Benchmark – Applying Leadership and Management Principles The purpose of this assignment is to analyze the various approaches nursing leaders employ when addressing issues in practice. Select an issue from the following list: workplace violence, workplace injury, unit restructuring, floating, nurse turnover, nurse staffing ratios, or use of contract employees (i.e., registry and travel nurses). In a 1,000-1,250-word paper, discuss the following: Describe the issue you selected. Provide data to support how this issue impacts the quality of care in the setting in which it occurs. Using research evidence for support, present one possible solution that could be implemented to address the issue. In your discussion, be sure to include financial considerations as they relate to implementation of the solution. Describe a leadership style that would best address the issue. Discuss how this leadership style compares to your personal leadership style. Compare two different leadership theories
Expert Answer and Explanation
Workplace Bullying
The selected issue to discuss in this essay is bullying. The act of purposely or maliciously frightening or harming another person is known as bullying (Jang et al., 2022). Bullying in the nursing environment refers to the deliberate act of threatening or causing harm to another nurse. Nurses face bullying from executives, patients, and fellow nurses in healthcare environments, much like in other jobs (Jang et al., 2022). Forms of bullying in nursing include name-calling, belittling, yelling at a nurse, shoving or pushing a nurse, blocking their way, and minimizing their efforts.
Bullying impacts patients in many ways. One of the ways is that bullied nurses are less likely to provide care because of their emotional state, and this can negatively impact patients’ outcomes. Bullying also increases nurse turnover in the healthcare sector (Yosep et al., 2022). One of the most common forms of bullying in nursing is physical aggression. Physical aggression as a form of bullying could cause the nurse physical injuries, which hinders them professionally. There is a nursing shortage when nurses cannot attend to their functions physically (Yosep et al., 2022).
Consequently, the available nurses have to cover the injured nurse’s shift, hence increasing their workload. An increased workload could lead to poor healthcare services being offered to patients because of fatigue, hence leading to negative health outcomes for the patients. Patients’ satisfaction can be impacted when they witness a nurse being bullied. According to Yosep et al. (2022), nursing bullying leads to lower patient satisfaction, which negatively affects them because they may feel that their preferred nurse is a bully or is bullied, hence lowering their expectations about the healthcare organization and their healing process.
Solution to Address Bullying Among Nurses
Bullying in nursing can be addressed by educating the nurses and implementing a zero-tolerance policy regarding bullying in the workplace or online among staff within the organization. Nurses who harass and intimidate other people should not be tolerated. Establishing clear guidelines ahead of time on the reporting and handling of bullying establishes expectations for all nurses (Yosep et al., 2022). It conveys the idea that nurses should be treated with respect and safety at work.
A zero-tolerance policy for bullying means that when a nurse reports that another colleague is bullying them, the management should take the report seriously and start investigations. If found guilty, the nurse who bullied others should be suspended without pay, and if the act injured the victim, the case should be forwarded to the police for criminal investigations to be opened (Yosep et al., 2022). Nurses should be educated about the policy and made aware of the consequences of bullying others. Implementing this solution will not harm the hospital’s finances since less financial action is needed to address the problem.
Leadership Style Effective in Addressing Workplace Bullying
The leadership style that can be effective in addressing workplace bullying is transformational leadership. It is known as a leadership style that affects both social institutions and individuals (Niinihuhta et al., 2022). In its perfect state, it transforms followers into leaders by bringing about significant and constructive change in the followers.
Transformational leadership prevents workplace bullying by promoting open communication and engagement between workers and motivating workers to achieve greater heights. Through open communication, nurses who are being bullied can have the courage to face their leaders and report on their experiences in the workplace.
Also, when all nursing staff feel respected, they will be less likely to bully their colleagues. Transformational leadership also fosters collaboration among nurses. Nurse managers who practice transformational leadership often promote teamwork among their nursing staff, increasing positive relationships among the staff, thus reducing workplace bullying (Niinihuhta et al., 2022).
This leadership style is also anchored in a well-functioning feedback process, creating an environment where staff can safely report any forms of bullying, they are experiencing. Lastly, transformational leadership promotes safe idea-sharing (Niinihuhta et al., 2022). Workers who feel safe sharing their ideas are more likely to report any form of bullying they experience in the workplace.
How Transformational Leadership Compares with My Leadership Style.
As a transformational leader, I actively solicit feedback and engage in collaborative goal-setting with staff rather than taking a top-down approach (