Nursing
<Student>
Abstract
It is possible to sort out three major counter-productive actions that took place throughout the meeting (although there were much more). First of all, the meeting started with a formal recital of orders that were imposed on the task force, instead of democratically sharing the views of the new management on the possible review of policies with the selected professionals. Secondly, the topic of new uniform (or scrubs) turned into the public ostracism of the nurse due to her appearance, which is in fact an action punishable by law. The ad hominem accusations prevented the meeting from being more or less impartial and constructive (van Eemeren et al., p. 360). Finally, it is not reasonable to accuse the nurse of leaving the meeting early, as she was clearly insulted, however other team members demonstrated complete disrespect to the management by leaving at will or discussing irrelevant matters in the presence of the chairman. No matter how dull or unproductive the meeting might have been, there are lines that should not be crossed.
In the modern society, leadership, both on personal and professional scale, stands for something much more valuable than a simple ability to gain and maintain authority and occupy a higher hierarchical position than others. There is no true leader without analytical mindset, practical wisdom, responsibility and care for others. While some tend to take the matter of leadership formally and deduce it to a form of primal chiefdom, those involved in nursing should avoid this mistake at any cost.
Without strong and adequate leadership, stakeholders of any particular process do not merely lack the ability to organize their efforts in a mutually beneficial manner and maximize the outcome. People need to realize the justification of the cause that underlines their actions, as well as hear and get heard throughout the process. This is an important aspect that a true leader needs to consider, yet even this is not the entire picture.
In any team, in any group of people, there has to be a leader who needs to consider the following aspects of his or her duties:
Informal leadership. One may be a formal supervisor, yet there is no guarantee that people would perceive him or her as such. In order to lead, one has to win the people’s hearts and minds. There are may cases in nursing when more experienced specialists may have more practical authority than official supervisors (Blumenthal et al.,p.521).
Situational leadership. In a swiftly changing environment, there is a good chance that the person in charge would not be able to conduct the procedures, and the fittest candidate needs to take the lead. Besides that, the field of nursing, no mater how well researched it may appear to be, still has lots of blank aspects, and a leader often has to improvise, using his or her knowledge of medicine and people, in order to settle the emerging issues (Scott at al., p.77).
Transformational leadership. Nursing, like any other academic and practical subject, permanently evolves. A leader has to be able to adjust to the ever-changing environment, adopt for the change, and react respectively. Delegation of power, a word of advise from peers and subordinates, active browsing for the necessary data – all these steps, if administered wisely and adequately, usually result in a successful and timely adoption to the flexible and unpredictable environment (Doody et al.,p. 24).
These forms of leadership do not reflect the entire complexity of the issue, however they allow to prepare for the further analysis of a particular meeting and its outcomes. The following parts of the paper will include the overall assessment of the team work, as well as particular aspects of leadership in that given situation that might be potentially altered.
Team assessment
The team present on the video is a task force of a hospital, and it consists of representatives of various stakeholders – the management, doctors, nurses and volunteers. Members of the task force include people of various age, genders, professional and personal background. The purpose of the assembly is to set up a large-scale policy review, with the KPI being reviewing and updating 23 policies within two months.
The performance of the team, as shown in the video, is to be assessed from various points of view:
Ability to handle differences. The members of the team have different views on the format of the meeting, its agenda, timing and procedures, let alone the necessity of the meeting per se. The formal leader did not manage to help others overcome the underlying differences and therefore reach consensus. While she is obviously trying to maintain order and working atmosphere, it is nevertheless obvious that the gap between the views of participants only got deeper by the end of the meeting.
Maintaining team order. The failure to maintain team order is literally the root of all evils in this situation. People try to be heard and speak chaotically and simultaneously, therefore enhancing the atmosphere of uncertainty. The leader did not react promptly on politically incorrect and sexist statements of certain participants, which resulted in an untimely departure of the nurse. On the other hand, the whole meeting went so wrong, that even firm order would not have saved it.
Team cohesiveness. The team was atomized from the beginning, and the leader did not make any attempt to put the people back together. The team did not have a unified vision of the problem, on the opposite, they received brief and formal instruction from above, therefore disrespecting their own opinions.
Particular elements of the meeting
The meeting did not achieve its aim, therefore it would be really challenging to point out a particular positive action. It is possible to conclude, nevertheless, that the final decision of rescheduling the meeting was a very sound idea, although it should have been proposed almost at the very beginning, right after the discussion went south.
It is possible to sort out three major counter-productive actions that took place throughout the meeting (although there were much more). First of all, the meeting started with a formal recital of orders that were imposed on the task force, instead of democratically sharing the views of the new management on the possible review of policies with the selected professionals. Secondly, the topic of new uniform (or scrubs) turned into the public ostracism of the nurse due to her appearance, which is in fact an action punishable by law. The ad hominem accusations prevented the meeting from being more or less impartial and constructive (van Eemeren et al.,p. 360). Finally, it is not reasonable to accuse the nurse of leaving the meeting early, as she was clearly insulted, however other team members demonstrated complete disrespect to the management by leaving at will or discussing irrelevant matters in the presence of the chairman. No matter how dull or unproductive the meeting might have been, there are lines that should not be crossed.
