Nurse Leadership Skills And Attributes Needed To Motivate Nursing Staff And To Improve The Work (Essay Sample)

      NURSE LEADERSHIP SKILLS AND ATTRIBUTES NEEDED TO MOTIVATE NURSING STAFF AND TO IMPROVE THE WORK   Student’s Name   Course Professor University State/ City Date           Literature Review  In the health sector, the role of a nurse is increasingly becoming important in influencing the health care provision. Significantly, the nursing profession is increasingly becoming a sector to be leveraged within influencing the working environment and determining the outcome of healthcare (Chang, Liu, Yen, 2008, p. 86). As such, nurses are required to develop leadership skills to advance their ability to influence interpersonal relationships, work satisfaction, work retention, and motivation (Lephalala, Ehiers & Oosthuizen, 2008, p. 63). The purpose of this section is to carry out a systemic review of the literature on the leaderships skills and attributes that a nurse leader should have to effectively motivate nursing staff and to improve work.             It is uncontestable that nurses play a critical role in all settings and sectors of the healthcare systems. Ranging from the provision of inpatient care to primary health care and community-based care, nurses help in the delivery of health services across a range of settings (Cummings, Lee & Macgregor, 2008, p. 6). Since nursing and the role of a nurse in the health care system involve the provision of a wide range of overlapping roles, it is greatly associated with a stressful working environment that requires considerable professional and personal support (Jorm, White & Kaneen, 2009, p. 108). On the other hand, nurses are professionals who take a patient-centered and a holistic approach to the provision of care. They are thus involved in assessing, monitoring changes in the health status of patients, developing plans of care, evaluating patient’ s outcomes, supporting self-care of patients, and delivering clinical nursing interventions (Laschinger, Wong, Grau 2012, p. 549). This, therefore, implies that nursing is an interdependent sector of healthcare delivery system which is greatly integrated with another role of other practitioners. In healthcare delivery, nurses, therefore, play a frontline role.              Convincingly, the role of a nurse is critical identifying and effectively responding to the health status of patients, supporting them during care, and preventing adverse events (Lephoko, Bezuidenhout & Roos, 2006, p. 33). Due to this multifaceted nature of the nursing profession and the overlapping nature of their job description, nurses require motivation, support, and empathy from their nurse leaders (Li & Lambert, 2008, p. 14). On the other hand, nurse leaders are required to possess certain skills that help in the creation of a good working environment where nurses are effectively motivated to work and provide quality healthcare (Lindholm, 2006, p. 306). Collectively, these leadership skills and attributes of nurse leaders enhance improved work of nurses which translate to good and positive patient outcomes. Professionalism              Nurse leadership is required to help initiate the necessary strategic reforms and direction in the health system. Just like in any other level of the healthcare system the nursing leader in the psychiatric department of the healthcare system helps the subordinate nurses to deal with the challenges they face when delivering care to the psychiatric patients (Locke, Leach, Kitsell & Griffith, 2011, p. 179). The overarching principles that must guide nursing leaders in this wing of the healthcare system encompass the philosophy of patient-centered care and a strong and broad understanding of the healthcare system (Lu, While, & Barriball, 2007, p. 470). Similarly, a nursing leader is required to have a deeper understanding of the challenges that face the nurses who provide care to the mental health patients.              Due to the violent nature of the patients in the psychiatric wing of the healthcare institution, nurses are continuously exposed to working in stressful conditions which may interfere with their ability to deliver quality care to the patients (Lusardi, 2012, p. 59). This, therefore, calls for the nurse leaders to be conversant with the nature of the patients' behavior as well as their working environment to provide the necessary support and motivational factors to the nurses (Malloy & Penprase, 2010, p. 717). The leaders are, therefore, a link between the social, economic, and political context affecting the patients and the challenges they face at work environment. Nurse leaders are health professionals who have a broad understanding of the factors that influence the current health systems (Marriner, 2009, p. 23). They, therefore, help to develop strategies that improve the health outcomes of the patient and overall population by looking beyond daily challenges.             As such, the development and retention of the nurse workforce are the fundamental roles played by the nurse leadership (Marquis & Huston, 2009, p. 16). Nurse leaders also play a significant role in shaping the delivery of care and shaping the design of implementing changes in healthcare delivery (McHugh, Kutney-Lee & Aiken, 2011, p. 607). This encompasses the role of making the health care system both responsive and accessible to the needs of the patients (McCormack & McCance, 2006, p. 475). Importantly, the nurse leader creates an enabling environment where the nurse-patient relationship is enhanced to promote healthcare service delivery, a satisfied nurse workforce, and a positive outcome of the patients’ health outcome. Leadership Theory             Leadership is a multifaceted affair that has no specific definition but has significantly attracted a broad interest of research. In this vein, leadership theory has generated different approaches (Metcalfe, 2010, p. 168). About the trait approach, leadership attributes are personal traits which are engrained in the traits of an individual and that facilitate effective leadership (Morris, 2012, p. 31). On the other hand, the behavior approach underscores that leadership is focused on the good behaviors of a leader. According to the contingency theory of a leader, leadership is not determined by a specific set of values (Mrayyan & Al-Faouri, 2008, p. 248). This establishes leadership as the concept of interaction between a situation, the leader, and the leader's behavior or response to the situation. Also, the charismatic or transformational leadership approach (leader-member exchange) underlines leadership as a concept that is determined by the relationship between a leader and subordinates (Oliver, 2006, p. 39).  Despite the diverse definitions, one of the themes that seem to run in most of the definitions of leadership signifies that leadership is more about the ability to influence the feelings, behaviors, beliefs, and attitudes of other people (Muchinsky, 2006, p. 35). These theories of leadership can influence the nurse leader to significantly improve the working relationships of nurses and the working environment by motivating them (Nakasis & Ouzouni, 2008, p. 187). However, the use of transformational leadership is a common trait supported in most of the available literature (Nyathi & Jooste, 2008, p. 36). As such, in advancing nursing leadership, transformational leadership skills may also be the suitable choice for leading nurses in the psychiatric department. Transformational Leadership Skills             The role of a leader in the nursing context and profession is not necessarily to oversee the work of the subordinate nurses but to empower them and helping the work without supervision by helping them to understand the vision of the leader (Oginska-Bulik, 2006, p. 117). The working environment of the psychiatric wing of a health facility is quite challenging due to the unstable and unpredictable mental health conditions of the patients (Parkin, 2009, p. 24). In this vein, nurses need to be empowered to understand patients’ behavior and respond to situations accordingly without necessarily asking for guidance from the nurse leader (Patel, Beekhan, Paruk, & Ramgoon, 2008, p. 42). In the context of leadership, a transformational leader is guided by vision, ability to empower others, as well as the ability to create a bond with subordinates and followers based on trust, sharing, and inspiring them (Picker-Rotem, Schneider, Wasserzug, Zelker, 2008, p. 918). These qualities of transformational leadership have been the reason behind it being supported by any writers as the suitable leadership model to guide and direct nursing leadership to effectively motivate the subordinate nurses. This helps to promote the confidence and capability of the nurses thus improving their productivity and work. Nursing Leadership Skills             Although there is no definitive term nursing leadership, various studies examining the skills and characteristics of nursing leadership have described it as having the clinical expertise, business skills, adequate education, administrative competence, and a clear understanding of excellent leadership principles (Riley, 2009, p. 244). This implies that nursing leadership differs from other types of leadership because it most impo...