Answer :

Assessment task 3: Narrated PowerPoint OR Written Paper

Introduction 

Leadership in nursing is a key component for efficient health outcomes, care management and for achieving progress in clinical terms (Moura et al. 2017). Also, leadership has been a major domain in nursing since past decades. Nurse leaders such as Florence Nightingale and Walt Whitman are well known for their contribution to the field and leadership roles (Ribeiro Neves and Sanna 2016). This assessment aims at highlighting the biographical outline of Florence Nightingale. Also, it deals with the analysis of one value and attribute of the nursing leader followed by their contributions in nursing profession and reflection. 

Biographical outline

Florence Nightingale (1820-1910) was a British nurse and is known as “the lady with the lamp”. Florence Nightingale is regarded to be one of the most famous nurses in history admired for their leadership traits (Bradshaw 2020). She is said to be the founder of the nursing profession through her works. Nightingale studied nursing having held onto the belief that she had been divinely called into this profession. During the way between Russia and Germany Nightingale was around to experience all its odds. She had at the time been in Germany to studying Nursing (Sinha 2017). She was given the responsibility of caring for dying and wounded soldiers in Scutari Hospital. 

Attribute and one value of an effective leader

Value 

One major leadership value that Florence Nightingale has was based on her belief on the value system founder on her intense spirituality (Stanley 2016). This shows she was a religious person. This made it possible for her to blend health care nursing and religion and turning this into a powerful leadership philosophy. Nightingale engaged in conscious actions to ensure that those under care benefited from them hence exercised leadership (Stanley 2016). Being a nurse leader she was able to communicate, influence, persuade and provide guidance to patients.

Florence Nightingale recognized the fact that being a leader is not an easy task. This is due to the fact a leader is supposed to lead his followers even in most difficult moments and this; Nightingale was able to do (Adu-Gyamfi and Brenya 2016). Furthermore, being a leader Nightingale impacted on the nursing field by applying her advocacy principle and values. Through her advocacy she successful managed the patient environment with a very good example being during the Germany-Russia war. Nightingale’s advocacy formed the foundation of advocacy as stressed in American Nurse Association standards regarding patient safety.  Therefore, advocacy being Nightingale’s leadership trait aims at ensuring that nurses provide assistance to patients by assuring them their rights as well as safety (Ward 2018). 

Attribute 

Nightingale showcased some of the key attributes of an effective leader. In this respect, the she demonstrated commitment to the objectives and mission. Along with this, attribute that Nightingale highlighted was in respect to the communication ability, the person showed effective communication skills. This helped her in establishing good and healthy relationship with others which added to the effectiveness as a leader (Whitehead 2020). Nightingale carried listened to others. Asked intelligent questions and ensured that she is sharing valuable information. Nightingale understood the significance of providing a sense of ownership among the people so that they are able to give their best. It was evident form the way in which the person appreciated and valued the efforts of others. This quality of the person helped him in ensuring that people are stretching themselves to the best of their abilities (Nichols et al. 2020).

Nightingale demonstrated the ability to work efficiently and effectively in a bid to further her leadership skills in the nursing profession. She had integrity, emotionally intelligent and knowledge (HEEFNF 2019). This made her an outstanding person in all positions that she served in the capacity of a leader. In addition, an effective leader listens and is ready to receive feedbacks. This character is reflected through Nightingale. All she desired is to make sure that in the end patients benefited from her conscious acts (Nichols et al. 2020).Based on Myers-Briggs Psychological Types Florence Nightingale is considered to accomplish success from originality, perseverance and having the desire to do whatever is wanted or needed. Also she is considered as one who puts their best efforts in whatever work they are doing. Nightingale is indicated to be conscientious, quietly forceful including having concerned for others people. Myers-Briggs Psychological Types presents Nightingale as a person likely to be honoured and also followed because of their clear convictions in engaging in acts of service to others to benefit them (HEEFNF 2019).

Contributions/achievements of Florence Nightingale in nursing profession 

Nightingale is known for her two major contributions to the nursing profession they are as follows: 

Crimean War and the Development of Nursing Practice- during the Crimean war the soldier were subjected to inhumane and unsanitary conditions and lack of medical care.  During this time Nightingale found that soldiers were dying due to improper sanitation and rodents were lying on them which were further increasing the infectious diseases. Nightingale applied the core concepts of nursing and implemented some concepts. On was infection control. Nightingale did clean the hospital and maintained proper hygiene for the soldiers (Glasper 2020). Nightingale further promoted self-care and included patients in their welfare and care process. At night she used to assess the situation with lamp and assisted the patients in every possible way. According to nursing assessment is the major criterion for nursing actions (Laging 2018).  

She then used therapeutic communication and offered compassion and empathy towards patients. This enables patient satisfaction and quickens healing (Abdolrahimi et al. 2017). In their final hour, Nightingale ministered to critically ill patients, giving them consolation. Nightingale wrote an 830 page paper analysing and recommending improvements for under functioning military hospitals. Florence Nightingale's application of these principles in the frontline hospital environment lowered the hospital's mortality rate by two thirds (Shetty 2016).

Recognition and Role in Nursing Education

“She came back home to a warm welcome after the war and was given the Nightingale Jewel”, "a brooch with Queen Victoria's etched dedication, for her contribution in Crimea. She was also awarded a $250,000 prize by the British authorities and used the funds to set up St. Thomas' Hospital and the Nightingale Nurses Training School. Her position improved the prestige of nursing from modest and menial to a prestigious career that many members of the upper class professed to (Shetty 2016).

Florence Nightingale wrote a 136-page book called Notes on Nursing in 1859: "What It Is and What It Is Not". Instead of acting as a detailed textbook on how to become a nurse, the book was intended to provide advice for thinking on how to nurse a serious patient. The book addresses issues such as anonymity, cleanliness, evaluation (assessment), efficiency and protection that are important for nurses today (Strickler 2017). A copy of this textbook is held by the P.I. Nixon Medical Historical Library.

Reflection

The reflection has helped me to learn a lot form the leader. The learning will help me in my future nursing practice. I have learnt about the importance of commitment in a leader so that he/she is able to inspire others and motivate the team members in the direction of the objectives. The leader has also helped me to understand the true significance of communication skills where I was unaware about the role of communication in building mutual understanding and collaboration. The learning will also help in becoming a good listener and not just a good speaker. All this will surely add to my interpersonal relationship with others. In addition to this, the leader has also helped me in learning about the role that the sense of values in the team members plays in accomplishing a task. This will also help me in building such a sense of ownership while practicing leadership and leading a team of people. All this will help me in motivating my team as a leader in the further where it would be able to understand the needs of my team members and thus act accordingly. The significance of recognising the efforts of team members as learned from the leader would also add to the attributes that I would hold as an effective leader. 

All the traits demonstrated in the character of Florence Nightingale are understood to have been her strengths and basically the reason for her success in the ensuring that the spirit of caring for the sick was promoted. As demonstrated herein she was a spiritual person, communicated, influenced, persuaded and provided guidance to patients, stood up and defended what she believed in difficult moments, carried out the advocacy role, had integrity, emotional intelligent and knowledge. All these characteristics demonstrate the kind of leader she was. She created the foundation of the nursing profession and lives to be an icon in the hearts of many. Through her leadership traits she accomplished greatness and I believe that with the same qualities I will survive against all odds which continue to challenge the practice of nursing. 

Conclusion  

From the above assessment it can be concluded that Florence Nightingale was a great leader and used knowledge and efficiency in every aspect of nursing. She gave a direction to modern nursing and application of leadership concepts such as integrity and values established standard of nursing that can enhance patient’s well-being and health.