The Nurse Leader Interview - Essay Example

The Nurse Leader Interview The essay aims to address a two-fold objective to wit to describe the person’s leadership/management style (authoritarian, democratic, or laissez-faire); and (2) to describe the management process that you observed such as planning, organizing, staffing, directing and controlling. The Nurse Leader Interview I. Introduction Gerda Reed has been working at Western Medical Anaheim since 2005. She is leading the daily operations of the nursing staff in the Maternal Child Health Department. As the manager, she makes sure that both the mother and child receive the highest possible comfort and medical care because the hospital believes that every delivery must be safe and unique. She also said that she is responsible to the following population – patients, staff nurse, and the hospital institution. Ms. Reed ensures the quality of care given to patients, mentors and trains staff collaboratively to develop their professional competence, and guarantees that the hospital institution adheres to standards and continuous improvement in clinical practices. II. Leadership Style Ms. Reed was asked about her leadership style or strategy inside the Maternal Child Health Department. She emphasized that a manager’s leadership style may vary depending on the department she was assigned to or on the current position. For instance, a nurse who preferred a democratic style of leadership might shift to an autocratic style if she will be assigned to Operating Room or to the Emergency Room. When asked about what she thinks her leadership style is, Ms. Reed quickly answered that it is the democratic style. From time to time, she allows staff nurses to take part in problem-solving and decision making by having a weekly conference among her subordinates. She is also listening to their concerns and experiences inside the department while maintaining an atmosphere of authority. She doesn’t always keep an eye on her personnel but rather, minimally supervised nursing employees in their respective duties accordingly. She also finds time to coach junior nurses. According to Daly et al. (2008), nurses who were managed using a democratic style of leadership feel a strong sense of commitment and confidence in executing decision and provide an avenue for creativity (n.p.). Ms. Reed believes that in order to achieve the vision of Western Medical Anaheim to provide unique delivery, their nurses must first be empowered to be creative in delivering patient care. In addition, Ms. Reed stated that there is no perfect style of leadership. You have to use a combination of styles as each of them has a loophole. For instance, Ms. Reed’s democratic style allows collaboration and innovativeness; however, it may also lead to longer decision-making and achievement of goals as groups were compromising the decision for the benefit of all. III. Management Process A. Planning – Upon observation of Ms. Reed, I noticed that they have this “short meeting” before proceeding in each assignments. The duration is usually 5-10 minutes and was mainly for informing nursing employees about things to be done. At the end of briefing, she always asked her subordinates for clarifications of some matters specifically with regards to delivery of quality patient care. Before leaving her subordinates in the area, she always write agendas, ‘things-to-do’, and reminders in the bulletin board. Ms. Reed said that as much as possible, she sticks to the routine; however, she can always make a room for some foreseeable crises. B. Organizing – Ms. Reed also divided the department into small groups and assigned a specific point-person. She said that clustering a large group could speed up the process of coordinating the work and could also aid her in evaluating the quality and accountability of care given by her subordinates. She also said that she usually reminds her subordinates about their scope of practice and who to approach when problems emerge. For the junior nurses, Ms. Reed has the habit of including in the first day experience a sense of familiarity with the organizational chart. Ms. Reed believes that maintaining an open line of communication and drafting a clear line of authority constitute an effective organizing process. C. Staffing – Ms. Reed is also in-charge of selecting the best people for the job. She always make sure that there is a senior and a junior nurse in a group. According to her, this will facilitate training among junior nurses and leadership development among senior nurses. If there is a need for additional nursing personnel, Ms. Reed also involved herself in the recruitment and hiring of prospective employees, including possible relievers. One of the most difficult tasks that I have observed her doing is the scheduling of nursing personnel. Although there is a particular formula for nurse staffing, Ms. Reed carefully double-checked every details to make sure that each employee works evenly in accordance with the labor law and to provide a well-rested off. As the manager, Ms. Reed equipped her subordinates with various trainings and seminars to enhance their expertise and update their knowledge on the current trend in maternal and child health. D. Directing – In the directing process, I have asked one of the nurses under Ms. Reed’s department concerning the members’ cooperation. She said that Ms. Reed is an open-minded manager who believes in the potential of her subordinates. There’s ease in getting the work done through others because she empowers her members towards leadership and independence, delegates tasks fairly and humanely, and maintain an open line of communication. Observing Ms. Reed, I found her instructions/orders clear and precise as subordinates accomplished the task according to objectives. At times, you can see that Ms. Reed and her nursing employees can communicate effectively even only with the use of semantics. E. Controlling – For a long time since it was established, Western Medical Anaheim Hospital has been committed in providing quality care. Managers like Ms. Reed has played a vital role in this so-called “Continuous Quality Improvement” (CQI). It primarily includes Quality Assurance (QA), Quality Improvement (QI), and Process Improvement (PI). Ms. Reed employed these processes in every managerial decisions, nursing interventions, and institutional objectives to comply with the commonly accepted national quality metrics. When there are errors committed by a subordinate, he/she must fill up an incident and narrative report to be passed to the nurse manager. Every week, Ms. Reed consolidates incident and narrative reports and discusses these to accountable employees to identify the root cause of the problem and some possible solutions. IV. What have I learned? To sum it up, the things that I have learned during the interview process are the following: 1) The role of the manager is critical to the success of an organization; 2) A manager may use a combination of leadership styles in order to be effective; 3) A manager’s role does is not limited from assessment to evaluation. It also incorporates institutional and personnel liabilities; 4) Managers keep the organization abreast with the standards and measures of quality such as CQI. Reference Daly, J. et al. (2008). Nursing Leadership (Reprint ed.) (n.p.). Australia: Elsevier Publishing. Read More