The primary cause of dysfunction of the team right after it assembled is that the leader provided unreasonable and unrealistic conditions for the assembly, and later contradicted her own intentions by sinking in one narrow topic instead of assessing a bigger picture with the help of all other team members.
Although it was not the primary cause of dysfunction, age gap also played its role. There are scenarios that may be followed for the purpose of overcoming it and reaching a productive discussion. First of all, it is natural for well-bred persons to let senior and more experienced (both in terms of profession and life, in general) members speak first. The senior members, in their turn, are discouraged from taking all the space in the room, as they are explicitly expected to pay attention to what the younger generation has to offer (Kalisch et al.,p.3).
Apart from being a part of various generations, team members happened to be people of different backgrounds. Only two out of five members were directly related to medicine and nursing, while others were representing management, volunteers and concerned public. In order to achieve their goal and start working on the policy review, they first of all needed to speak the same language and share common terms (Nelsey et al.,p.201). In order to do so, they all had to perceive the task as timely, necessary and achievable. The leader failed to explain why it was time for change, she did not justify the tight deadline and never even tried to demonstrate the benefits that professionals in attendance would gain from the proposed changes. It was a typical dictatorship from above, and there is no wonder that the people felt insulted and started attacking each other. If understanding of change comes from within, there is no such thing as professional barriers.
Summary
There is a saying by Sun Tzu that most battles are won or lost even before they start. This means that proper preparation, tactical planning, training and motivation are responsible for victory to a far greater extent than particular actions of the commander on the battle field. The meeting in question is no exception.
The leader of the task force might have turned the meeting in a specimen of cooperation, mutual respect and highly effective interdisciplinary interaction.
The awkward scene with the nurse who had to leave the room in tears is also a mistake made by the leader. Once the discussion started to escalate in an unfavorable way, it had to be stopped. Matters of that kind have impact on the entire pool of stakeholders and should not deteriorate to a manhunt.
Last but not least, the leader failed to realize the mistakes she made, and the only solution she came up with by the end of the meeting was that it had to be rescheduled due to the lack of the quorum. Those who do not learn from their mistakes, no matter how painful they are, are destined to experience them over and over again.
While the video is nothing more than a sketch of a hypothetical situation that may occur not only at a hospital, but in any organization in any corner of the globe, it carries a very serious message. Every decision made in the field of nursing has long-lasting impact on the well-being and even survival of patients. A failure to achieve consensus on a simple and formal question of professional uniform may be extrapolated to other, far more urgent and significant matters, e.g. urgent suegery, intensive care or funding incentives. There is a risk that with a leadership style that was shown during the simulation, task force may decide to go in for personal counts with each other instead of concentrating on the community itself. The first and most important task of a leader is to grow and cherish the feeling of integrity and mutual understanding among employees, prove, often by personal example, that there are things bigger than personal ambitions. At a national scale it is called patriotism, while at a hospital it may be defined as integrity and cohesiveness.
The concept of one, unified mission is capable of miracles. People of various nationalities and generations, holders of advances degrees and blue collars tend to overcome minor disagreements and start working together for the common good. While it is common for many leaders to take it for granted that their subordinates already have the understanding of the corporate mission, in reality people need to be reminded about it at every convenience. This perception of the common mission also allows the leader to be treated as a part of the group rather than an external observer or commander. This alone would have changed the course of the meeting.
References:
Makaroff, K. S., Storch, J., Pauly, B., & Newton, L. (2014). Searching for ethical leadership in nursing. Nursing ethics, 21(6), 642-658.
Blumenthal, D. M., Bernard, K., Bohnen, J., & Bohmer, R. (2012). Addressing the leadership gap in medicine: residents' need for systematic leadership development training. Academic Medicine, 87(4), 513-522.
Scott, E. S., & Miles, J. (2013). Advancing leadership capacity in nursing. Nursing administration quarterly, 37(1), 77-82.
Doody, O., & Doody, C. M. (2012). Transformational leadership in nursing practice.
van Eemeren, F. H., Garssen, B., & Meuffels, B. (2012). The disguised abusive ad hominem empirically investigated: Strategic manoeuvring with direct personal attacks. Thinking & Reasoning, 18(3), 344-364.
Kalisch, B. J., & Lee, K. H. (2013). Variations of nursing teamwork by hospital, patient unit, and staff characteristics. Applied Nursing Research, 26(1), 2-9.
Nelsey, L., & Brownie, S. (2012). Effective leadership, teamwork and mentoring–Essential elements in promoting generational cohesion in the nursing workforce and retaining nurses. Collegian, 19(4), 197-202.
