Introduction
In the environment of the contemporary global community, the use of a diverse leadership model (DLM) is especially important for nurses since it supports the idea of multiculturalism, provides additional opportunities for resource allocation, and promotes innovative thinking (Komives & Wagner, 2016). Therefore, to ensure the successful management of diverse patients’ needs, a nurse should use the DLM in a healthcare setting. The concepts of effective leadership in nursing care are both basic and complex. On the one hand, leadership in nursing requires promoting mostly two phenomena, which are communication enhancement and quality improvement. However, the specified notions are comprised of an array of elements that make the promotion of improvement difficult. For instance, a nurse has to adhere to the principles of ethics to retain professional integrity and provide patients with the required degree of safety. Furthermore, the characteristics of leadership such as commitment, honesty, and innovativeness can be promoted actively with the help of the DLM.
Strengths and Weaknesses
Like any other leader, I have several advantages that make me an asset to patients, as well as several disadvantages that require further self-improvements. However, one should keep in mind that certain personality traits might seem as problematic from one theoretic leadership perspective yet interpreted as beneficial from another. Therefore, when reviewing my personal qualities, I need to utilize them to maximize my performance and ensure that all character traits are used to patients’ benefit. In the past, the ability to use innovative approaches helped me produce the required results within the shortest amount of time possible. Also, the focus on a logical argument allowed me to address some of the myths that affected patients’ behavior negatively.
For example, from the Transformational Leadership Model (TLM), my approach toward managing nursing issues can be described as professional and effective. Particularly, with a close focus on innovation, the active promotion of quality improvement, and emphasis on patient education, my TLM strategy is bound to lead to improved patient outcomes (Komives & Wagner, 2016). Therefore, the ability to promote change can be deemed as one of the most important assets of mine.
However, when using the Charismatic Leadership Model (CLM) as the prism through which one’s choices as a leader are explored, one will have to admit that I do not have the passion required to ignite other people’s enthusiasm and, thus empowering them to change (Komives & Wagner, 2016). Instead of appealing to their emotions, I tend to use logic and reasoning, which is a sensible step to take in a nursing environment, yet a bit of emotional appeal could also lead to a significant improvement. It should also be noted that several potential biases need to be addressed. For instance, the self-assessment process is admittedly subjective, which means that it may fail to represent my leadership style fully. Specifically, I may have ignored some of the flaws that I have as a leader. Therefore, further independent analysis is required.
Leadership Characteristics: Enabling Change
The promotion of improvements within a nursing setting becomes possible once one uses specific leadership characteristics that evoke motivation in staff members and patients alike. Particularly, a nurse leader (NL) needs to prompt the willingness to change, adapt, improve, and educate oneself and others, including nurses and patients (Komives & Wagner, 2016). By using the tenets of the DLM, one can introduce a nursing philosophy based on promoting change and unceasing improvement. Particularly, the NL should place a very heavy emphasis on interdisciplinary collaboration and patient-nurse communication in a multicultural setting, thus encouraging the staff to develop new skills.
The DLM framework also has the potential of launching self-directed education, which is especially important in the contemporary diverse environment. The specified strategy should be the focus of my leadership process since it will lead to a rise in motivation rates among the target audience. As a result, I will promote change actively by using the specified strategy. Moreover, I will finally develop the skill of negotiating that will allow me to improve patient outcomes significantly. Particularly, the use of DLM will lead to the development of a better understanding of cross-cultural conflicts and, thus the skill of negotiating more efficiently (Komives & Wagner, 2016).
Consequently, I will be able to encourage professional growth in nurses by appealing to their unique characteristics and at the same time promote interdisciplinary cooperation. I already have a record of promoting change in a community. Specifically, I used once social networks to shed light on the problem of obesity within my community. By using logic and appealing to a wide demographic, I managed to convince several people to adopt a healthy lifestyle.
Leadership Characteristics: Collaborative Relationships
Interdisciplinary cooperation is a crucial component of the successful management of patient’s needs, which the DLM framework is expected to encourage. By creating the environment in which multicultural interactions are enhanced, a DLM leader can promote communication between a nurse and other healthcare experts, particularly, physicians. As a result, health-related issues will be assessed from different perspectives before a solution is produced, which will lead to the design of more effective strategies for managing patients’ needs (Dang & Dearholt, 2017). When I previously used the principles of collaborative leadership, I managed to convince nurses from different backgrounds to stop conflicting and focus on patients’ needs. Afterward, these nurses agreed to set their differences aside.
The introduction of self-directed education principles in the nursing setting is bound to cause an increase in the nurses’ willingness to acquire new knowledge and share their one with others. Consequently, the active promotion of interdisciplinary collaboration, as well as cooperation among nurses within a single disciplinary setting, will occur. Thus, the specified leadership characteristic is directly tied to the promotion of collaborative relationships. Similarly, the ability to negotiate and resolve conflicts will lead to smoother communication among nurses and physicians, as well as among nursing experts in any other interdisciplinary setting. As a result, cooperation between nurses from different departments will thrive. Furthermore, the specified environment will allow me to develop another two leadership characteristics that I have always wanted to acquire. These include the ability to inspire others and encourage creativity in the workplace. The leadership characteristics mentioned above will help me motivate staff members to an even greater extent, thus transforming their attitude toward the nursing practice and helping them fulfill their potential.
Principles of Ethical Leadership
The issue of ethics in nursing is, perhaps, the most complex and difficult subject to tackle. With the focus on patients’ needs, a nurse has to ensure that a patient’s decision should be the priority, yet it is also essential to act with the best intentions regarding the health-related needs of the specified population. Seeing that the two may not agree, an ethical dilemma becomes a frequent element of a nurse’s job (Mannix, Wilkes, & Daly, 2015). Therefore, beneficence and autonomy can be seen as crucial components of nursing leadership ethics.
