Nurse as a Leader: Reporting the Quiz Results
Although it has been confirmed by numerous studies that leadership skills are not hereditary and can be fostered successfully, being at the helm of a team is a nonetheless challenging task (Cherry, 2016). The absence of the ultimate leadership style that is the be-all and end-all of any project and the following need to be flexible in the choice of the leadership style is, perhaps, the greatest challenges that one may face in the identified area. As a rule, people tend to follow a specific leadership approach (i.e., an authoritative, democratic, or delegative one (Cherry, 2016)). However, it is the combination of the two and the use of a situational approach that defines a wise leader and allows creating the premises for project success.
My test results showed that I have a strong propensity toward using the democratic approach. The identified result was retrieved after option “b” had been chosen for every multiple-choice question in the test. According to the description of the said leadership style, if places a heavy emphasis on participation and cooperation as the primary tool for decision-making and problem solving: “Input from group members with specialized knowledge and expertise creates a more complete basis for decision-making” (Cherry, 2016).
The description provided above fits my concept of leadership quite well since it implies that cooperation and efficient communication should become the basis for decision-making. I believe that collaboration and promotion of initiative among the participants is crucial for the successful identification of the solution. Particularly, interdisciplinary communication is likely to improve the quality of nursing services significantly (Cherry, 2016). Therefore, I approve of the idea of using a democratic leadership style in nursing.
Attributes of a Leader: What Graduate Nurses May Need
As stressed above, the emphasis on interdisciplinary collaboration should be the focus of a graduate nurse when addressing patients’ needs. The identified need is defined by the consistent rise in the diversity levels among the patients. Therefore, to meet the needs of a specific audience, nurses will have to consider an array of sociocultural factors, as well as other issues that may affect the patients’ well-being; hence the necessity to consider problems from different angles and introducing the interdisciplinary approach into the identified setting (Taplay, Jack, Baxter, Kevin, & Martin, 2014). In other words, democratic leadership must be used as the primary tool.
Furthermore, the fact that workplace burnout rates are the primary reason for concern in nursing should be brought to attention. Seeing that nurses face an increasingly large number of challenges when tending to the needs of the diverse population and meeting a very tight deadline, it is crucial to maintain engagement and motivation levels among nurses high (Taplay et al., 2014). Hence, a nursing leader must focus on assigning roles and responsibilities to the staff members reasonably. The application of the transformational leadership principles should be viewed as the means of accommodating nurses and helping them feel comfortable about the new roles, responsibilities, and challenges that they are likely to meet in the multicultural environment.
Thus, a true nursing leader must develop the characteristics that will allow them to make decisions fast and efficiently. Furthermore, the significance of conflict management needs to be borne in mind. Therefore, the gravity of adopting the appropriate negotiation skills needs to be added to the list of essential attributes of a true nursing leader.
Personal Leadership Attributes: Analysis
A graduate-level nurse must meet an array of challenges and accept a plethora of responsibilities, establishing communication with the multicultural audience being the key one. Particularly, it is necessary to engage in a cross-cultural conversation with the target audience, thus, determining the needs thereof and identifying the strategies that will help meet the said needs in a manner as efficient and expeditious as possible. For this purpose, engaging in the consistent acquisition of new knowledge and skills should be encouraged by the leader. Therefore, the ability to motivate the staff members to adopt the philosophy of lifelong learning as the foundation for further professional development can be deemed as a crucial personal leadership attribute for a graduate nurse.
Furthermore, a stronger emphasis must be placed on the active promotion of nursing healthcare initiatives. The latter may concern a range of issues that are on the nursing agenda now, e.g., building awareness among the target population, promoting diversity and continuous learning among nurses, etc. Making sure that the said policy initiatives should be encouraged should be among the key priorities of a graduate nurse. Thus, the premises for making a difference in the quality of care can be created. For instance, the introduction of the political context into the contemporary nursing environment and, therefore, the shift toward the principles of diversity mentioned above should be deemed as the essential change that needs to be made to nursing at present. Thus, nurses will be provided with the tools that will help them cater to the needs of diverse populations and, therefore, provide the services of increasingly high quality. Furthermore, the identified approach is likely to lead to much faster acquisition of the required experience and skills (Alvarez, 2014).
Last but not least, the skill of promoting cooperation on a multidisciplinary level needs to be brought up as a crucial skill that a nurse should have. By encouraging numerous experts from different fields to collaborate when addressing a particular case, one is likely to identify a wide array of factors affecting the well-being of a patient. As a result, the prerequisites for determining the most efficient treatment strategy can be created. Another important effect of the said skill, the opportunity to determine the threats to which the patient may be exposed and, therefore, preventing the exposure to the identified threats, which is likely to lead to a faster recovery and improved patient outcomes. Therefore, the ability to promote cooperation among experts from different areas of healthcare, including nurses, therapists, physicians, etc., should be listed among the essential qualities of a graduate nurse.
Even though there is a range of qualities and skills to develop, the abilities listed above will help me as a graduate nurse to develop a coherent strategy and learn to meet the needs of the target population successfully and efficiently. Therefore, I am positively certain that both new skills and the abilities described above will require further improvement. Therefore, the course for consistent and unceasing professional growth must be set.
Nursing Leadership and Advanced Practice
When considering the existing studies addressing the issue of nursing and leadership, one must give credit to Alvarez (2014). In her recent study, they stated the following: “Intercultural communication in the health field has been studied through several conceptual approaches or specific perspectives, such as anthropological, sociological, philosophical, psychological, and even medical disciplines. Very few researchers have considered intercultural communication from the perspective of design” (Alvarez, 2014). The quote provided above gives a clear overview of the challenges and opportunities about which graduate nurses will have to learn in a multicultural environment.
References
Alvarez, J. (2014). Visual design. A step towards multicultural health care. Archivos Argentinos De Pediatria, 112(1), 33-40. doi:10.5546/aap.2014.eng.33
Cherry, R. (2016). What’s your leadership style?
Taplay, K., Jack, S. M., Baxter, P., Kevin, K., & Martin, L. (2014). ‘‘Negotiating, navigating, and networking’’: Three strategies used by nursing leaders to shape the adoption and incorporation of simulation into nursing curricula. A grounded theory study. ISRN Nursing, 14(854785), 1-7. doi:10.1155/2014/854785