Research Enhancing Professional Personal Power (Essay Sample)

Enhancing Professional/Personal Power
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Enhancing Professional/Personal Power
Power is impossible to eliminate from all elements of human life. In the professional nursing setting, power manifests itself in numerous and varying ways. The most prevalent form of power in my current healthcare organization is the expert power. By definition, the Expert ability is dependent on the credentials and expertise of the individual under scrutiny(Akioyamen, 2014). Most of the people exhibiting this kind of power live under the notion that their credentials and experience are only tools to affirm their power over others at the workplace.For example, older nurses assert their knowledge over all the interns and new employees to retain their position of influence in the organization.
The main factor contributing to the prevalence of expert power at healthcare organizations is the depiction of the medical profession in mass media, and the impact of this depiction on public perception. For example, media is a significant contributor to the notion that nurses are doctors’ maids and that they play a minimal role in sustaining the health of the patients(Hoeve, Jansen, & Roodbol, 2014). Although media depicts nurses as angels of mercy too, it also shows them with essentially no authority over many critical situations in the healthcare organization. The result is a misconception of nurses’ roles in the workplace and the profession of nursing as a whole.
To reduce the power gap that nurses in healthcare institutions face, I would want all members of hospital management to be wary of the hierarchy of power in the institution during any form of correspondence, especially with the lower faculty. Acknowledging the power structure in the hospital can help administrators to empower nurses in their caregiving roles(Spehar, Frich, & Kjekshus, 2014). Another strategy that nurses can apply to increase personal power is to further their training and enhance their expertise in all aspects of their profession through practice and educational training(Denis, Ferlie, & van Gestel, 2015). Overall, power is an inevitable...