Leadership Styles
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The nursing industry has a challenge of dealing with the issue on finding the appropriate nursing leadership. Every nurse is in need of skills in favor of powerful leadership. The latter does not matter if one is in a position of top management, or provides care to patients directly. Any person in the nursing industry is considered a leader as long as they are in authority. Also, leaders are nurses that offer assistance to patients (Jooste, 2004). Nurses involved in influencing others through caring as well as caring for patients are known as leaders in clinical nursing. Often leadership is described as being behaviors that are influenced by a person’s attitude. The latter are more vital as compared to engaging in certain tasks or having certain skills. When exemplary leadership is shown by nurses, other people are affected positively by it.
Nursing leaders help other employees by being their visionaries and not enforcing opinion s and views upon them. They make sure that they do not control other people but merely guide them. Also, in nursing leadership, Employees are helped in making sure that there activities are organized and controlled appropriately. There are many levels whereby, leadership exists and it involves goal attainment and group setting. Many types of nursing leadership exist, and they include; laissez faire, bureaucratic, participative, authoritative leadership and situational leadership. Nurse leaders who do not allow fellow work mates to engage in decision making are known as being autocratic leaders. While this is in contrast to nurse leaders, who allow fellow employees to engage in decision making. The latter are known as participative leaders (Outhwaite, 2003).
The most beneficial form of leadership in nursing is known as situational leadership. Nurse leaders make sure that they incorporate the various methods of leadership styles. This will depend upon the follower’s competence as well as the situation which has been presented to them. In nursing, the leadership style that is used should bring about few disruptions and increase work performance levels (Kelly & Crawford, 2008). This is depending on the various situations that exist in a nurses work routine. It should be known that there is a difference between leadership and management in nursing. Managers are involved in controlling, organizing and planning, and these roles are different from that in leadership. On the other hand, leaders are involved in empowerment, inspiration; motivating and communicating vision to their fellow employees. Leaders always seek to ensure that the organization undergoes significant change in order to become successful.
In nursing leadership is described as an art and management is referred to as a science. Often in management, there are a series of steps, which have to be followed to meet demands at the work place. Leadership is more beneficial than management as the latter is involved in making people at the work place happy with their work (Sullivan, 2004). They come up with objectives and goals, which have to be met for the improvement of the running of operations. Managers usually follow only procedure and will not divert away as they are afraid of risks. On the other hand, leaders seek to challenge the status quo as they never seem to be satisfied. In conclusion, anyone has the ability of being a leader regardless of whether they are in authority or not. Professionals in the health care system should be aware that they will have an opportunity of demonstrating leadership. Thus, they should strive to acquire the traits related to appropriate and effective leadership.
References
Jooste, K. (2004). Leadership: A new perspective. Journal of Nursing Management, 12, 217-223
Kelly, P. & Crawford, H. (2008). Nursing leadership and management: First Canadian edition. Toronto: Nelson.
Sullivan, E. J. (2004). Becoming influential: A guide for nurses. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
Outhwaite, S. (2003). The importance of leadership in the development of an integrated team. Journal of Nursing Management, 11, 371-76.
