Assignment: Leadership Journal Authority

Assignment: Leadership Journal Authority

Assignment Leadership Journal Authority

 

Introduction

Leadership entails the ability of a person to influence and guide the activities of followers or members. This involves the making of sound but sometimes difficult decisions to articulate a vision so as to formulate achievable goals for an organization. Even though there are multiple definitions of leadership styles, a consensus remains that great leaders are those who have the ability to inspire and motivate followers to complete given tasks (Raymond, 2018). Nonetheless, leaders are expected to exert formal authority so that subjects respect them for their judgment, expertise, and integrity. However, authority and power emerging from leadership styles may not influence the followers to achieve a common objective of a prospect as it can be confused with coercion. Besides, authority in leadership can rarely provide a reflection on the scope of feedback and constructive criticism to enable followers to voice their concerns about the radical solutions proposed by leaders.

Leadership and authority are exercised in all professional cadres including nursing. The main purpose of the present journal is to elaborate on my thoughts and observations on the nursing activities experience in Weeks 3-4. I will also highlight my place of influence in the course of my professional practice as a nurse and describe the opportunities I have had to make people successful. Finally, I will provide a reflection of two things I have learned from the “Issue of Authority” during coursework.

Observation and thoughts on the activities in Weeks 3-4

These past weeks in class, I have learned the most interesting concepts related to leadership and authority. In weeks 3 and 4 of my nursing placement, I spent 16 hours with nurse leaders in different departments of the hospital. Specifically, for week 3, I took 7 hours with a nurse leader in the emergency room (ER) of the care facility. During my placement, I observed the mandatory activities undertaken at the unit and how a leader exerts authority to followers. The most intriguing aspect of my experience was based on how the leader delegated duties to motivate nurses to work in the department. I remember how the nurse assigned the five nurses in the department duties despite complaints from the senior nurses that they received the heaviest workloads. The leader was able to explain to the senior nurses the reasons for such actions by describing how their wealth of experience was the most important factor during the allocation of tasks (Clavelle, O’Grady & Drenkard, 2013). The leader convinced them about how their knowledge is appreciated and that they were the most suitable personnel to handle patients at the emergency department.

For week 4, I spent 9 hours with a nurse leader at the newborn unit (NBU) of the facility. During our engagement, I observed how the nurse demonstrated servant leadership. The leader took a keen interest in hygiene to minimize the spread of infection to the babies. The nurse leader reminded other leaders about the same and maintained that no one would be allowed to wear any jewels or wrist watches in the newborn unit. I learned the concepts of safety issues while taking care of patients in the NBU by observing the culture of safety habits instilled to nurses in the unit by the nurse leader.

Place of Influence in my Professional Life

My influence at the place of work relates to the position that I hold as a family nurse practitioner. In my engagement with other nurses, I am able to use formal authority to inspire and motivate colleagues to achieve a common course of patient safety at the facility. I provide guidance on safety practices at the facility even if my job description as per the work policy does not require me to provide this service. I also helped the nurse leader to organize and coordinate shift hours based on the experience of nurses in handling different categories of patients. The nursing team is able to work as per the guidelines I reminded them to follow with regard to safety and this explains how I influenced their daily practice.

Opportunities I have had to help be people successful

During clinical placement at the hospital, I worked with my preceptor to observe the operations of the nursing staff at the

emergency department. I helped the nurse in distributing questionnaires to collect data from patients and other hospital workers about their perception of the nursing activities. I also made observations about the nursing activities especially during the high-stress situation at the facility and reported my findings to the nurse leader (Clavelle, O’Grady & Drenkard, 2013). This enabled the leader to provide suggestions and recommendations to the hospital administrator on how to improve the activities of nurses so as to optimize patient care in the facility.

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Actions I have taken to serve people and my relationship with these individuals

As I provide nursing care service, I coordinate activities with members of the nursing team and other professionals in the health facility. I have worked with colleagues to provide care to patients in different situations. Most importantly, I have been a resource person during the doctor’s ward rounds at the health facility to provide decisions on the delivery of care. I have also provided training to the members of staff during continuous medical education to sensitize nurses and other care providers on the aspects of patient safety (Raymond, 2018). It is important to note that nurses and other care providers require information related to safety for workers and for patients. This can only be achieved through seminars or other education forums organized by care facilities. The premise improves knowledge among health staffs to understand the performance metrics related to quality outcomes among patients.

