Sample Answer for NURS 6053 Discussion 1: Leadership Theories in Practice Included After Question
A walk through the Business section of any bookstore or a quick Internet search on the topic will reveal a seemingly endless supply of writings on leadership. Formal research literature is also teeming with volumes on the subject.
However, your own observation and experiences may suggest these theories are not always so easily found in practice. Not that the potential isn’t there; current evidence suggests that leadership factors such as emotional intelligence and transformational leadership behaviors, for example, can be highly effective for leading nurses and organizations.
Yet, how well are these theories put to practice? In this Discussion, you will examine formal leadership theories. You will compare these theories to behaviors you have observed firsthand and discuss their effectiveness in impacting your organization.
RESOURCES
Be sure to review the Learning Resources before completing this activity.
Click the weekly resources link to access the resources.
WEEKLY RESOURCES
To Prepare:
- Review the Resources and examine the leadership theories and behaviors introduced.
- Identify two to three scholarly resources, in addition to this Module’s readings, that evaluate the impact of leadership behaviors in creating healthy work environments.
- Reflect on the leadership behaviors presented in the three resources that you selected for review.
BY DAY 3 OF WEEK 4
Post two key insights you had from the scholarly resources you selected. Describe a leader whom you have seen use such behaviors and skills, or a situation where you have seen these behaviors and skills used in practice. Be specific and provide examples. Then, explain to what extent these skills were effective and how their practice impacted the workplace.
BY DAY 6 OF WEEK 4
Respond to at least two of your colleagues on two different days by explaining how the leadership skills they described may impact your organization or your personal leadership, or by identifying challenges you see in applying the skills described.
A Sample Answer For the Assignment: NURS 6053 Discussion 1: Leadership Theories in Practice
Title: NURS 6053 Discussion 1: Leadership Theories in Practice
Characteristics of a healthy work environment include: well-being recognition, support and caring, trust and interpersonal relationships, justice, and a friendly and joyful environment. Healthy work environments are associated with increased job satisfaction and job engagement, task performance, goal achievement, and high efficiency as a result of positive attitudes and behavior among the staff (Marshall & Broome, 2017). This paper will discuss the impact of leadership behaviors in creating healthy work environments from scholarly articles.
The article by Jiménez et al. (2017) presents a concept of health-promoting leadership that emphasizes the association between the working environment and leadership behavior. The article defines health-promoting leadership using seven key aspects: low workload, health awareness, control, community, reward, fairness, and values. The quality and way of leadership is an aspect that can influence health in the workplace (Jiménez et al., 2017). The article argues that leaders can influence their work surroundings with their attitude and behavior. This is because they are regarded as organizational role models and can thus establish the working conditions for their staff (Jiménez et al., 2017). Furthermore, with thorough deliberation of the seven dimensions of health-promoting leadership, it is feasible for leaders to steadily create a healthy working environment where both leaders and employees can stay healthy.
The medical-surgical unit nursing supervisor in my previous organization employed most of the concepts of health-promoting leadership. She embraced the concept of community by establishing a positive connection between all nurses. She also encouraged nurses to talk openly to each other and support each other, positively impacting the relationship between nurses. Furthermore, she promoted fairness in the workplace, especially in allocating patients and planning nurses’ duties to ensure that there were no shifts that nurses are overburdened from others. The nurse supervisor also gave rewards to the nurses based on staff performance. For instance, she recommended best performing nurses for sponsored courses and rewards for best nurses. The nurse supervisor leadership style was influential in creating and sustaining a healthy work environment for nurses and creating positive relationships between the nurses. This led to increased job engagement and satisfaction and high efficiency, which increased patient outcomes in the medical-surgical unit.
Pourbarkhordari et al. (2017) conducted a study to explore the role of transformational leadership (TFL) from the healthy work environment perspective. TFL has been viewed as crucial in sustaining a healthy work environment. The article argues that leaders who employ the TFL style in treating their subordinates create a healthy, satisfying organizational culture (Pourbarkhordari et al., 2017). TFL has also been associated with improving employees’ engagement and increasing their morale, motivation, and performance by establishing shared values. The article proposes that TFL is increasingly needed in current work environments, which have more knowledgeable and talented employees (Pourbarkhordari et al., 2017). Transformational leaders are critical in developing and sustaining healthy work environments for practice and can create lasting organizational and professional values.
