Free Essay on Effective Approaches to Leadership and Management in Nursing

Effective leadership and management in nursing is a critical issue that needs to be addressed to prevent issues of nurses' shortage and turnover, and for an organization to meet its vision and objectives. Nurse's shortage and nurses turnover needs to be addressed t prevent organizational issues that may prevent overall functioning and performance of the nurses and the health care system. Leaders in health care setting needs to look into these, and develop strategies and approaches that may help reduce challenges of nurse shortage and nurse turnover that may be disastrous to the provision of quality health care services to patients. Therefore, this paper addresses nurse shortage and nurse turnover as leadership and management issue that needs to be approached in a healthcare setting. The paper also identifies the approach that best fits my profession and personal philosophy based on my personal leadership style.

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For nurse leaders and managers needs to develop practical approaches to help solve issues of nurse shortage and nurse turnover, it would be important to determine the contributing factors to the problem. Any leadership must be competent enough to find out issues in a nursing setting that continues to be a stamping block to the nurses' profession and delivery of holistic care. They should realize that although a nursing profession is rewarding based on allowances and salaries, there are underlying issues that must be addressed to reduce issues of nurse turnover and shortages. It is cleared that the primary issue of nurse shortages is nurses' turnover, and this may be as a result of a variety of career options for nurse, a workforce of aging nurses, and poor working conditions. Besides, older and more professional nurses often look for more relaxed and comfortable jobs while others usually seek for early retirement that largely impact the health care system negatively. The US government has provided has contributed tremendously through provision of nursing funds to help curb the issue, but nurse shortage still remain a challenge to the leadership and management of most health care settings in the United States.

After reviewing some of the factors that contribute to nurse shortage and nurse turnover in a health care, the leadership and management of these organizations need to find applicable approaches that best solve the problem completely. Most health care systems needs a stable workforce that that is fully trained, more engaged and motivated to reduce the challenge of nurse's turnover. The managers and leaders need to match the nurse's expectations. They should realize that commitment and motivation are two critical factors that can either have a positive implication on nurses. Through motivation, nurses would feel they are valued and their work and commitment is appreciated. This is a form of satisfaction that leaders need to achieve in order to satisfy the needs of nurses. Nurses can be inspired and motivated through the provision of training that can both increase their nursing career and delivery of care to patients. Therefore, through training, increasing allowances and salaries, providing holidays and get-aways for employees, creating annual parties, and promotions are some of the ways the management can ensure employees are more satisfied. This helps reduce nurse shortage and nurse turnover to a larger extent. It is also common to see nurses working both day and night to fulfill their roles and responsibility of providing sufficient and quality care to patients. Sometimes, nurses compromise their personal life such as being with their families just to ensure they save lives of most patients under their care. Therefore, nurses need to be recognized, valued and appreciated for their work and sacrifices, and this starts from the top management as it trickles down to the subordinates. Motivation is the key that managers and leaders should use to reduce nurse turnover and shortages in a health care system.

The management and leadership of any health care system, needs to adopt a more holistic approach when dealing with nurses. Managers need to realize that nurses are not resources that should only be used to provide services. Nurses are critical for the functioning of any hospital, and they should be treated as an Intergraph part of the whole health care setting. Leaders need to take a bottom's up approach instead of taking a top-down approach of management when dealing with nurses welfare. Approaching leadership and management issues from the level of nurses to the top leadership give nurses the freedom and goodwill to feel they are part of the system, especially when their decision and opinions are considered during decision-making.

The management system needs to develop strategic that would ensure the recruitment of nurses into the organization, whether outsourced or internal, would guarantee that only qualified individuals are given the job. Past research shows that employees who are less skilled and less qualified for a particular position are more likely to be unproductive, quite due to job frustrations, or sacked due to the provision of less quality services. Therefore, the management needs to attract only talents that would help reduce the turnover issues and use a collaborative form of management system to help attain teamwork and creativity within the organization.

My personal approach involves a transformational leadership ideology particularly for the managers and leaders looking to empower their employees within the professional realms. Transformational leadership is important since it has the capacity to inspire, motivate and empower employees within the organization. The top management needs to provide good training and working conditions for nurse. Good managers and leaders needs to sense and identify issues nurses are going through on their own, and propose solutions before it impact the organization. Besides, developing a culture of openness makes employees to feel free and comfortable to report their issues to the upper and lower managers for actions to be taken. Having a culture of openness can help retain more employees and attract new talents to cover critical positions within the organization. Therefore, through a transformational leadership approach, I will be able to solve critical issues facing nurses within the organization and collaborate with them through involving them in decision making particularly in aspects that affects their welfare and nursing profession. This in turn helps reduce nurse shortage and nurse turnover because nurses feel they are valued and their welfare is well taken care of by the organization.

References

Cleary, B., & Rice, R. (2005). Nursing workforce development. New York: Springer Pub. Co.

Jeffreys, M. (2004). Nursing student retention. New York: Springer Pub.

Schaffner, J., & Ludwig-Beymer, P. (2003). Rx for the nursing shortage. Chicago: Health Administration Press.

Stone, K., Traynor, M., Gould, D., & Maben, J. (2011). The management of poor performance in nursing and midwifery: a case for concern. Journal of nursing management, 19(6), 803-809.