A reflection on lessons learned from the “Issue of Authority”

During week three and four of the practicum, I learned the aspect of servant leadership as a way to exert authority to the followers. A servant leader as per my observation is a person who inspires members of a team towards successful outcomes (Raymond, 2018). Besides, the leader lays a platform to improve the work environment for the followers. This relates to the delegation of tasks equally and resolution of conflicts whenever they arise.

The other aspect learned relates to the forms of authority that a leader can embrace. These include formal and informal authority. From my observation, formal authority is based on the central authority of an institution which employees are expected to follow. The formal authority stipulates guidelines which can seem as coercion to workers and this may result in punishment or job dismissal if they fail to follow. Formal authority may limit followers from voicing their concerns based on their experiences and perceptions of the organizational work policies. As such, with formal authority, followers are not likely to change their attitudes and behaviors (Clavelle, O’Grady & Drenkard, 2013).   However, informal authority is the type of influence that leaders develop to exercise on people. I came to realize that leaders can exert their authority based on the feedback from the workers. The informal authority limits aggression by leaders and therefore is the best approach in solving emerging issues in an organization.

Assignment: Leadership Journal Authority Conclusion

Throughout weeks 3 and 4, l have learned the concepts in nurse leadership and how this relates to patient care. Specifically, the discussion focused on the issue of authority that a leader uses to influence the activity of the followers. From this illustration, formal leadership tends to be coercive as opposed to informal leadership. As such, leaders need to understand and address the plight of their followers to gain trust and respect in order to achieve the goals of an organization.

Journaling provides a valuable tool for recording, reflecting on, and reviewing your learning. This approach provides an opportunity for you to \”connect the dots\” and observe the relationships between and among activities, interactions, and outcomes.
Unlike a personal journal of thoughts and feelings, this Leadership Journal is a record of your activities, assessments, and learning related to this academic experience.
Journal entries should include a record of the number of hours spent with your nurse leader each week.
Write a journal entry of 750-1,500 words on the subject of authority, including the following:
Provide observations and thoughts on the activities in Weeks 3-4.
Explain your place of influence in your professional life.
Describe any opportunities you have had to help people be successful.
Identify actions you have taken to serve people and your relationship to those individuals.
Reflect on at least two things you learned from the \”Issue of Authority\” video.
View the \”Issue of Rule\” video.
URL:

For assignments that need to be submitted to Lopes Write, please be sure you have received your report and Similarity Index (SI) percentage BEFORE you do a “final submit” to me.

Once you have received your report, please review it. This report will show you grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors that can easily be fixed. Take the extra few minutes to review instead of getting counted off for these mistakes.

Review your similarities. Did you forget to cite something? Did you not paraphrase well enough? Is your paper made up of someone else’s thoughts more than your own?

Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for tips on improving your paper and SI score.

Late Policy

The university’s policy on late assignments is 10% penalty PER DAY LATE. This also applies to late DQ replies.

Please communicate with me if you anticipate having to submit an assignment late. I am happy to be flexible, with advance notice. We may be able to work out an extension based on extenuating circumstances.

If you do not communicate with me before submitting an assignment late, the GCU late policy will be in effect.

I do not accept assignments that are two or more weeks late unless we have worked out an extension.

As per policy, no assignments are accepted after the last day of class. Any assignment submitted after midnight on the last day of class will not be accepted for grading.

Communication

Communication is so very important. There are multiple ways to communicate with me:

Questions to Instructor Forum: This is a great place to ask course content or assignment questions. If you have a question, there is a good chance one of your peers does as well. This is a public forum for the class.

Individual Forum: This is a private forum to ask me questions or send me messages. This will be checked at least once every 24 hours.