Sfantou et al. (2017) conducted a study to examine whether there exists a relationship between various leadership styles and healthcare quality measures. The study established that leadership styles play a vital role in increasing quality healthcare and nursing measures. Leadership has also been acknowledged as a major indicator for creating a qualitative organizational culture and effective performance in health care delivery (Sfantou et al., 2017). Transformational leadership was found to increase nursing unit organization culture and structural empowerment. This positively impacted organizational commitment for nurses and resulted in higher levels of job satisfaction, nursing retention, higher productivity, patient safety, and positive health outcome.
My current organization has focused on Transformational leadership through training leaders and supporting them in effecting it. The hospital’s nursing services manager is a transformational leader and has encouraged unit leaders to employ TFL to increase nurses’ performance and efficiency and enhance patient outcomes. She employs TFL by frequently communicating the hospital’s vision to nurses and encouraging them to strive towards moving closer to attaining the vision. Besides, she encourages and inspires creativity and innovation among nurses and believes in achieving the organization’s objectives by exploring new ways of doing things. She does this by encouraging nurses to participate in research and innovative projects and encourage them to employ evidence-based research to establish new ways to provide nursing care. Furthermore, she strives to create a working environment where there is open communication to promote the sharing of constructive ideas. The nurse manager style of leadership has significantly promoted positive interactions among nurses. Nurses have taken part in research projects to enhance patient care, and evidence-based practice has been incorporated into operational and clinical practice. The hospital has been awarded the designation of a Magnet Hospital due to the nurse manager’s TFL style and focuses on innovations and improvements in patient care.
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References
Jiménez, P., Winkler, B., & Dunkl, A. (2017). Creating a healthy working environment with leadership: The concept of health-promoting leadership. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 28(17), 2430-2448. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2015.1137609
Marshall, E., & Broome, M. (2017). Transformational leadership in nursing: From expert clinician to influential leader (2nd Ed.). New York, NY: Springer.
Pourbarkhordari, A., Zhou, E.H., & Pourkarimi, J. (2016). Role of Transformational Leadership in Creating a Healthy Work Environment in Business Setting. European Journal of Business and Management, 8, 57-70.
Sfantou, D. F., Laliotis, A., Patelarou, A. E., Sifaki-Pistolla, D., Matalliotakis, M., & Patelarou, E. (2017). Importance of Leadership Style towards Quality of Care Measures in Healthcare Settings: A Systematic Review. Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland), 5(4), 73. https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare5040073
A Sample Answer 2 For the Assignment: NURS 6053 Discussion 1: Leadership Theories in Practice
Title: NURS 6053 Discussion 1: Leadership Theories in Practice
How Competing Needs Impact the Development of Policy
Since the nursing shortage has impacted patient care, many policies have been created to help improve the acquisition and retention of nurses. According to Park & Yu (2019), at least 12 policies address nursing shortages. Examples are the Special contracting system, Emergency hiring plan, New pay agreement, and RN Residency program. A study of nurse residency programs in the US over 10 years of 6000 new graduate nurses indicated a quick increase in proficiency and self-confidence and a noteworthy decrease in turnover intent and actual turnover (Park & Yu, 2019).
Competing Needs That Impact the Nursing Shortage
A lower ratio of nursing staff to patients has been associated with increased mortality rates (Park & Yu, 2019). Because healthcare organizations’ main goals are cost containment, efficiencies, and effective care, this considerably influences the capability of RNs to function as autonomous professionals in keeping with their professional knowledge, standards, principles, and scope of practice (Kelly & Porr, 2018). A culture of silence has created a culture of acceptance and subdues nursing professional knowledge. These settings cause illness, exhaustion, anxiety, and bullying in the workplace, and some RNs decide to leave the profession (Milliken, 2018).
Conclusion
To promote and restore the psychosocial health and well-being of the nursing labor force, healthcare leaders are responsible for ensuring that evidence-based practice interventions are being integrated within their organizations (Kurtzman, et al., 2022).
References
Kelly, P., & Porr, C. (2018). Ethical nursing care versus cost containment: Considerations to enhance RN practice. OJIN: Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, 23(1), Manuscript 6.
Kurtzman, E. T., Ghazal, L. V., Girouard, S., Ma, C., Martin, B., McGee, B. T., Pogue, C. A., Riman, K. A., Root, M. C., Schlak, A. E., Smith, J. M., Stolldorf, D. P., Townley, J. N., Turi, E., & Germack, H.-ley. (2022). Nursing workforce challenges in the postpandemic world. Journal of Nursing Regulation, 13(2), 49–60. https://doi.org/10.1016/s2155-8256(22)00061-8
Milliken, A. (2018). Ethical awareness: What it is and why it matters. OJIN: Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, 23(1), Manuscript 1.
