Introduction
In recent times, there have been many developments in the healthcare sector. Healthcare practitioners have been equipped with skills that enable them to serve the society in the most effective manner. Like in any other sector, the proper running of things in healthcare is reliant on the administration, leadership or management. The management or leadership in all health care settings has the responsibility of making sure that patient care meets the standard or the set objectives. Administrative duties include tasks such as coordination, decision making and injecting motivation to the workforce. This paper will close analyze different objectives of the healthcare system from personal experience as well as from a general perspective. The paper will incorporate different clinical synthesis information including leadership and the process of service delivery.
Nursing leadership philosophy
The evolution of healthcare practice has seen the emergence and adaptation of different leadership theories. However, research suggests that evidence-based practice is the most effective when it comes to care delivery. The philosophy incorporates all factors that redesign the healthcare system as per the recommendation of experts and evidence. It aims at improving the health sector to one that is efficient, safe and effective. Evidence-based practice has brought about a transformation of the health sector (Stetler et al., 2008). This transformation is characterized by initiatives that prompt healthcare practitioners to respond to routine healthcare duties and deliver satisfactory service. Since its incision, evidence-based practice has been central to almost every aspect of the healthcare environment. Both patients and health worker have successfully benefited from the theory in abundance. Hence, it is no doubt that its implementation has eased healthcare tasks.
Evidence-based practice integrates knowledge of various disciplines to equip nursing and healthcare workers with the most effective skills and awareness in the course of serving the society. This knowledge ranges from administrative decision making. Administration defines the culture of service delivery. This is followed by the adaptation of different healthcare units to this culture (Franz, 2007). Finally, the philosophy highly relies on professional experience and awareness. This entails the observation of a professional code of conduct as well as the incorporation of personal values and beliefs that make a positive impact on the provision of healthcare to patients. For instance, a nurse is expected to observe all protocol in attending to a patient using evidence practice and experience in order to deliver competent service. Indeed, evidence-based practice has promoted intervention systems that positively influence the delivery of care in the healthcare sector.
Role of a professional nurse leader
A professional nurse leader has several tasks and responsibilities. With the aim of providing a better quality healthcare, a nurse leader’s responsibility ranges from administrative duties that include planning and distribution of resources to exact professional roles. Involvement in the leadership position means that the nurse leader is charged with the biggest role in ensuring quality care delivery. Nurse leaders have to be actively involved in educating junior staff and equipping them with the skills that are relevant to the achievement of desired outcomes. In order to achieve this, it is ideal that the nurse leader be equipped with competent skills in the first place. This will enable them to disseminate and pass on such skills to the other staff members as they all attempt to provide quality services and essentially transform the healthcare sector. The duties such as monitoring and mentoring are instrumental for a competent nursing leader.
Synthetic theoretical Knowledge
The theoretical knowledge in healthcare leadership matters a lot in the quest to provide effective and efficient healthcare. Theoretical knowledge is based from science and humanity disciplines. Nurse leaders are exposed to a lot of theoretical information when they are undergoing training. However, in the nursing and general healthcare setting, experience rather than theoretical knowledge has proved to be vital. This is because experience is the best practice. Even after going through a course to attain various leadership skills, a nurse leader will remain incompetent in providing effective and quality service. This will continue until he/she has full gained the experience to deal with critical issues that arise in the healthcare environment. All in all, theoretical knowledge is equally important and useful since in creates the base for a nursing professional to learn more from practical experience.
Apart from the technical professional skills, nurse leaders are equipped with theoretical knowledge that facilitate the redesign and implementation of workflow. This knowledge includes but is not limited to the knowledge of business principles, technological aspects and environmental factors that facilitate nursing practice. First, technological knowledge is relevant especially in today’s world of advanced technology. A nurse leader is expected to make use of technological devices in the workplace to facilitate the provision of services. Therefore, they have to at least bear enough knowledge to operate simple devices, for example, those that are used in communication and disease diagnosis in the healthcare setting. As mentioned earlier, this knowledge will be learned better and effectively with time as a nurse leader gains experience. The business principle knowledge is also useful for the nurse leader since they will be in an administrative position. This means that they will be in a position to do some transactions that entail basic business principles.
Effective therapeutic techniques
The nurse’s manager roles are highly influenced by therapeutic techniques. These are the techniques of persuasion that the nurse managers employs in the course of nursing practice. Here, communication skills are very instrumental. In the theoretical course, nurse leaders go through effective communication training to enable them to be better placed in handling daily duties at the workplace. Good communication skills in the nursing context range from the ability to pass messages not only to patients but also to fellow workmates. The nurse manager instills motivation if he/she uses appropriate communication procedures or develops communication platforms that focus on the efficiency of group work. For example, a nursing manager can initiate daily or weekly staff meetings to put across sensitive information to the entire staff. In addition, the nurse manager can use memos to pass information or respond to claims that arise in the workplace.
