Differing Roles and Approaches of Nursing Leaders and Nursing Managers
Differing Roles and Approaches of Nursing Leaders and Nursing Managers
Nursing leaders influence their followers to strive willingly toward achieving specific goals. Nursing managers are involved in planning, organizing, staffing, directing, and controlling staff (Amiri et al., 2020). Leaders advocate for transformation and mainly work with people. Conversely, managers rely on transactions and do not promote change (Gandolfi & Stone, 2018). Managers respond to change created by leaders and are interested in the process rather than individuals who bring change.
In this case, nursing leaders should be proactive in motivating other nursing staff. They should guide other nursing staff on being flexible and executing their duties despite the low staffing ratios. This can be achieved by interacting with the staff in their work areas. This exemplifies the role of leaders as motivators. Furthermore, nursing leaders should mobilize and encourage other nursing staff to be active participants in formulating policies that ensure nursing staffing ratios are optimal. Subsequently, they will be upholding a transformational approach. Nurse managers should modify and plan work schedules to ensure that nurses are not fatigued. They should delegate tasks to specific nurses at specific times and check to ensure that they are executed. They should engage with the healthcare facility administration to address the issue of low nursing staff. Accordingly, managers will fulfill their role of staffing and averting conflicts.
Ensuring Professionalism Through Diverse Health Care Settings
Leaders and managers can adopt various aspects to enforce professionalism. Training of staff should be conducted regularly. Nursing staff should receive additional skills that will enable them to manage the large patient population. This can involve emphasizing proper communication, using new medical technology, or handling patients’ complaints. Regular feedback should be provided: daily, weekly, monthly, or performance appraisals (Ingwell-Spolan, 2018). Feedback should correct any deviation from the norm. The other aspect is discipline. Failure to incorporate feedback warrants discipline. This should follow a specified order such as verbal warning, written warning, suspension, and termination. Discipline as a tool will make all staff comply with established guidelines and maintain professionalism.
Rewards can be used to encourage professionalism. Staff who demonstrate exemplary practices should be rewarded. Rewards motivate other staff and make them adhere to the established professional standards. Leaders and managers should develop and circulate and emphasize standard professional practices. Existing policies such as the ANA professional standards of practice should act as the template for those policies. Furthermore, managers and leaders should uphold high professional standards and ethics. This will increase the probability that their subordinates and followers will uphold professionalism.
Leadership Style to Address the Issue
A transformational leadership style can help address the problem of nursing staffing ratios. Transformational leadership entails motivating and inspiring followers (Amiri et al., 2020). This awakens the intrinsic drive of the employees to fulfill a specific task. This type of leadership strengthens leader-employee bonds and lowers staff turnover rates (Gandolfi & Stone, 2018). Nursing leaders should inform employees of the nature of the problem and guide them on how to cope. Motivating nursing staff will make them strive willingly towards ensuring quality care delivery to the patients. Also, staff with an innate drive to uphold nursing ethical standards and maintain professionalism throughout their work. Furthermore, by reducing the staff turnover rate, transformational leadership prevents the existing problem from worsening. This is in contrast to authoritarian leadership, which would have increased staff turnover rates and exacerbated the problem.
Conclusion
Nursing staffing ratios are an important aspect of the healthcare sector. The nurse-to-patient ratio is regarded as the most critical part of health care delivery. These ratios indicate the number of patients that one nurse serves. Transformational leadership style can help address the problem of nursing staffing ratios by motivating, inspiring, inducing the intrinsic drive, and reducing the staff turnover rate.
References
Amiri, N. Al, Rahim, R. E. A., & Ahmed, G. (2020). Leadership styles and organizational knowledge management activities: A systematic review. Gadjah Mada International Journal of Business, 22(3), 250–275. https://doi.org/10.22146/gamaijb.49903
Chowdhury, S., & Chakraborty, P. prat