LEADERSHIP THEORIES IN NURSING PRACTICE – assignmenthandlers
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The Impact of Leadership Behaviors in Creating Healthy Work Environments
The world needs effective, visionary, and wide leaders to advance effective healthcare for society. (Broome & Marshall, 2021, pg. 3). Healthcare is constantly changing, which brings forth the need for leaders who can work with various health systems and in many different healthcare settings. Leaders are needed to transform healthcare systems, create solutions, collaborate with other leaders, improve patient care, and to inspire the next generation of healthcare leaders. (Broome & Marshall, 2021, pg. 4).
One key insight that stands out to me by Mudallal et. al (2017) is that leadership is considered a key factor in creating workplace empowerment and maintaining a positive workplace. Many nurses have been forced to work as leaders, rather than leading in a position where they are experienced and trained in. Workplace empowerment pertains to an employee’s ability to access necessary information, resources, and support to perform their duties. The influence of leader empowering behaviors can improve nurses job satisfaction, quality of care provided, and reduce the level of nurse burnout. Mitigating the impact of burnout is key in improving nurse satisfaction to improve quality of patient care and decrease turnover rates (Mudallal et. al., 2017).
Another key insight is how health-promoting leadership focuses on identifying leadership behaviors that positively influence the working environment (Jimenez, et. al., 2017). Creating positive working conditions that enhance and support employee health are important factors of health-promoting leadership. The authors also state that the six areas of work life that hold the highest organizational risk factors for burnout are community, control, fairness, reward, values, and workload. These work life factors are the key aspects of health-promoting leadership to have a positive effect on employee health and create a healthy working environment
Leadership Through Example
I worked with a wonderful leader during my first travel nursing contract. My favorite charge nurse taught me so many useful clinical skills. Instead of performing skills himself that he could have easily completed quickly, he would always take the time to teach me how to do it myself. For example, I had a patient that required a nasogastric tube placement. I was very quick to ask him to do the task and told him that I was not comfortable and had a bad experience in the past, which resulted in a negative patient outcome. He listened to me, but assured me that with the correct skills, the task would be performed correctly. He told me that he no longer wanted me to feel unconfident in this skill and that we would perform it together. First, he educated me with the policy and a video to review, if possible. Then, he allowed me to perform the skill, hands on, while instructing me through the process.
Extent of Effectiveness and Practice Impaction of the Workplace
The leadership skills demonstrated by the charge nurse at my travel contract was greatly effective in inspiring me to learn and perform duties outside of my comfort zone. He never made me feel embarrassed for not knowing something, but instead he gave me courage and satisfaction from the knowledge I gained during my contract. This leader gave me support in accessing the resources and information necessary to perform my job to the best of my ability. He empowered me to be a better nurse, which improved the care I provided to patients and increased my base of knowledge. Improving my skillset and the care that I provided to patients led to improved satisfaction in my job and career as a nurse. Due to the satisfaction and comfort I felt at this workplace, I extended my contract and continued providing nursing care at this facility.
References
Broome, M., & Marshall, E. S. (2021). Transformational Leadership in Nursing: From Expert
Clinician to Influential Leader (3rd ed.). New York, NY: Springer.
Jiménez, P., Winkler, B., & Dunkl, A. (2016) Creating a healthy working environment
with leadership: the concept of health-promoting leadership, The International Journal of
Human Resource Management, 28:17, 2430-2448, https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2015.1137609Links to an external site.
Mudallal, R. H., Othman, W. M., & Al Hassan, N. F. (2017). Nurses’ Burnout: The Influence of
Leader Empowering Behaviors, Work Conditions, and Demographic Traits. Inquiry : A
Journal of Medical Care Organization, Provision and Financing, 54, 46958017724944.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0046958017724944Links to an external site.
