up professionally. Analysis: After I joined the profession, over a period of time, I developed many powers, because of which I came out as a good leader. Others in my team could coordinate and follow me by virtue of these attributes. Though in the initial semesters I was timid and shy, I outgrew these feelings and took part in group activities in lead roles. Revise: I now feel that I could have done better in may situations. While handling some patients in the ward, I could have used internet sources and journals for evidence-based practice. I could have interacted more with other professionals and improved my learning and skills attributes. New perspective: When I step into my new part of profession as a registered nurse, I plan to incorporate all aspects of nursing skills, knowledge, practice, leadership qualities and empowerment to the best use and deliver the best care possible to the patient. I also plan to pursue higher education to attain more legitimate and expert powers. I plan to get involved in research which confers not only knowledge to oneself but also to others. Through reflection and learning, I plan to mature as a nurse and thrive in flourishing colors in the profession. References Beitler, M., 2005. Strategic Organizational Change. London: PPI Publications. Burnes, B., 2004. Kurt Lewin and the planned approach to change: A Re-Appraisal. Journal of Management Studies, 41(6), 977-1002. Bulman, C. & Schutz, S. (2004) Reflective Practice in Nursing. 3rd Edition, Blackwell Publishing: Oxford. Charalambous, A. (2003). Reflective practice as a facilitator for learning. ICUS NURS WEB J., 13, 1-8. Retrieved on November 9th 2009 from http://www.nursing.gr/reflectiveprac.pdf David. T. (2005). Competence in nursing practice: A controversial concept – A focused review of literature. Nursing Education Today, 25, 5, 355- 362. Kozier, B., Erb, G., Berman, A., Burke, K., Bouchal, D., & Hirst, S. (2004). Fundamentals of nursing: The nature of nursing practice in Canada. (Canadian Edition). Toronto, ON: Prentice Hall. Lewin, K. (1951). Field Theory in Social Science. New York: Harper Row Mintzberg, H. (1989). Mintzberg on Management: inside our strange world of organisations. Chicago: Free Press Neal, K. (2007). Nurse-Patient relationships. November 9th 2009 http://www.nursing-practice.co.uk/docs/newCh5.pdf Patton, R. A. & Mccalman, J. (2006). Change Management: A guide to effective implementation. London: Sage Publications Ltd. Theofanidis, D., and Dikatpanidou, S. (2006). Leadership in Nursing. ICUS Nurs Web J., 25. 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