Critical Overview Of Leadership Values In Clinical Organization Assignment 2 Answer

Answer :

ASSESSMENT 2: ASSIGNMENT

Introduction

In the clinical sector, there are many challenges which can be overcome by effective leadership skills so that the customer's requirements (demands and expectations) can be fulfilled. Leadership qualities needed to be adequately understood by the health care specialists in order to carry out the challenges effectively. It is a procedure of influencing others to agree and understand the specific needs of the organization and work hard in order to complete or accomplish their objectives. In this study, the critical overview of leadership literature is discussed. The theories and the various applications or uses of these (leadership) qualities are identified with a demonstration through personal experience examples on an individual, team and service levels. 

Critical Overview of leadership literature

Leadership theories and application

Leadership is the way to deal with the subordinates of any organizations or any company. The leadership theories and the application is when a nurse is chosen as a leader that individual has some of the duties to maintain according to that responsibility; the duties are applicable for the nurses. 

• Transformational leadership

Transformational leadership is leadership which maintains a relationship between leaders and their followers. In transformational leadership, a leader motivates its followers to meet their goals (Barr & Dowding, 2019). A leader has a strong vision and good personality so that it can influence its subordinates. As a leader puts a great impact on his followers, the leader also must have the capabilities to meet the satisfaction of its employees. When a nurse encourages and gives motivation to the subordinates, while the subordinates nurses tend to perform well in the organization (Barr & Dowding, 2019). A nurse uses the quality and personality to influence the subordinate nurse and to follow their vision during any required changes within the organization or the clinic (Zaheer, Ginsburg, Chuang & Grace, 2015).  A reliable trust between subordinates nurses and the leading nurse builds up while working under a good leader. A leading nurse can provide the clinic with the betterment of work by the subordinate nurses (Bullock, Stritch & Rainey, 2015). When a nurse is attending a patient, they are instructed by the leading team or the nurse to which patient they will be attaining.

• Participative leadership

According to Hargett et al. (2017), in this leadership process, the leader and the subordinates make the decision mutually. Every individual provides their opinion on the topic of discussion. The nurse and the subordinate nurses work as a team, and they come up with their viewpoint (Traynor et al., 2015). This helps to bring the efficiency within the workplace (Zaheer, Ginsburg, Chuang & Grace, 2015). This process of working as a team where a leader values the viewpoint of their subordinates encourages and motivates to work efficiently. As nursing is the teamwork when any critical patient is admitted in the clinic, it is the responsibility of healthcare personnel to tend to the patients (Traynor et al., 2015). Therefore, the required and relevant decision is taken accordingly to work as a team within the clinic.

• Transactional leadership

According to Alexander, Ellis & Barrett (2016), transactional leadership is the leadership when a subordinate is rewarded for the good work. When the nurse performs well in their part, she is rewarded for her dedication. On the contrary, when a nurse lack in their duties it might be punishable. The reward for a nurse is that they also will get an increase in pay for the dedication of the work (Traynor et al., 2015). As the nurses had to work according to the shifts they get, their choice able to shift as a reward. In the transactional leadership, the motivation and the dedication of the nurse are awarded as bonus pay and the inefficient in work causes punishment in the form of termination from work (Zaheer et al., 2015). For example, in a clinic when a nurse is attending a patient who is suffering from serious diseases, and if the nurse takes proper care of the patient, the nurse is rewarded with bonus pay for that. However, this is unethical as it is their duty of care, and they are supposed to execute the same, which does not require rewarding. Regardless, transactional leadership is often viewed as an effective form of leadership.

Development of individuals as leaders in nursing using leadership theories

• Impact on individuals

A personified nurse is a person who has the power to influence the subordinate nurse. In a clinic, a nurse has to attend many patients at a time. Different types of Patient are admitted to the healthcare centre with different health issues. A nurse might not have the knowledge and skills of curing every disease. However, that time, the subordinate nurse asks for guidance from the head nurse (Davoodvand, Abbaszadeh & Ahmad, 2016). The flexibility of the subordinate nurse with the senior nurses puts an impact on the patient's health. The senior nurse is the one leading, guiding and instructing the subordinate nurse about their tasks. This communication between the senior nurse and the subordinate nurse helps in coordinating within the clinic (Davoodvand, Abbaszadeh & Ahmad, 2016). Thus, participative leadership is evident here.

• Impact on teams

A good leader makes every follower listen to his instructions. Supposing, in a clinic there a particular floor and floor in-charge nurse is being allotted. The priority of the nurse is to keep the teamwork (Frankel & PGCMS, 2019). The various nurses are allotted with various duties. In a particular section, their different age group people of same problem or diseases are admitted. The task among the team is divided by the team leader and the subordinate nurse of that section. The mutual understanding among the team members plays a vital role in the leadership process (Fischer, 2017). Maintaining a proper decorum and managing the task and the time in the workplace is the utmost priority of the leader (Frankel & PGCMS, 2019). Additionally, this helps a leader make the subordinate nurses work efficiently. Good work is rewarded by the leading nurse; this keeps the environment colloquial within the workplace (Fischer, 2017).

