Introduction
Leadership in nursing as well as in any other sphere of life is all about making successful and effective ideas real and proving their worthiness. It is not an easy task to become a good nursing leader, make use of all skills and knowledge gained during the process of education, and understand what are the most integral steps in health care and nursing in particular. However, such tasks as investigating, evaluating research articles, and even taking tests turn out to be helpful in grasping the idea of nursing leadership as a whole. All these steps are a part of nursing informatics, the science that aims at combining nursing theory with activities and managing information, communication, and practice in order to promote health around the whole world. The current paper is a result of the work done; it helps to realize how different research studies and a personal desire to know and learn more as well as to improve the already gained skills help to develop the necessary leadership skills and become a qualified nurse with a clear understanding of what and when should be done.
Recommendations
It is very easy to lose a right way in a variety of nursing information and examples offered nowadays. Students, potential nurses, and leaders have to use their best skills in order to be able to define the quality of nursing data. The recommendations offered by mature nurses and educators are all about the importance of realizing how crucial the sphere of nursing is and how attentive nurses, managers, and leaders have to be in providing people with the required portion of services and medical help. The main recommendations are as follows:
- To consider the real-life examples;
- To continue learning and improve academic achievements regarding the current technological progress;
- To communicate with mature nurses and share personal experiences;
- To improve personal qualities and try to understand people’s emotions, intentions, and expectations beforehand.
In other words, the attention paid to emotional intelligence (Kerr, Garvin, Heaton, & Boyle, 2006) and such concepts as nursing turnover and job satisfaction (Murrells, Robinson, & Griffiths, 2008) plays a very important role in the process of becoming a good nurse. For example, a good leader, who considers the emotional condition of his/her employees always knows when and how a particular change may take place with a minimum of discontent. All these hints should help a student become a good leader with time or a real professional in the chosen sphere of life.
The Role of Nursing Informatics
For a long period of time, nursing informatics has not been properly explained to all nurses, managers, administrators, and leaders (Westra & Delaney, 2008). The investigations show that not all professional nurses are always ready to implement nursing technologies on a regular basis. Still, the role of nursing informatics cannot be neglected as it is an option for all health care providers to deliver high-quality care to all patients (Ball, Douglas, Walker, & DuLong, 2011). The peculiar feature of nursing informatics is its ability to influence the decision-making processes completed by nurses, patients, and leaders. For example, a nurse with fast access to the information about the medical history of a patient and the identification of his/her possible allergies or other reactions to the necessary treatment can offer several options within a short period of time (Westra & Delaney, 2008). The use of information has to be properly organized not to make some mistakes that can influence the quality of human life.
In fact, nowadays, nursing informatics is a specialty that requires the development of a number of competencies and skills. This is why its role is huge indeed: nurses should know how to use it and do not spend much time in search of the necessary information. The access to automate documentation is a chance for nurses to help more people and a possibility for patients to share the correct facts about their health condition. Nurses become the major coordinators of a patient’s care; they promote communication between doctors and patients, patients and their medical history. Nursing informatics consists of four main processes, evaluation, assessment, planning, and implementation, within the frames of which it is possible to analyze medical and financial information about patients, facilitate access to different resources, promote the continuity of care, and improve productivity goals.
Nursing informatics is too important to be neglected, and nurses as well as any other students, who choose health care as their main sphere of activities, have to know how to use different technologies and demonstrate good results in providing patients with fast and effective care.
Nursing Informatics/Technology and Its Effects on Leadership
Nursing informatics and technologies in health care have a considerable impact on leadership. The previous investigations on nursing turnover and emotional intelligence help to realize that both these concepts are too important for leaders. It is impossible to become a successful leader without the ability to determine and understand the emotions of people and their possible impact on job satisfaction and the rate of turnover in the end. Taking into consideration all the facts learned about nursing informatics and the peculiarities of leadership, it is possible to admit that these two issues should not be separated. If an ordinary registered nurse has to take care of the information spread by means of nursing technologies, the role of a nursing leader is more important. The leader has to control all the processes and suggest the necessary implementations in case some difficulties or misunderstandings take place. Nursing informatics is one of the possible means to help the development of leadership abilities. It is not only a chance to learn better from a patient. It is an opportunity by means of which leaders can improve their theoretical basis and find the necessary portion of information about different cases of particular diseases.
Conclusion
In general, all steps taken during the course, all recommendations given by the experts, and all information got from the research articles create a solid background for future nurses and leaders. In order to become a good leader, a person should not only learn something new and develop a number of professional skills. It is also important to focus on some personal aspects and stay humane because the sphere of nursing cannot exist without compassion, understanding, and control at the same time. Nursing leaders have a chance to make use of all things available around: the current nursing technologies, past nursing investigations, and innovations that create a solid basis for nursing work and the development of health care as the sphere that promotes and controls human health and well-being all the time.
References
Ball, M., Douglas, J., Walker, P.H., & DuLong, D. (2011). Nursing informatics: Where technology and caring meet. New York, NY: Springer Science & Business Media.
Kerr, R., Garvin, J., Heaton, N., & Boyle, E. (2006). Emotional intelligence and leadership effectiveness. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 27(4), 265-279.
Murrells, T., Robinson, S., & Griffiths, P. (2008). Is satisfaction a direct predictor of nursing turnover? Modeling the relationship between satisfaction expressed intention and behavior in a longitudinal cohort study. Human Resources for Health, 6(22), 1-12. Web.
Westra, D. & Delaney, C. Informatics competencies for nursing and healthcare leaders. AMIA 2008 Symposium Proceedings, 804-808.