Important information for writing discussion questions and participation

Welcome to class

Hello class and welcome to the class and I will be your instructor for this course. This is a -week course and requires a lot of time commitment, organization, and a high level of dedication. Please use the class syllabus to guide you through all the assignments required for the course. I have also attached the classroom policies to this announcement to know your expectations for this course. Please review this document carefully and ask me any questions if you do. You could email me at any time or send me a message via the “message” icon in halo if you need to contact me. I check my email regularly, so you should get a response within 24 hours. If you have not heard from me within 24 hours and need to contact me urgently, please send a follow up text to

I strongly encourage that you do not wait until the very last minute to complete your assignments. Your assignments in weeks 4 and 5 require early planning as you would need to present a teaching plan and interview a community health provider. I advise you look at the requirements for these assignments at the beginning of the course and plan accordingly. I have posted the YouTube link that explains all the class assignments in detail. It is required that you watch this 32-minute video as the assignments from week 3 through 5 require that you follow the instructions to the letter to succeed. Failure to complete these assignments according to instructions might lead to a zero. After watching the video, please schedule a one-on-one with me to discuss your topic for your project by the second week of class. Use this link to schedule a 15-minute session. Please, call me at the time of your appointment on my number. Please note that I will NOT call you.

Please, be advised I do NOT accept any assignments by email. If you are having technical issues with uploading an assignment, contact the technical department and inform me of the issue. If you have any issues that would prevent you from getting your assignments to me by the deadline, please inform me to request a possible extension. Note that working fulltime or overtime is no excuse for late assignments. There is a 5%-point deduction for every day your assignment is late. This only applies to approved extensions. Late assignments will not be accepted.

If you think you would be needing accommodations due to any reasons, please contact the appropriate department to request accommodations.

Plagiarism is highly prohibited. Please ensure you are citing your sources correctly using APA 7th edition. All assignments including discussion posts should be formatted in APA with the appropriate spacing, font, margin, and indents. Any papers not well formatted would be returned back to you, hence, I advise you review APA formatting style. I have attached a sample paper in APA format and will also post sample discussion responses in subsequent announcements.

Your initial discussion post should be a minimum of 200 words and response posts should be a minimum of 150 words. Be advised that I grade based on quality and not necessarily the number of words you post. A minimum of TWO references should be used for your initial post. For your response post, you do not need references as personal experiences would count as response posts. If you however cite anything from the literature for your response post, it is required that you cite your reference. You should include a minimum of THREE references for papers in this course. Please note that references should be no more than 5 years old except recommended as a resource for the class. Furthermore, for each discussion board question, you need ONE initial substantive response and TWO substantive responses to either your classmates or your instructor for a total of THREE responses. There are TWO discussion questions each week, hence, you need a total minimum of SIX discussion posts for each week. I usually post a discussion question each week. You could also respond to these as it would count towards your required SIX discussion posts for the week.

I understand this is a lot of information to cover in 5 weeks, however, the Bible says in Philippians 4:13 that we can do all things through Christ that strengthens us. Even in times like this, we are encouraged by God’s word that we have that ability in us to succeed with His strength. I pray that each and every one of you receives strength for this course and life generally as we navigate through this pandemic that is shaking our world today. Relax and enjoy the course!

Hi Class,

Please read through the following information on writing a Discussion question response and participation posts.

Contact me if you have any questions.

Important information on Writing a Discussion Question

• Your response needs to be a minimum of 150 words (not including your list of references)
• There needs to be at least TWO references with ONE being a peer reviewed professional journal article.
• Include in-text citations in your response
• Do not include quotes—instead summarize and paraphrase the information
• Follow APA-7th edition
• Points will be deducted if the above is not followed

Participation –replies to your classmates or instructor

• A minimum of 6 responses per week, on at least 3 days of the week.
• Each response needs at least ONE reference with citations—best if it is a peer reviewed journal article
• Each response needs to be at least 75 words in length (does not include your list of references)
• Responses need to be substantive by bringing information to the discussion or further enhance the discussion. Responses of “I agree” or “great post” does not count for the word count.
• Follow APA 7th edition
• Points will be deducted if the above is not followed
• Remember to use and follow APA-7th edition for all weekly assignments, discussion questions, and participation points.
• Here are some helpful links
• Student paper example
• Citing Sources
• The Writing Center is a great resource