As my previous experiences show, the DLM provides extensive opportunities for resolving the specified dilemma and addressing both of the suggested ethical principles. As a nurse, I managed to provide patients with information that would help change their minds and convince them to accept the proposed treatment. For instance, a patient that was under a threat of developing diabetes agreed to change his diet after several consultations. Furthermore, past studies point to the fact that the use of patient education techniques may even encourage the active collaboration between a patient and a nurse, leading to the enhancement of self-directed patient education (McInnes, Peters, Bonney, & Halcomb, 2015). Therefore, patient education and the promotion of patient-centered values among nurses as the platform for further decision making are the two strategies that will help a nurse maintain ethical integrity.
There is much room for personal growth in the specified area. Specifically, the experience in question will provide an opportunity to gain better insight into other cultures. Thus, I will discover opportunities for personal growth. Furthermore, a new approach toward conflict management will make me view workplace confrontations not as immediate obstacles but as the situations that can help understand one another better. Thus, conflicts will be used to derive important lessons from them. I can prepare myself for this process by introducing a shift in values to the selected nursing setting.
Diversity and Inclusion: Employee Relationships in Healthcare
Although motivation and conflict management are admittedly important components of successful performance in healthcare, another aspect of leadership in nursing should be considered closely as well. Particularly, the concept of inclusion has to be promoted within the realm of nursing and healthcare to improve relationships among staff members and contribute to an increase in the quality of patient-nurse communication (Norouzinia, Aghabarari, Shiri, Karimi, & Samami, 2016).
A specific example of how diversity can affect the quality of nursing is the article that I have recently heard. After being placed in the context of a culturally diverse community, a team of nurses failed to recognize the source of a local health concern because they were unaware of the cultural factors and traditions within the target community. However, after recruiting nurses from the local healthcare facilities and starting a dialogue with them, the team in question realized that the propensity toward certain health-related myths and the lack of tools for patient education made the rise in disease contraction levels so high (Øye, Mekki, Jacobsen, & Førland, 2016). After several weeks of a collaborative effort, a program for building awareness among the target population was designed and implemented successfully.
Developing and Leading a Diverse Team
Although requiring further shaping an improvement, my current leadership characteristics can serve as the platform for creating a team of diverse experts and managing it in a way that will ultimately lead to success. For example, the focus on innovation, which I maintain consistently, will empower a team of nurses to acquire new knowledge and skills. Thus, the process of interdisciplinary collaboration will be launched in the specified team. The team member will also feel inclined to engage in self-directed learning as a part of their professional growth. The specified team policy will allow creating a stronger bond between a nurse and a patient since it will invite a nurse to learn more about patients’ backgrounds and shape the nursing approach respectively (Hsu, Chang, & Hsieh, 2015). Also, the promotion of innovation will empower nurses to manage patient data more effectively by learning to use the latest information management tools. The specified outcome is tied directly to another leadership characteristic of mine, which is the ability to encourage quality improvement. Becoming motivated to increase the quality of their services, nurses will learn to use innovative solutions to address patients’ needs.
Research Skills and Critical Thinking in Leadership
Apart from the qualities described above, the success of a leader also hinges on one’s research skills and critical thinking. The ability to use the available information to build a coherent leadership approach, as well as motivate staff members to improve the quality of their service and increase the depth of their knowledge, is linked directly to a leader’s research skills and critical thinking. Combined with research skills, critical thinking helps a leader to determine credible information and select the solution that will lead to the best possible outcome in a particular scenario. Thus, both are necessary for managing a diverse team of experts. Critical thinking will serve as the basis for evaluating the available options when handling a certain problem.
Conclusion
Being a leader is an acquired skill that needs to be developed and improved consistently, especially in a nursing setting. Herein the importance of DL lies; the suggested framework provides extensive opportunities for motivating staff members to explore their potential as experts and acquire new knowledge and skills. Furthermore, the approach toward conflict management will be redesigned entirely to provide constructive information about handling cross-cultural communication. The specified changes will ultimately lead to a rapid rise in the quality of nursing services and an increase in the instances of successful recovery. Therefore, the adoption of a strategy based on a diverse model is crucial to the promotion of patients’ well-being.
References
Dang, D., & Dearholt, S. L. (2017). Johns Hopkins nursing evidence-based practice: Model and guidelines (3rd ed.). Indianapolis, IN: Sigma Theta Tau.
Hsu, L. L., Chang, W. H., & Hsieh, S. I. (2015). The effects of scenario-based simulation course training on nurses’ communication competence and self-efficacy: A randomized controlled trial. Journal of Professional Nursing, 31(1), 37-49.
Komives, S. R., & Wagner, W. (2016). Leadership for a better world (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Jossey-Bass.
Mannix, J., Wilkes, L., & Daly, J. (2015). ‘Good ethics and moral standing’: A qualitative study of aesthetic leadership in clinical nursing practice. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 24(11-12), 1603-1610.
McInnes, S., Peters, K., Bonney, A., & Halcomb, E. (2015). An integrative review of facilitators and barriers influencing collaboration and teamwork between general practitioners and nurses working in general practice. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 71(9), 1973-1985.
Norouzinia, R., Aghabarari, M., Shiri, M., Karimi, M., & Samami, E. (2016). Communication barriers perceived by nurses and patients. Global Journal of Health Science, 8(6), 65-74.
Øye, C., Mekki, T. E., Jacobsen, F. F., & Førland, O. (2016). Facilitating change from a distance–a story of success? A discussion on leaders’ styles in facilitating change in four nursing homes in Norway. Journal of Nursing Management, 24(6), 745-754.