The paper is based on nursing and the multiplicity of roles that are involved in nursing as a profession. The paper looks at the contemporary society in relation to nursing and the demands that it puts on the nurses and also highlights how nurses have of late adjusted to adopt to these changes and cope with the challenged.
Organizational Systems & Quality Leadership
Strategies that enable a nurse on an interdisciplinary team to exert leadership
Nurse leaders act as clinicians, managers and mentors to shape the future of healthcare and have positively impact patient care outcomes. Nurses are required to successfully collaborate with a number of other disciplines when it comes to providing and improving patient care. This means that nurses are required to exert leadership in an interdisciplinary team even if they do not occupy formal leadership positions. There are several strategies that can enable a nurse on the interdisciplinary team to exert leadership without occupying a formal leadership position; taking a leadership stance and being a role model. A Leader is a person that directs other people towards achieving a goal he or she is supposed to influence others positively and help them work towards achieving a common goal. A strong leader is one who does not join those who are complaining about a problem but instead take charge of the problem and try to come up with solutions. It is common and easy for employees to make complains of problems they experience within their work environments. However these complain and negativity towards the problem do not yield solutions instead they aggravate the problem (Jason, 1993).
This is where a leader can stand up with appositive attitude which turns the negative situation into a positive one. Leaders should also make other team members see how their ideas and knowledge can help in resolving the problem being faced making every team member feel their input is important regardless of the titles they hold which results to empowering of the individuals. Being a role model is also crucial because if other staff see a nurse doing the right things then it is more likely that they would also want to do the right thing.it is only human for people to follow by example and seeing someone strive for a better working environment or patient care will definitely motivate them to follow suit. Since the role of the interdisciplinary team is to provide healthcare to patients, even a nurse who does not hold a formal leadership position can help to achieve this through standing up and acting as a leader even if they are not formally one. A nurse in the interdisciplinary team should have on main goal which is to positively impact patient care outcomes (Jason, 1993).
C. The importance of a nurse being actively involved with an interdisciplinary team
An interdisciplinary team is a group of professionals who provide healthcare to patient's particularly primary care using a team approach. The interdisciplinary team consists of nurses, social worker, pharmacist, nutritionist and others. They all work together in a harmonious way towards achieving a common interest. It is therefore important for a nurse to be part of the interdisciplinary team in order for her to help in the development of team principles of cooperation, respect, commitment and the willingness to accomplish the shared goals. Nurses take an active role, contributing position in an interdisciplinary team through showing respect for other team members and provide the necessary resources required to accomplish goals. Since the interdisciplinary team constitutes of members from every aspect of healthcare it is mandatory for all members of the team to feel respected since they are all required accomplishing the goals. Nurses should be directly involved so that they can add input from their aspect of health delivery. Since patient care is solely the responsibility of nurses as they are continuous and visible presence at the side of a patient it is beneficial to everyone for the nurse to be directly involved in the interdisciplinary team. This is because they are at a unique position of providing leadership for patient education as well as capitalization on the strengths of each of the other disciplines for the ultimate benefit of patients.an important aspect of the nurse knowledge base is the understanding of the significant contributions other healthcare professional make when it comes to patient teaching (Euromed info, 2013).
D. Creation of a safe environment in a healthcare setting
The maintenance of a safe environment is a reflection of the level of compassion and vigilance for the welfare of patients that is just as important as other aspects of competent health care. For safety improvement to be achieved there is the need to learn about the causes of errors and use the knowledge to come up with systems of care that are safe. For a safe environment in a healthcare setting to be created the focus should be on the four characteristics of a culture of safety. The first characteristic is a psychological safe environment which is whereby people believe that if they make a mistake others will not think less of them or penalize them. There is also belief that people will not resent or punish them when they ask for help, information or feedback. Lack of knowledge can lead to accidents or mistakes within the healthcare environment. Therefore being guided and assisted can help prevent some of these accidents or mistakes as one will act on knowledge they have acquired from the inquiry.
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