Essay on Clinical Leadership Text

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Our writers can help get your essay back on track, take a look at our services to learn more about how we can help. Essay writing service essay marking service place an order leadership has been defined in many ways within existent academic literature. For example, leadership is a process, involves influence, usually occurs in a group setting, involves the attainment of a goal, and exists at all levels faugier and woolnough, 2002. For instance, autocratic leaders set an end goal without allowing others to participate in the decision making process curtis, devries and sheering, 2011 , whereas bureaucratic leadership occurs in scenarios where a leader rigidly adheres to rules, regulations, and policies. In contrast, participative leaders allow staff to participate in decision making and actively seek out the participation of stakeholders within the decision. This type of leadership allows team members to feel more committed to the goals they were involved with formulating fradd, 2004.

laissez faire leadership leaves employees to their own devices in meeting goals, and is a highly risky form of leadership as faugier and woolnough 2002 further posit. Finally, a more effective form of leadership than those hitherto mentioned, may be situational leadership. This is where the leader switches between the above styles depending upon the situation at hand and upon the competence of the followers faugier and woolnough, 2002. According to moiden 2002 , theory represents reality, whereas style of leadership refers to the various ways one can implement a theory of leadership amp 8211 the way in which something is said or done. Organisations should, it follows, aim for a leadership style that allows for high levels of work performance, with few disruptions, and that is applicable in a wide variety of situational circumstances, in an efficient manner moiden, 2002.

Managers plan, organise and control, while leaders communicate vision, motivate, inspire and empower in order to create organisational change faugier and woolnough, 2002. Outhwaite 2003 suggests that transactional leadership involves the skills required in the effective day to day running of a team. However, transformational leadership also involves ensuring that an integrated team works together and may also benefit from the inclusion of innovativeness of approach in work outhwaite, 2003. For example, a leader can empower team members by allowing individuals to lead certain aspects of a project based on their areas of expertise. This will, in turn, encourage the development of individual leadership skills, which improve both the individual amp 8217 s skills and their future career prospects.

In addition, leaders should explore barriers and identify conflicts when they arise, and then work collaboratively with the members of their team to resolve these outhwaite, 2003. Furthermore, the leader should remain a part of the team, sharing in the work, thus remaining close to operations and being able to understand the employee amp 8217 s perspective, rather than being a leader who is distanced from the actual work of the team for which he or she is responsible outhwaite, 2003. Transactional leadership focuses on providing day to day care, while transformational leadership is more focused on the processes that motivate followers to perform to their full potential. Thus, the latter works by influencing change and providing a sense of direction cook, 2001. The ability of a leader to articulate a shared vision is an important aspect of transformational leadership, as faugier and woolnough 2002 observe. In addition, transactional leadership is most concerned with managing predictability and order, while transformational leaders recognise the importance of challenging the status quo in order to enhance positive possibilities within the project that they are delivering as faugier and woolnough, 2002 posit. One group of authors that have described the use of transformational leadership by magnet hospitals are de geest et al.

In so doing they discuss how the leadership style deployed within the hospitals allows for faith and respect to be instilled, the treatment of employees as individuals, and innovation in problem solving, along with the transmission of values and ethical principles, and the provision of challenging goals while communicating a vision for the future de geest et al. Transformational leadership is, as they further comment, especially well suited to today amp 8217 s fast changing health care environment where adaptation is extremely important, especially with regard to changing technologies and the seemingly ever increasing expectations of patients. In elucidating further, the authors cite a range of findings that this leadership style is positively associated with higher employee satisfaction and better performance. These, in turn, correlate positively with higher patient satisfaction de geest et al. One way to facilitate change using transformational leadership involves the use of action learning de geest et al. In this approach, leaders use directive, supportive, democratic, and enabling methods to implement and sustain change and the effects of such leadership enable better outcomes for both nurses and patients to be realised. Transformational leadership focuses on the interpersonal processes between leaders and followers and is encouraged by empowerment hyett, 2003.

Empowered nurses are able not only to believe in their own ability but also to create and adapt to change. When using a team approach to leadership, it is important to set boundaries, goals, accountability, and set in motion structural support for team members hyett, 2003. Transformational leadership is thus seen as empowering, but the nurse manager must balance the use of power in a democratic fashion to avoid the appearance of their abusing the power that they have been given welford, 2002. Finally, as hyett 2003 also notes, respect and trust of staff by the leader is essential for transformational leadership to work.

