Comparison And Contrast Of Leadership And Management Styles For Nurse Shortage And Nurse Turnover

Comparison and contrast on leadership and management styles for nurse shortage and nurse turnover

Describe the comparison and contrast on leadership and management styles for nurse shortage and nurse turnover.

Nursing staffs turnover and retention has become an alarming issue in the preset health care context. Around 90% of the employee turnover is recorded in the nursing sector in all health care organizations. However, the retention rates of the nurses in the health care organizations can be increased with the help of effective leadership skills and management strategies. The essay here focuses on the use of the skills for management of the persistent problem of nurse shortages in health care.

According to the 2010 US census Bureau report, 40.3 million people are currently over the age of 65 years and the population is forecasted to become nearly double by the end of 2030 thus the increasing rate of nursing staffs turnover will make it difficult for the health care institutions to provide the necessary quality service to the clients. According to Verma et al. (2009) some of the major reasons for the shortage of the nursing staffs are namely increased demand because of aging population, better career options, low salary and high work pressure and workplace health challenges. Nevidjon & Erickson (2000) opined that retention of nurses depends on the managerial skills of the nursing leaders and the way they value the nurses within the health care organizations. The nursing leaders should essentially use the caring attitude in order to show that they value their staffs. Rather than viewing the staffs as an expense, the nursing leaders should treat the nurses as assets in order to boost their morale value and increase the chances of retention. Chase (2010) further opined that designing of the appropriate motivational strategies would further help in retention of the nurses. The reduction of the work pressure, designing of health care policies and salary structure increment are the major factors that will contribute to the satisfaction levels of the nurses thereby provoking them to avoid job shifts. Thus, it requires the nursing leaders to be good motivators. Buchan & Aiken (2008) further added that the adoption of shared leadership or participatory leadership skills would help the nursing leaders to promote an environment of quality patient care, autonomy and responsible decision-making. The nursing leaders should also use appropriate supervisory skills for on-the-job training of the nurses so that they develop good working knowledge of the job and develop a sense of interest for the job.

Theories related to leadership and managerial skills

Apart from the nursing leaders, the front line nurse managers are also responsible for retention and appropriate recruitment of the nursing staffs. Graham-Dickerson et al. (2013) comments that the nursing manager needs to develop essential critical thinking skills in order to effectively manage the nursing staffs within a health care organization. With the help of effective educational skills in the field of human resource management, financial management, quality management and collective bargaining, skills the managers will be able to manage the staffs. However, the most important managerial skill that is required to solve the problems of nursing shortages is the self- efficacy skills. The nurse managers should firstly understand themselves and then evaluate the psychological needs of the nurse staffs. It is the responsibility of the nurse managers to identify the best practices related to retention of care workers. Surveys shows, that around 84% of the nurse retention occurs due to their high levels of dissatisfaction with the nurse manager.

According to Huber (2014) there is a difference between leadership theories and styles. Theories depict the practicality and styles are the preferred ways in which the individual can implement the theory. Analysis of the nursing leaders shows that the leaders should have the necessary leadership skills namely patient-centered care skills, good networking skills, optimistic and situational leadership skills and self-actualization or self-acceptance skills.

Transformational versus Transactional leadership

Transactional leadership skills require the leader to manage the day-to day activities of the team with the help of disciplinary rules and codes. However, Zori & Morrison (2009) argued that the use of transformational leadership skills gives the individuals within a team an opportunity to develop individual leadership power. In the context of nursing, the leaders should effectively adopt the transformational leadership style and allocate certain aspects of the projects to the various nurses according to their areas of expertise. Barnett et al. (2010) opined that this would make the nurses feel that they are valuable assets for the organization and will develop their career prospects thereby reducing the rate of nurse turnovers. Adoption of transactional leadership in nursing context will make the leaders focus exclusively on the rules and regulations within the health care organization thereby limiting the growth of the nurses. On the contrary, the transformational leadership will help the nursing leaders to enhance the motivational approaches. Moreover, in the context of the rapidly changing health care environment it is necessary to adopt transformational leadership in order to instill flexibility within the thoughts and actions of the nurse leaders.