When it comes to providing patient care, therapeutic techniques are necessary for creating good understanding and relationships between staff and patients. This entails the consideration of the patient’s welfare and privacy issues in order to make patients feel safe in the hands of the healthcare staff. In the clinical setting, patients often disclose personal and sensitive details to the staff hoping that the healthcare provider will utilize the information to help in the provision of care. The member of clinical staff has the responsibility to take care of every patient and also do so appropriately. He/she is expected to use therapeutic techniques all through. Such techniques include talking with a sense of humor, low tones and showing a willingness to serve the patient. This will make the patient demonstrate collaborative intentions hence making it easy for the healthcare providers to execute their duties.
Moral principles
Ethical issues and moral principles are essential in the healthcare sector. Nurse leaders are expected to demonstrate and engage in ethical reasoning while on duty. They should extend their obligation of leadership to monitor the healthcare staff and ensure that professional codes of conduct articulated by the profession are being observed. As taught in the theoretical course, the nursing fraternity involves work etiquette (McDaniel & Wolf, 2002). Starting from the nurse leader to the junior staff, nurses are expected to be ready to respond to all the patients’ needs regardless of personal and environmental factors. This means being ready to serve under any circumstances. The nurse leader should advocate regulation to monitor all staff members in the course of administering their duties, and when there is any breach of conduct, responsive action should be taken.
Confidentiality in the healthcare environment is another sensitive moral principle. The nurse leader has to initiate an environment whereby the healthcare staff observes confidentiality in their execution of duties. As mentioned earlier, patients disclose sensitive information about their health. Protecting such information will build an environment where respect and dignity reign between healthcare staff and patients. More so, nursing staff have to show tolerance and demonstrate humility when dealing with the ambiguity and unpredictability of healthcare needs. Some of the patient's needs are not easy to attend to, and unless the nursing staff is tolerant enough, they may not properly delegate their duties.
Legal parameters
In any profession, legal parameters define the policy and regulations that differentiate the profession from others. There are many legal considerations in the healthcare setting. For instance, nurses should be in a position to fully exercise the healthcare policy. This includes all areas associated with the profession including finance issues and the regulation. When it comes to logistics welfare, nurse leaders carry the responsibility of making sure that each and every staff member receives equitable and timely remuneration. This will highly motivate them and as a result, they will delegate their duties in the most effective and competent manner. When there is an issue about payments, nursing staff have to be aware and utilize the appropriate tools sand mechanisms in presenting their grievances.
Leadership and social-cultural environment
Healthcare leadership adherence to social factors is instrumental for effective patient care. This is because; the healthcare environment is characterized by enormous cultural diversity. Consequently, nurses and the entire health staff are required to attend to the needs of clients regardless of their cultural affiliation. However, the healthcare staff should be in a position to understand the various aspects of culture and the social life of the patients at their disposal. Then, they will be in better position to address the needs of each patient in accordance with their social and cultural affiliation. Cultural diversity among patients means that occasionally, the procedures used to disseminate care will vary from one patient to the other. The role of the nurse leader in regard to social cultural parameters is to educate the health staff about cultural diversity so that they can both be tolerant to these aspects and also be adequately equipped to handle patients of different cultural backgrounds. Adequate knowledge on the social-cultural environment knowledge will ensure that nurses perform their duties effectively and appropriately. Lack of social knowledge may lead to a communication struggle between healthcare staff and the community. This undermines quality service delivery.
Economic and political data
Nursing leadership should be in a position to synthesize both economic and political data of the community they serve. This is very vital in making sure that service delivery is effective enough. Economic factors may refer to the monetary constraints of the society. With the help of monetary analysis, nursing leadership will schedule the provision of services in response to the financial needs of the community so that they do not exclude any health care seeker in the process. There have been cases where the cost of healthcare is too expensive for locals to afford. The role of nursing leadership is to remove such barriers.
In regard to political concerns, the leadership has to be fully aware of the political situation and factors surrounding the health care setting. In the pursuit of high nursing outcomes, political forces determine the strategy and nature in which the nursing leadership can effectively adapt. For instance, when the political situation of the community is at a critical position, policymakers are tasked with the role of identifying and evaluating alternative strategies to make sure that healthcare delivery is not affected that much. Unless the leadership has adequate knowledge of the political situation, such issues may heavily hamper the delivery of high quality and effective care.
Conclusion
As discussed above, the nursing profession entails an understanding of diverse information. In order to achieve each the above stated objectives, nurse leadership in conjunction with the entire staff of a health care setting has the responsibility of identifying and enacting factors that are favorable to the execution of these objectives. It is only through collective effort that an efficient and effective healthcare system can be achieved. If every stakeholder takes care of their responsibility, the general healthcare sector will be vastly improved.
References
Franz, D. R. (2007). Clinical recognition and management of patients exposed to biological warfare agents. Jama-journal of The American Medical Association, 6, 13-23. doi:10.1001/jama.278.5.399
McDaniel, C., & Wolf, G. A. (2002). Transformational Leadership in Nursing Service A Test of Theory. Journal of Nursing Administration. doi:10.1097/00005110-199202000-00027
Stetler, C. B., Brunell, M., Giuliano, K. K., Morsi, D., Prince, L., & Newell-Stokes, V. (2008). Evidence-Based Practice and the Role of Nursing Leadership. Journal of Nursing Administration. doi:10.1097/00005110-199807000-00011