• Impact on organisational/ service level

A leader is chosen by observing the ability to lead its subordinates. A person having the inspirational, motivational, influential and decision making ability is a good leader a good and effective leader can make the employee work efficiently (Dong, Bartol, Zhang & Li, 2017). On the contrary, the wrong decision of a leader can lead to influence its subordinate in the wrong direction. Bad influence of leading nurse can hamper the healthcare centre, and that may lead to job threat for the subordinate. A clinic remains more cautious about providing its client with better service or treatment. Misleading a team can lead to serious drawback (Bullock, Stritch & Rainey, 2015). However, when a nurse trains their subordinated with better knowledge and skills in resulting in that, it brings the goodwill of the clinic among the patient or the client of that organization.

Application of leadership theories through personal experiences

The leadership theories can be applied in personal experiences such as in a team level, individual level and at the service level.

• Experience at an individual level

There was a situation where the nurse was in doubt to give a particular injection to the patient. The nurse was unaware of the dosage of the particular injection and was in great fear to give that injection to the patient. Being a leader, the particular situation was handled carefully by advising that particular nurse about the dosage of the injection. It is the responsibility of a leader to clear the doubts of the nurse in order to give them sufficient dose effectively with the proper medication (Strömgren et al., 2017). Here, transformational leadership theory is applied, where the task of the leader is to motivate their fellow mates by providing them with the sufficient knowledge of the situation in order to meet the goals successfully (Dong, Bartol, Zhang & Li, 2017). In this particular case, the nurse seems to lack the knowledge about the adequate quantity or the dosage of the injection and the leader helps to overcome the situation by giving the correct directions and helps to identify the nurse to cope with the situation without fearing or losing the confidence. Furthermore, the nurses are free to take opinions from the leaders regarding the medicine and proper care of the patient. 

• Experience at the team level

There was a scenario where three nurses were appointed to take care of a patient. The duty of the three nurses was divided individually. The nurses were allocated with a certain stipulated time. These three nurses were appointed to take care of the patient respectively on morning, afternoon and night. These allocations of the nurses raised the problem of miscommunication. As the morning nurse performs the duty properly but leaves before the arrival of the nurse whose shift is in the afternoon, so the nurse is not able to communicate with the previous nurse, and the later nurse suffered a situation where the afternoon shift nurse could not describe the health condition of the patient. This whole situation occurred due to the lack of communication by the nurse in the morning. These communication gaps between the nurses cannot help to retain the information of the patient's health. Here, the participative leadership theory is applied, where the leader influences the team as a whole. In this particular case study, the situation of the team was handled by the leaderThe leader handled the situation of the communication gap by holding a meeting, wherein these three nurses were called and made aware of their responsibilities well (Luu et al., 2019). They were given a choice to shift their duties according to their time if the task is carried out effectively without the disruption.

• Experience at organisational/ service level

In the healthcare organization, there was a scenario where the communication gap occurred in between doctors and nurses. The doctors prescribed some sort of medicine, and the nurses could not follow up with the prescribed medicine. The communication gap between these two vital keys of the organization needs to be solved by the leader. In order to mitigate this communication gap, the leader called up a meeting. The duty of the leader holds the responsibility to solve the internal miscommunication within the organization for the smooth running of the organization effectively (Strömgren et al., 2017). In the meeting, all the doctors and nurses were called up in order to know their responsibilities well. The doctors were told to prescribe the medicine of the patient and then make sure to explain to the nurses well when to provide the medicines. The nurses should also do their part well to treat the patient well and understand their responsibilities and follow up the prescribed medicines well and make doctor know about the subtle changes in the patients’ health (Lam, Huang & Chan, 2015). Here, in the particular case study, the participative leadership theory is applied wherein the different participants (doctors and nurses) of the organization were called up to understand the responsibilities in their part. 

Conclusion

From the above discussion, leadership values in a clinical organization are noticed. Leadership needs to be present there in the organization in order to manage the work effectively.  Various theories of leadership were explained thoroughly in the article. The uses of this particular application that is leadership theories are described with respect to nurses and their personal experiences. Transformational, transactional and participative theories are discussed briefly in the study. Clinical leaders and nurse managers should be able to understand the disadvantages and advantages. The leadership skills help nurses to focus on achieving success in their career and intensify their personal character individually. Thus, a different approach to leadership skills is applied depending upon the situations.