Introduction
Nurse leaders carry significant responsibilities since their role is to mentor the nursing community in order to improve the general quality of treatment within a given healthcare environment. Although there is no specific definition of the exact duties of nurse leaders, the name is self-explanatory as it covers different variations of responsibilities related to the enhancement of the quality of nursing through leadership principles. Hence, the significance of a respective position is evident due to its various efficient measures that are directed at the development of the healthcare system.
Discussion
The nurse leader whom I chose to interview does not have a distinguished official leadership role. However, they are considered to be a highly experienced and well-educated nurse with the longest recognized period of time dedicated to nursing responsibilities. Therefore, they are considered Senior Nurses, and their basic work duties include the mentorship of other nurses and the general management of the efficiency of nursing care within their healthcare environment.
During their medical career, they have experienced numerous healthcare settings, and for the past few years, they have grounded themselves within the environment of a private hospital. Thus, their role in this hospital consists of treating the incoming patients and providing them with a high-quality service in order to ensure their quick recovery. Since the hospital itself is specialized in different types of treatment and is big in terms of the overall size of the building, the number of staff is just as large. This way, the leader nurse carries an impactful responsibility of managing the quality of work of numerous people, and it determines their ability to focus on the big picture and to be able to come up with sufficient decisions operatively.
Among numerous responsibilities, the leader nurse ensures that the nursing staff members apply evidence-based practices in a way that contributes to the positive and effective treatment experience of the patients. The most important part of applying evidence-based practices is the contribution to the enhancement of the level of services that the hospital is able to provide. The success of the development is majorly dependent on the way the nurse leader is capable of directing staff members toward certain responsibilities, offering support and mentorship along encouraging a higher level of education within the applied field of medicine.
One of the most prominent examples within the experience of a chosen nurse leader in the area of evidence-based practices is the development of proper infection control in the hospital environment. Infection control is generally characterized by the maintenance of the system that prevents the spread of any possible infections and provides efficient options for operative diagnosing and further proper management of infections (Stone et al., 2018). It is majorly reached through inspecting the sanitary norms and responding quickly and analytically to any possible contamination risk. This way, the staff members are capable of preventing the infections from widely spreading within the territory of the whole hospital.
The nurse leader’s duty to manage the coherence of the general actions of other nurses requires them to have a detailed idea of how to manage infection control properly. Essentially it means that the nurse leader has to be well-educated in the field of a given evidence-based practice in order to be able to come up with valuable strategies and measures. Thus, the first and one of the most important steps within the process of implementation of an evidence-based practice consists of ensuring that the leader figure within the body of staff members has access to the proper education that creates a stable and reliable base for further operations (Alatawi et al., 2020). It can be reached by the general educational reform within the medical field, or by the factual learning opportunities in a workplace.
The chosen nurse leader was a perfect candidate for organizing and managing the implementation due to the excellent level of their education and the existence of previous related experience. This way, the step that covers the education of a leading figure was fulfilled by the previous experiences of the nurse leader. However, in order to efficiently implement evidence-based practice like this, education becomes a crucial part of the whole body of nursing staff. Therefore, the nurse leaders applied their own knowledge within the field of infection control to the process of mentoring their colleagues in order to reach the most productive and skillful outcomes.
Since proper infection control procedures require advanced knowledge of sanitary manipulations, prevention measures, and various quarantine norms, the leader nurse organized a number of lectures that covered the following topics. Moreover, they made sure that the nursing staff members were able to apply their knowledge properly by managing their activities and advising them to focus their attention and skills on specific areas of infection control. Step by step, the hospital has successfully implemented advanced measures of infection control due to the efficient community work and the dedication, responsibility, and knowledge of the leader nurse.
Treatment of patients requires various ethical considerations that could potentially lead to the enhancement of the services offered by the hospital. In the context of infection control specifically, the main ethical aspect that the leader nurse had to address was the treatment of infected patients who could potentially spread the diseases. The main question that had to be solved was the organization and management of efficient quarantine that would prevent further contamination and that would be effective for the patients as well. Considering both factors, the leader nurse and the colleagues decided to address the task by providing a separate quarantine environment for each potentially diseased patient. Although it would have been easier to put all potential safety hazards in the same place and separate it from the rest of the hospital, the ethical part of the question made the leader nurse make a different decision. Providing separate rooms to each patient reduces the chances of forced continuation of infection by being continuously exposed to other sources of infection. Thus, the ethical part behind this regulation was to ensure the natural course of the recovery without additional risks.
Conclusion
In the end, evidence-based practices have a significant impact on the healthcare system in general. Since the infection control focus originates from the intention to advance the treatment of the patients through guaranteed scientific methods, the outcomes of the successful implementation are very impactful. Nursing care becomes more enhanced due to the detailed specifications encouraged by the sanitary requirements, and the delivery of it ensures a better experience for the patient and lower chances of getting infected in the shared spaces in the hospital. Moreover, with more advanced infection prevention strategies the patients are more likely to recover faster without any possible complications. Finally, a productive implementation of infection control within a hospital extends the treatment opportunities for the patients and increases the general demand for its services due to the recognized quality. This way, evidence-based practices guarantee a more detailed approach to the treatment of the patients.
References
Alatawi, M., Aljuhani, E., Alsufiany, F., Aleid, K., Rawah, R., Aljanabi, S., & Banakhar, M. (2020). Barriers of implementing evidence-based practice in nursing profession: A literature review. American Journal of Nursing Science, 9(1), 35-42. Web.
Stone, P. W., Herzig, C. T., Agarwal, M., Pogorzelska-Maziarz, M., & Dick, A. W. (2018). Nursing home infection control program characteristics, CMS citations, and implementation of antibiotic stewardship policies: a national study. INQUIRY: The Journal of Health Care Organization, Provision, and Financing, 55, 1-7. Web.