Reflection On Personal Learning On Leadership And Management In Nursing

You will be required to write a critical reflection on what you have learned about leadership and management and/or team working. You will then produce a personal development plan on how you can take this learning forward. The plan must include specific objectives and an action plan on how you will achieve this. 

Leadership in Nursing

Health care professionals and organisations are required to provide effective, safe and integrated patient care pathways. It is fundamental for health care professionals to demonstrate effective leadership and excellent team working skills. It helps to provide high quality person-centered care and contributes to culture of continuous quality service improvement in the workplace. Nurses work in range of healthcare settings; therefore, they must lead and work effectively to ensure positive patient outcomes. The essay is the reflection on the personal learning on leadership and management. The essay then presents the personal development plan focusing on the leadership and team working skills. The plan involves specific short and long-term goals and the way they will be achieved. The essay then discusses the rationale on how the personal development plan contributes to personal future development as a Nursing Associate. The rationale is well supported with literature.  

There are different ways in which the leadership is defined. In simple words, the leadership as per my understanding is influencing the followers to accomplish the organisational goals. I have learned from the module that two types of leadership styles are most appropriate for nurses. The first one is the transformational leadership. This style of leadership helps to instill faith and respect in the workplace, innovative care pathways and treat employees as human beings. The transformational leadership style when deployed in the hospital allows transmission of ethical principles and values, effective communication of vision, provision of challenging goals and innovation in problem solving (Brewer et al. 2016). Transformational leadership well suits the dynamic healthcare setting as it is highly associated with the employee and patient satisfaction. This leadership helps initiate change using the action learning approach. In this approach, the leaders use the supportive, directive, and democratic principles. Transformational leadership facilitates change, by enabling methods that sustain change. Therefore, it gives rise to better outcomes for both patients and nurses. I would also like to develop the transformational approach as it is focused on interpersonal processes between followers and the leaders. As per my understanding, transformational leadership empowers the nurses. However, Thomas (2015) asserts that the leaders must balance and the power and authority.  The second leadership appropriate for nurses is the transactional leadership. This leadership focus on providing day-to-day care and routine transactions such as rewards and punishments. This leadership grounded on theory of rewards and discipline. This leadership is concerned with the management of predictability and order and does not guide people strategically to a leadership position. It focuses more on executing power and authority rather than influence (Alharbi 2017).   

Transformational Leadership

I have learned that the nurse leaders must have strong communication, team working, and management skills. According to Arnold and Boggs (2015), nurse leaders must enhance these core skills and also cultivate creativity, collaboration, confidence, courage, and competence. I agree as the health care setting is a continuously changing environment and these skills will help one to adjust to it proactively. A nurse understanding and caring for the needs of staff can be cognisant of the factors regulating the work environment. Such an understanding as per Ellis and Bach (2015) ensures productivity. The learning from the module explains strong leadership is based on power, influence, and authority. I believe that in today’s competitive environment, it is necessary to influence others for leading rather than using power and authority. This belief aligns with the study of Fealy et al. (2015), as it emphasized that influence is the strong pillar of leadership. By using influence, a leader can motivate, appreciate, persuade, and negotiate with others depending on the different situation. Using power and authority one cannot be role model in the care environment, mentor juniors by instruction or establish a caring relationship with others. However, it is possible by influencing skills. The good leader can use these skills to inspire a shared vision, encourage and help others in challenging processes (Mah’d Alloubani et al. 2014). I agree with this view point because only when my contributions are recognized by my leader, that I can focus more on team as a whole and it will foster my collaboration. 

The concept of leadership and management is different. As per my learning, Management is directing the people and leading them towards meeting the organisational goals using appropriate resources. The principle of nurse mangers is to organise the work using scientific methods and to maintain cooperative and interdependent relationship with fellow nurses (Thomas 2015).  I also believe that the situational leadership is most appropriate for nurse associates where one can use different leadership theories depending on the scenario (Meredith 2011)

In my journey as nursing student, I have encountered many situations to develop leadership qualities. Right from the BSN program, completing team projects and coursework, I have tended to take aggressive leadership roles. There are areas where I have failed to resolve conflicts with my team members. On several occasions such as seminars and team presentations, I have been advised by my mentors to develop good management skills. I have engaged in very few mentoring activities. I believe I have poor understanding of the events that may occur during practice. It may affect my professionalization of the nursing profession. I am on my way to developing as transformational leader.  In order to fulfill my aspiration as nurse associate, I have to fulfill my short and long-term goals as a part of professional development plan.     

