Nursing Leadership and Issues in Healthcare - Essay Example

"Nursing Leadership and Issues in Healthcare" is an engrossing example of a paper on care.
The interview in question was done with a Clinical Nurse Leader (CNL) that has been in the profession for about one year. The CNL has dealt with lots of aging patients and her demands have been increasing with the days. In fact, the health institution has been relying on her services to create better patient outcomes in the course of operations in the health setting. The CNL terms herself as a leader in the health institution and one that has no option but to streamline all the nursing practices across all the disciplines in the health facility.

The leader also explains that the demand for her services has been increasing due to the increase in the aging population. She is required to provide information on the most appropriate drugs for the patient, have recent information on the technologies applicable for her role, and even ensuring the patient outcomes are good at all times. She actually argues that her practice as a Clinical Nurse Leader is based on evidence-based practice as the training prescribes.

The issue discussed and implication in healthcare 

The issues discussed with the CNL involved ethical issues in nursing. As seen in the research conducted by Aitamaa et al (2010), nurse leaders are faced with numerous legal issues that range from ethical issues related to patient care, issues with the staff, and even relations within the organization. Edmonson (2010) and Harris & Roussel (2010) also indicate that in the course of the nursing practice nurse leaders are presented with complex challenges. Edmonson (2010) confirms that it is the complex situations that nurse leaders find themselves in that determine if they will successfully accomplish their roles or cause more conflicts in the workplace. The nurses have also been termed as moral agents that have no option but to always comply with the ethical requirements of their jobs. In as much the nurse leaders are faced with tough and intricate situations at times, they are expected to apply high levels of intellect in dealing with any issue that may arise.  The Clinical Nurse Leader is no exception. The nurse interviewed attests to facing numerous ethical challenges in the course of dispensing her duties.

First, the nurse confessed to having faced ethical issues when providing care to the patients. At times the staff members were extremely exhausted. The patients on the other side demanded care. It is in such an instance that she had to resolve the case using her intellect as a leader in the clinical setting.  

Secondly, yet another ethical issue that the Clinical Nurse Leader attested to have faced in the course is staff related. At one moment her subordinates developed wrong behavior and attitudes towards their work and were extremely reluctant to perform their roles. At times, they even displayed high levels of incompetence to an extent that they created conflicts with other staff members. The assignments assigned to these nurses were not completed as expected.  The CNL explains that this was a major ethical role in her line of duty.

The other form of ethical concern was related to the organization. In her workplace, there were scarce resources and she had to make sure that she allocates the resources equitably in all departments. At times, she was even bribed by other departmental leaders so as she would allocate them more resources.

Resolution of the issue

To resolve the ethical issues, the nurse applied the professional code of ethics to solve the problem and even be in line with her requirements as a CNL. As Marquis & Huston (2012) write, leadership and nursing management cannot function effectively without the application of ethical guidelines.  The same sentiments are shared by Aitamaa et al (2010) who argue that nurse leaders are faced with different forms of challenges in their line of work. It is, therefore, the role of the nurses to make sure that they find the best approaches that will act in an ethical way. The organization also relies on nurse leaders to ensure that proper care is given to the patients (Harris & Roussel, 2010).

The nurse resolved the case of the nurses being complacent by putting the needs of the patients first and pushing the nurses to work s required of them. This decision minimized the conflicts between the nurses and the patients and ultimately led to the provision of proper care to the patients.  To resolve the issue of display of wrong attitudes and bad behavior by nurses, the CNL issued several warnings to the nurses that were proving difficult to handle. She even went to an extent of fairly selecting the best nurses out of the existing ones as it got to the point her job was being put at risk by the non-performing nurses.  To solve the issue relating to the allocation of resources, the CNL was fair in the allocation of resources. She did this so as to comply with the ethical guideline and also minimize the chances of conflicts arising between the nursing role and the values of the organization.

From a discussion of the above ethical challenges, it is warranted to indicate that the Clinical Nurse Leader is not only an ethical leader but also a moral leader. This is because the nurse leader has the moral courage and managerial competency to deal with the issues that landed in her office. It is also clear that the nurse leader was self-directed and did more than function based on rules and policies set in her workplace. This fact related to Edmonson's (2010) work that argues that nurse leaders must display high levels of moral courage, act as role models, and even make as much as possible to reduce any form of distress that may take place in her organization. This can be deduced from the Clinical Nurse Leader as she promoted strict adherence to the ethical guidelines and even offered a chance for the continued development of moral courage among the nursing staff.