Transformational versus Transactional leadership

Mentorship skills versus Laissez-Faire skills

Laissez Faire also known as the hands-off style of leading is the type of leadership style where the leader gives freedom to the team members to work on their own free will without providing any guidance on the work. These nurse leaders believe in providing minimal amount of direction to the nurses. However, Nevidjon & Erickson (2000) commented that hands-off style is not suitable in the context of management of nursing staffs since the nurses are related to the health care professions. Around 90% of the nurses appointed within the health care organizations are fresher in the field hence absence of suitable guidance may not only create a sense of disinterest among the employees nut also threaten the quality of service provided by the nurses. On the contrary, Medland & Stern (2009) argued that the adoption of the supervisory or mentorship skills by the nursing leaders helps the leaders to not only motivate the nurses but also deliver high quality service to the health care clients.

Situational leadership style and open communication

Balogh-Robinson (2012) opined that nursing leaders are essentially required to demonstrate situational leadership skills in order to take appropriate decision related to diverse health care situations. The nurse leaders are also required to demonstrate open communication skills that will give the nurses an opportunity to communicate freely about their problems, experiences and work load pressures with the leaders. Open communication fosters the growth of the interpersonal relationship between the nursing staffs and the nurse leaders. Situational leadership style enables the nurse leaders to focus on improvement of the complex situations like nursing roasters, management of complex cases and motivating the nurses in order to continue with their career trend.

In the context of nursing leadership, the best-fit approach is the adoption of the transformational leadership style. The transformational nursing leaders have the opportunity to deal with the changing situations in a health care. Medland & Stern (2009) opined that the nursing leaders should possess the qualities of self-dependence, self-assurance, confidence and lead by example. By adopting the transformational leadership, the leaders will have the opportunity to develop the morale of the individual nurses and design the required motivational techniques in order to acquire their job satisfaction levels. The transformational leadership also reduces the level of risks on the part of the nursing leaders and introduces a sense of responsibility among the employees and the team members. Thus, adoption of this leadership style integrates a sense of better outcome for the patients since the quality of the service is further enhanced.

Conclusion

The analysis within the essay shows that the adoption of the transformational leadership style by the nursing leaders can effectively solve the retention issues of the nursing staffs. The front line management in the health care organizations are thus required to focus on the HR policies, health policies and motivational factors in order to retain the nursing staffs within the organizations.

Reference list

Balogh-Robinson, L. L. (2012). The crisis in leadership in the context of the nursing shortage and the increasing prevalence of nursing unions. Journal of Healthcare Leadership, 4, 127-139.

Barnett, T., Namasivayam, P., & Narudin, D. A. A. (2010). A critical review of the nursing shortage in Malaysia. International nursing review, 57(1), 32-39.

Buchan, J., & Aiken, L. (2008). Solving nursing shortages: a common priority.Journal of clinical nursing, 17(24), 3262-3268.

Chase, L. K. (2010). Nurse manager competencies.

Graham-Dickerson, P., Houser, J., Thomas, E., Casper, C., ErkenBrack, L., Wenzel, M., & Siegrist, M. (2013). The Value of Staff Nurse Involvement in Decision Making. Journal of Nursing Administration, 43(5), 286-292.

Huber, D. (2014). Leadership and nursing care management (5th ed.). Maryland Heights, MO: Saunders Elsevier. ISBN-13:9781455740710

Medland, J., & Stern, M. (2009). Coaching as a successful strategy for advancing new manager competency and performance. Journal for Nurses in Staff Development, 25(3), 141-147

Nevidjon, B., & Erickson, J. I. (2000). The nursing shortage: solutions for the short and long term. Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, 6(1), 4-4.

Verma, S., Broers, T., Paterson, M., Schroder, C., Medves, J. M., & Morrison, C. (2009).  Core competencies: the next generation. Comparison of a common framework for multiple professions. Journal of Allied Health, 38(1), 47-53

Zori, S., & Morrison, B. (2009). Critical thinking in nurse managers. Nursing Economics, 27(2), 75-80.