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Clinical governance is a new way of working in which e national health service nhs organisations are accountable for continuous quality improvement, safeguarding standards of care, and creating an environment in which clinical excellence can flourish moiden, 2002. The requirements of several recent uk government policies require that new forms of leadership that better reflect the diversity of the workforce and the community being developed. Since scott and caress 2005 noted this, leadership needs have continued to be strengthened and the need to involve all staff in clinical leadership further developed. Shared governance has been, as hyett 2003 notes, one method by which this goal has been realised. It has proven to be an effective form of leadership because it empowers all staff and makes them part of decision making processes, thereby additionally allowing staff to work together to develop multi professional care rycroft et al. In addition to the skills hitherto noted in the opening sections of this assignment, nurse leaders should have knowledge of management, communication, and teamwork skills, as well as a solid understanding of health economics, finance, and evidence based outcomes mahoney, 2001.

These core skills should ideally be further enhanced by the possession of a range of key personal qualities. Mahoney 2001 asserts that these are desirable in all nurse leaders and include competence, confidence, courage, collaboration, and creativity. Nurse leaders should also be aware of the changing environment in health care best practice and make changes proactively.

Leaders who show concern for the needs and objectives of staff members and are cognisant of the conditions affecting the work environment that also encourage productivity, as moiden, 2003 notes, which is important as it allows a philosophy of productivity to be established. According to jooste 2004 , the three pillars essential to a foundation of strong leadership are authority, power, and influence. It follows, therefore, that to be an effective leader in today amp 8217 s competitive environment, leaders should use influence more, and authority and power, less. It is more important, as jooste 2004 further notes, to be able to motivate, persuade, appreciate, and negotiate than to merely wield power and, in advancing this line of argument, the author cites three categories of influence for nurse leaders to use in creating a supportive care environment. These include: modelling by example, building caring relationships, and mentoring by instruction jooste, 2004.

2003 , be combined with the utilisation of five specific practices that are fundamental to good leadership: g inspiring a shared vision, enabling others to act, challenging processes, modelling, and encouraging. For example, a leader may challenge others to act by recognising contributions and by fostering collaboration. Such techniques are important because recognising contributions also serves to encourage employees in their work whilst team leadership moves the focus away from the leader towards the team as a whole mahoney, 2001. Hyett 2003 describes several barriers to health visitors taking on a leadership role and observes that visitors usually work in a self led environment, which causes problems because there may be no mechanism for self control or decision making at the point of service, amp 8212 thus stifling innovation.

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In addition, if nurses who do try to initiate change are not supported, they lose confidence and assertiveness and may feel disempowered and unable to support one another, which will lead to declining standards of motivation and may negatively impact upon patient care fradd, 2004. Management often focuses on the volume of services provided, leading to loss of self esteem and a rise in dependence this, as hyett 2003 recognises, may cause workers to become disruptive, or to leave the organisation, which culminates in organisational upheaval. Further, when staff leave as a result of feeling disempowered, replacements need to be found and trained amp 8211 which involves not only additional recruitment costs but training as new people are introduced into the culture of the organisation.

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As we are always expanding we are looking to grow our team of freelance writers. To find out more about writing with us then please check our freelance writing jobs page. In addition to the comments made by hyett, focus group data from a study of implementing change in a nursing home suggests that nurses want a leader with drive, enthusiasm, and credibility to lead them and to inspire them, for they do not merely want a leader who has superiority rycroft malone et al. Further, focus group members identified the qualities desired in a leader who is attempting to facilitate change. This person should have knowledge of the collaborative project, have status with the team, be able to manage others, take a positive approach to management, and possess good management skills rycroft malone et al. Nursing leaders function at all levels of nursing from the ward through to top nursing management.

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Over time, the function of leadership has changed from one of authority and power to one of being powerful without being overpowering jooste, 2004. Boundaries between upper, middle, and lower level leaders are becoming increasingly blurred, and responsibilities are becoming less static and more flexible in nature. In other words, there is a trend toward decentralisation of responsibility and authority from upper to lower levels of health care delivery jooste, 2004. An ongoing programme of political leadership at the royal college of nursing describes a multi step model for political influence large et al. Some of the steps include: identifying the issue to be changed, turning the issue into a proposal for change, finding and speaking with supporters and stakeholders to develop a collective voice, pinpointing desired policy change outcomes, and constructing effective messages to optimise communication large et al. These can be all be viewed as important for through learning them the nurse leader can adopt to the organisational expectations of the twenty first century nhs.