Nursing leadership is a much debated and much talked about subject when it comes to the broader paradigm of nursing and its practice. When speaking about nursing leadership, the author has been asked to focus on a specific subtopic of nursing such as nursing shortages, nurse turnover, nurse staffing ratios and unit closures. The author of this report shall focus on nursing shortages. The author, per the assignment, will compare and contrast how the author would expect nursing leaders and managers to approach the selected issue. The assertions made in response to the question will be supported by rationale using theories, principles, skills, and roles of the leader vs. manager describing in the reading. There will be an identification of the approach that best fits the author's personal and professional philosophy and explain why it is best suited to the author's personal leadership style. While the impending nursing shortage is daunting, it can and must be dealt with because quality of care and the health of the overall healthcare system depends on it.
Analysis
There is no shortage of scholarly literature when it comes to the shortage of nurses that are available and the leadership challenges that must be met as a result. Indeed, one source, as authored by Byrne and Martin, engaged in a bit of research and they explored the relationship between leadership style or the nursing department head and the level of professional satisfaction not to mention organizational commitment that was realized due to and in light of the research style. Indeed, there is much to be said for a leader...
The study found that the three variables that matter most in keeping nurses satisfied and retained from an employment standpoint are the department head leadership, organizational commitment and professional satisfaction. If one or more of those metrics is faltering, then the retention of nurses at a facility will tend to falter as well (Byrne & Martin, 2014).
Another study about the subject focused on whether participative research reduces the overall risk of what is known as "mobbing risk." This study is directly related to the subject at hand because the two main factors focused upon as the study grinded on was the participative leadership style in general and whether (and to what extent) a nursing shortage existed in the situation being studied. The study notes that, shortage or not, there is a reduction in tension when there is a participative leadership style employed by the management within a nursing collective and team. However, it is also noted that this moderated leadership style is not a "fix-all" and that keeping proper staffing levels is also extremely important. In other words, the right leadership approach can mitigate issues caused by shortages and other nursing team maladies but it can only do so much a lot of the time (Bortoluzzi, Caporale & Palese, 2014).
Another topic that comes up quite easily when it comes to the nursing shortage is the fact that succession…