Park, H., & Yu, S. (2019). Effective policies for eliminating nursing workforce shortages: A systematic review. Health Policy and Technology, 8(3), 296–303. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hlpt.2019.08.003
A Sample Answer 3 For the Assignment: NURS 6053 Discussion 1: Leadership Theories in Practice
Title: NURS 6053 Discussion 1: Leadership Theories in Practice
Leadership styles are approaches that leaders in different places and situations use. The review of the two scholarly resources and the main text reveals two insights. The first one is that transformational leadership is a critical component of effective organizational working. Secondly, leaders can only attain their goals when the work collaboratively in teams by implementing a clan-oriented culture in their organizations (Broome & Marshall, 2021). Transformational leaders focus on people by inspiring and motivating them to create change in their practice organizations. The leader develops a positive workplace environment and valuable relationships with their team. According to Xie et al. (2020), transformational leadership values are based on collaboration, teamwork, and shared values and goals. Secondly, transformational leaders work in teams implying that they value clan culture. Transformational leaders value each individual and place emphasis on shared perspectives and innovation to attain better outcomes.
The theory of transformational leadership and concept of clan culture are evident in different healthcare settings. For instance, I work in a pediatric unit of an organization that values its structure which is hierarchical. The structure is rigid and known reporting relationships must be maintained by all staff, including nurse managers and leaders (Alan & Baykal, 2018). However, despite the requirements, our nurse manager has demonstrated and incorporated a transformational approach to leadership. She values teamwork and communicates not just compassionately but effectively to all staff with the aim of ensuring that they understand what they do. For instance, despite the hierarchical demands, she helps new nurses integrate into the system by demonstrating what they should do and asking them to report when stuck or struggling with medication administration and use old systems like electronic medication administration.
Transformation leadership is a core aspect of effective management and nurturing new nurses to avoid possible turnover that affects care delivery. Managers need a transformational approach in leadership to help new nurses understand their new environment and how they can deliver quality care (Broome & Marshall, 2021). The demonstration and practice of the transformational leadership by the manager shows that all nurses can be effective and motivate others to attain better outcomes by working in teams. These insights are critical for the development and progression of one’s nursing care and ability to offer quality care to patients.
References
Alan, H., & Baykal, U. (2018). Personality characteristics of nurse managers: The personal and
professional factors that affect their performance. Journal of Psychiatric Nursing, 9(2), 119-128. DOI: 10.14744/phd.2017.08870
Broome, M., & Marshall, E.S. (2021). Transformational leadership in nursing: From expert
clinician to influential leader (3rd ed.). New York, NY: Springer.
Xie, Y., Gu, D., Liang, C., Zhao, S., & Ma, Y. (2020). How transformational leadership and clan culture influence nursing staff’s willingness to stay. Journal of Nursing Management, 28(7), 1515-1524. https://doiorg.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/10.1111/jonm.13092
A Sample Answer 4 For the Assignment: NURS 6053 Discussion 1: Leadership Theories in Practice
Title: NURS 6053 Discussion 1: Leadership Theories in Practice
Leadership skills begin with understanding one’s self. Leadership leaders “demonstrate self-confidence and are able to trust and empower others” (Sherman & Pross, 2010). Their communication and actions impact others and creates a healthy working environment. The art of leadership within healthcare organizations involve managing relationships with patients, coworkers, nurses and influencing their behaviors.
An example of a good leader was my previous manager who I had the pleasure to work with for four consecutive years. I witnessed a strong leadership characteristics such as setting certain directions, strategies, having a vision for the unit, and her ability to connect with her coworkers/nurses on both personal and professional level. She was considered an informal leader; as described in the Laureate Education (2014) “displayed charisma and willingness to help others be successful because of the vision they see for their unit which can be perceived as a leader with personal power”. A good example of leadership, when my manager implemented pressure ulcer prevention strategies on the unit. She created a daily list of patients who required frequent turning every 2 hours and set up a worksheet with times with nurses names to turn patients at the assigned times. Options were offered for nurses on a preferred time depending on their patients’ workload.
Overall, this particular practice helped recognize team members’ strengths to help create a positive workplace environment and ensure tasks get completed. Also, made quality of care to be a vital element for achieving high productivity levels within healthcare organizations (Sfantou et al., 2017). In the process of conducting skills; leaders are establishing the methods of collaboration, innovation, and communication. These methods will help set the healthcare organization for success. In conclusion, it is important for leaders to ensure they develop the skills and competencies needed to be successful. The development of healthy work places are responsive to the changing healthcare environment.
References
Laureate Education (Producer). (2014). Leadership [Video file]. Baltimore, MD: Author.
