Nurse Leadership: Enhancing Team Performance and Patient Care

Subject: Nursing
Pages: 2
Words: 591
Reading time:
3 min
Study level: College

Concept of Nursing Leadership and Management

The task of a nurse leader is to coordinate a team of nurses. They make decisions and direct initiatives related to patient care. Leaders are focused on improving outcomes and streamlining the process in the most efficient way (Cumming et al., 2021). To achieve the goals and improve the work of health care, the medical professional uses leadership concepts in their work. The approaches determine the success of the performance of the staff, their trust in the authorities, and the level of patient satisfaction.

Qualities and Habits of an Effective and Positive Leader

A practical and positive leader has a mixture of qualities responsible for work’s emotional and rational aspects. First of all, this includes honesty and decency since honest people look successful in the eyes of colleagues and subordinates (Cumming et al., 2021). In addition, a distinctive feature is the ability to quickly resolve conflicts and conduct two-way communication with the team (Nieuwboer et al., 2019). Other equally essential qualities include competent time management and diplomacy. They allow one to organize the team’s work so that they will qualitatively complete the task within the set time frame.

Personal Traits of a Good Leader

In my personal beliefs, the ability to listen, show empathy, and fairly evaluate the work of a team distinguishes a good leader. I had experience working with a bad leader who could not coordinate the team due to poor communication. In addition, they constantly belittle the achievements of workers in the hope of stimulating them to perform more successfully. However, this only depressed the mood of the employees and did not allow them to work with complete dedication. This reduced the success rates of workers, attentiveness, and their relationship with customers, which left the latter extremely dissatisfied. This made me think about the importance of leadership in healthcare work.

On the other hand, I had a positive experience working with a confident leader. In my opinion, they possessed all the necessary qualities to make the team feel comfortable. First of all, they always appreciated the efforts of the team and its performance, which motivated the members. In addition, based on their honesty, trusting relationships were built without fear of judgment. Accordingly, in case of any problems, we calmly turned to the leader, who helped us find solutions and showed readiness for any support. Under their leadership, the team did an excellent job with their tasks and experienced a few problems with their implementation.

Female Values for Effective Leadership

Women leaders in recent years have increasingly strengthened their positions due to many values. Empathy is one of my main virtues, so I care for each employee. If an employee feels vital as a person, they tend to work harder, realizing their significance. In addition, I have a well-developed self-awareness, within which I monitor my emotions and can turn to higher management for support in case of difficulties. Self-awareness defines a leader as a person who knows their limitations. Thus, the team consistently remains stable and is not affected by the negative influence of the manager’s state.

Criteria for a Leader’s Self-Evaluation

However, to successfully lead a team, it is essential to assess leadership competencies. A SWOT analysis that considers the individual’s strengths and weaknesses may be suitable for this. A person can write out the qualities that distinguish them from the rest and those worth working on (Nieuwboer et al., 2019). At the same time, regular marks will allow one to track the dynamics of concepts that improve or regress over time.

References

Cummings, G. G., Lee, S., Tate, K., Penconek, T., Micaroni, S. P., Paananen, T., & Chatterjee, G. E. (2021). The essentials of nursing leadership: A systematic review of factors and educational interventions influencing nursing leadership. International Journal of Nursing Studies, 115, 1-51. Web.

Nieuwboer, M. S., van der Sande, R., van der Marck, M. A., Olde Rikkert, M. G., & Perry, M. (2019). Clinical leadership and integrated primary care: a systematic literature review. European Journal of General Practice, 25(1), 7-18. Web.