Leadership synthesis and course concepts

Nursing Leadership, Management Theories, And Principles

Over the last several years, health care has been going through a leadership crisis. This is because of the increasing demand from shifting demographics in the population (i.e. The Baby Boomer becoming older) and the shortage of staff. The combination of these factors, mean that the traditional role of health care professionals is continually changing. In the case of nurses, these kinds of shifts are requiring greater amounts of leadership and the ability to work as liaison / manager.

Evidence of this can be seen with observations from Nagelkerk (2006) who observed, "Nursing is a service profession filling two basic roles care provider and care manager. In these roles, leadership is important to build teams, spark innovation, create positive communication and accomplish goals. This is crucial, because of the relentless change that is affecting the organization, delivery and financing of health care services." (Nagelkerk, 2006, pg. 1) This is illustrating how leadership is an important element, in helping to ensure that all nurses are providing the best treatment possible. To fully understand effective leadership / management theories requires: carefully conducting an exploration / analysis of these issues, implications on the practice and providing possible recommendations / conclusions. Together, these factors will offer the greatest insight as to how the role of nurses is changing and what approaches must be utilizing to adapt. This is when these ideas can be applied to real world health care environments (which will have an impact on the quality of treatment patients are receiving).

Exploration and Analysis

During the course of analyzing the ideas of leadership, there will be a focus on different terminal objectives. This will provide specific insights as to what techniques are most effective. Once this takes place, is when the best ideas can be utilized in a modern health care setting.

Synthesize knowledge from the humanities, natural, and behavioral sciences as a foundation for safe, client-centered nursing practice

The various subjects are indicating that effective leadership in nursing, means using an approach that will take all of the different philosophies into account. This is because effective leadership and management will requires nurses being good communicators, listeners and understanding a host of viewpoints. The combination of these factors necessitates that nurses must be able to use these concepts on regular basis. A good example of this can be seen with information provided by Benner (2010). She found that when these different philosophies are integrated together, nurses are providing more specific patient centered therapy. This is when the quality of treatment will improve by using these factors to understand specific circumstances impacting patients. (Benner, 2010, pp. 287 -- 312)

Incorporate leadership concepts and strategies in decision making for the provision of high quality nursing practice in a variety of settings.

The most effective strategy for decision making is to focus on a number of areas. The most notable include: reaching out to various stakeholders, setting the example, working with different departments to solve their challenges and having higher expectations from everyone. The combination of these factors will create an environment where basic principles can establish a foundation for everyone (who is working together in different health care settings). It is at this point there these ideas can be implemented. (Finkelman, 2012, pp. 363 -- 398)

Integrate evidence-based practice to promote critical thinking and clinical reasoning in the delivery of nursing care for clients.

Finkelman (2012) found that when flexibility and wide variety of ideas are used in conjunction with each other the underlying quality of care improves. This is because nurses are taught to always be open minded to new ideas. When this happens, they are able to more effectively relate to different viewpoints. This is when they can reach out to patients and other staff members (which increases the quality of care). (Finkelman, 2012, pp. 363 -- 398)

Evaluate the influence of nursing practice, nursing education and nursing research in the delivery of healthcare.

The combination of practices, education and research improves the quality of nurses. This is because each area is teaching them how to evaluate the situation from different perspectives. In a health care setting, this will assist them in deciding what treatment options can help to increase the type of care patients are receiving. This will reduce their recovery time and any kind of suffering. (Finkelman, 2012, pp. 363 -- 398)

Evaluate the influences of healthcare policy at local, state and federal levels.

The biggest influences of health care policy will be the popularity of particular programs, its impact on communities, the costs and their ability to deliver various services. The combination of these factors will have an effect on the kinds of funding that are provided and the enforcement of various regulations. (Wiener, 2003)

Integrate emerging information systems, processes, technologies, and methods to improve healthcare practice outcomes.

Integrating different systems, technology and methods will improve everyone's ability to communicate. The will reduce the chances that some kind of errors could occur. At the same time, it is setting a standard of quality that everyone can follow. Over the course of time, this will lead to improved practice outcomes from higher levels of quality and professionalism. (Finkelman, 2012, pp. 363 -- 398)

Collaborate with consumers, members of the multi-disciplinary health team, and others to improve management of diverse clients in a variety of settings.

The best way to collaborate with everyone is to reach out to different stakeholders. This will take place, with a series of discussions that will occur about the need to change and improve quality. Those who share similar convictions could be used as an ally in addressing the needs of diverse clients. When this happens, there will be new ideas that can be implemented into different strategies (which can be utilized in various health care settings). (Finkelman, 2012, pp. 363 -- 398)

Integrate health promotion and disease prevention strategies to improve health outcomes for clients.

The best way effective leadership can be used to improve prevention and outcomes is to establish protocols that everyone will practice. This will reduce the chances of mistakes by creating working foundation (which can be applied to different settings). Over the course of time, this will lead to positive patient outcomes. (Finkelman, 2012, pp. 363 -- 398)

Incorporate professional conduct, ethical, and legal responsibility for nursing practice.

Effective leadership and management will establish a foundation of monitoring and dealing with ethical challenges. This will create a working protocol that can be used to deal with professional, moral and legal issues. Once this takes place, is when a health care environment will be transformed by taking these ideas into account. (Finkelman, 2012, pp. 363 -- 398)

Evaluate the nursing process in managing nursing practice for culturally diverse client across the life span.

The nursing process begins by teaching clients, how they can take care of their health through: educating and informing patients. Over the course of their lifetime, is when this information will have an impact on their state of health. The leadership that is provided during this time will affect how enthusiastic clients are in addressing these issues. (Finkelman, 2012, pp. 363 -- 398)