Transactional Leadership

Every nurse aspiring to grow to hierarchical level in her career needs to have a professional development plan. The aim of the plan is to create the smooth transition from the present position as a nurse to nursing associate. According to Miraglia and Asselin (2015), professional development plan ensures the nurses to deliver high quality and standard services considering the ethical and the professional standards.

To fulfill my short term goals of pursuing nursing degrees, I have to gain high distinction in very assignments and presentations. It will help gain strong theoretical knowledge..  In future, my knowledge will help me to work by the scope of practice and processional standards.  Another short-term goal is to develop strong influencing nursing personality. I need to grab opportunities of displaying leadership skills. According to Coventry et al. (2015) participating in volunteering activities or CPD hours enhances professional skills such as good communication, team spirit, working on ongoing projects, set up meetings. It is the good way to build leadership experiences. I hope this process may help me gain transformational leadership skills. It is the opportunity to progress from student to a more professional position. According to Husebø et al. (2015), it is the gateway to deepen knowledge regarding planning, leading and implementing educational knowledge. Engaging in self-reflection will help understand how strengths act as contributor, irrespective of position. Reflection will help realise the weakness and understand personality dynamics.

My long-term goal is to develop competence in implementing the evidence-based practice. Engaging in research will enhance the critical thinking skills and spearhead the change from experienced based to evidence-based activities. It will help develop transformational skills as one can think innovative ideas to improve patient outcomes. Evidence-based practice will help develop into nurse leader as one equips themselves with skills and attitude necessary for change in practice (Barker and Ortega 2016).  Being the source of inspiration and role model for juniors is the way to future nurse leader (Gopee 2015). I believe it will give me the power to develop the transformational skills. In this process, I will develop effective communication skills, integrity, resolve conflicts, delegate and emotionally tune with other team members. Other long-term goal is to purse the advance nurse degree. I believe it will help me become the full partner in care provision. An advanced degree will foster deeper understanding of patient's health and illness. I will be able to better manage care as a member of interdisciplinary team by developing skills to work independently in emergency and family health care setting (Schultz and Götz 2016). 

References

Alharbi, A.Y., 2017. LEADERSHIP STYLES OF NURSE MANAGERS AND THEIR EFFECTS ON NURSE AND ORGANISATIONAL PERFORMANCE, ISSUES, AND PROBLEMS.

Arnold, E.C. and Boggs, K.U., 2015. Interpersonal Relationships-E-Book: Professional Communication Skills for Nurses. Elsevier Health Sciences.

Barker, J. and Ortega, M., 2016. Finding the evidence. Evidence-based Practice for Nurses and Healthcare Professionals, p.60.

Brewer, C.S., Kovner, C.T., Djukic, M., Fatehi, F., Greene, W., Chacko, T.P. and Yang, Y., 2016. Impact of transformational leadership on nurse work outcomes. Journal of advanced nursing, 72(11), pp.2879-2893.

Coventry, T.H., Maslin?Prothero, S.E. and Smith, G., 2015. Organizational impact of nurse supply and workload on nurses continuing professional development opportunities: an integrative review. Journal of advanced nursing, 71(12), pp.2715-2727.

Ellis, P. and Bach, S., 2015. Leadership, management and team working in nursing. Learning Matters.

Fealy, G., McNamara, M. and Casey, M., 2015. Leading contemporary approaches to nursing practice. Leadership and Nursing: Contemporary perspectives, p.117.

Gopee, N., 2015. Mentoring and supervision in healthcare. Sage.

Husebø, S.E., O'Regan, S. and Nestel, D., 2015. Reflective practice and its role in simulation. Clinical Simulation in Nursing, 11(8), pp.368-375.

Mah’d Alloubani, A., Almatari, M. and Almukhtar, M.M., 2014. EFFECTS OF LEADERSHIP STYLES ON QUALITY OF SERVICES IN HEALTHCARE. European Scientific Journal, ESJ, 10(18).

Meredith Belbin, R., 2011. Management teams: Why they succeed or fail. Human Resource Management International Digest, 19(3).

Miraglia, R. and Asselin, M.E., 2015. Reflection as an educational strategy in nursing professional development: An integrative review. Journal for nurses in professional development, 31(2), pp.62-72.

Schultz, J.S. and Götz, K., 2016. 4 Collaborative decision-making. Ethics and Professionalism in Healthcare: Transition and Challenges, p.39.

Thomas, T., 2015. Management and leadership for nurse administrators. Jones & Bartlett Publishers.