Sherman, R., & Pross, E. (2010). Growing Future Nurse Leaders to Build and Sustain Healthy Work Environments at the Unit Level. OJIN: Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, 15(1), Manuscript 1. Doi: 10.3912/OJIN.Vol15No01Man01. Retrieved from http://ojin.nursingworld.org/MainMenuCategories/ANAMarketplace/ANAPeriodicals/OJIN/TableofContents/Vol152010/No1Jan2010/Growing-Nurse-Leaders.aspx
Sfantou, D.F., Laliotis, A., Patelarou, A.E., Sifaki-Pistolla, D., Matalliotakis, M., & Patelarou, E. (2017). Importance of Leadership Style towards Quality of Care Measures in Healthcare Settings: A Systematic Review. Healthcare, 5(4), 17. DOI:10.3390/healthcare5040073
A Sample Answer 5 For the Assignment: NURS 6053 Discussion 1: Leadership Theories in Practice
Title: NURS 6053 Discussion 1: Leadership Theories in Practice
Many challenges in the healthcare system need great leaders to develop new ideas for improving patient care. Having the advanced knowledge as clinicians to provide our expertise to deal with complex issues is within our scope of practice. Implementing new ideas and solutions as a leader requires a chance to collaborate with peers, clients, or patients toward desired outcomes. (Broome & Marshall, 2021). What is a leader? A leader guides, directs, motivates, and inspires a group toward a common goal. One that can collaborate skillfully, be objective, know how to facilitate and guide change, and be flexible and creative in leadership style (Hallock, 2019).
Two Key Insights
The transformational leader inspires others by changing their understanding of others of what is essential (Broome & Marshall, 2021). In my organization, I work with an excellent nurse leader who has the qualities of a transformational nurse leader. We have worked together for 22 years, and she has taken me under her wing. Ghorbani et al., 2023 state that transformational leaders influence their employees by creating values like honesty, loyalty, and fairness. They also motivate employees to cooperate and be self-leaders with charismatic personalities, behavior, and relationships. My nurse leader has always been a team player, encourager, great communicator, and educator; she is goal-oriented. For instance, our facility was due for accreditation, and she was preparing for it. She wanted me to learn the accreditation process step by step and sit in on the meeting with the surveyors. This demonstrated her ability to provide a platform to educate and develop knowledge and skills to achieve a goal in understanding (Ghorbani et al., 2023). A key insight from another reading was the Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership, an evidence-based path to achieving excellence (Hallock, 2019).
First, “Leaders Model the way.” Leaders must be good examples for followers to believe it is essential. Second, “Inspire a Shared Vision.” Leaders have a vision to make a change in hopes that they work. Third, “Challenge the Process.” Looking for ways to improve, grow, and create. Looking to the outside to challenge the status quo. Forth, “Enable Others to Act.” Leaders cannot lead alone. Leaders must collaborate and learn to build trust. Finally, “Encourage the Heart.” A good leader encourages, uplifts, and shows appreciation when goals are accomplished. Being able to recognize one’s accomplishments shows the strength of a leader (Hallock, 2019). For instance, the physician I work for was inspired by a shared vision: to open his own ASC. As a leader, he had the vision to improve the community and raise awareness of digestive diseases for cancer. He enabled others to act because he could not do it alone, so he organized a team as a leader and started collaborating with his nursing staff and doctors to build trust and grow his organization. His ASC is flourishing 22 years later, all because of a vision and effective leadership. An effective leader inspires others to achieve extraordinary results for a common goal (Broome & Marshall, 2021).
Conclusion
In conclusion, learning to become a great healthcare leader comes from advancing clinical knowledge. The ability to lead by listening, communicating, guiding, directing, motivating, and inspiring others requires skills one can learn. Allowing yourself to learn from mentors and seek additional education can help you become an experienced practitioner, able to make a difference and improve patient care. As a leader, there may be many challenges along the way, but focusing on the goal and learning to encourage others is essential in improving patient care and can help create change.
References
Broome, M., & Marshall, E. S. (2021). Transformational leadership in nursing: From expert clinician to influential leader (3rd ed.). New York, NY: Springer.
Hallock, A. B. (2019) A Case for Leadership Development in Nursing Practice. Nephrology Nursing Journal, 46(3), 325–328.
Ghorbani, A., Mohammadi N., Rooddehghan, Z., Bakhsi, F., & Nasrabadi, A. N. (2023). Transformational leadership in development of transformative education in nursing: a qualitative study. BMC Nursing, 22(1), 1–10. 10.1186/s12912-022-01154-zLinks to an external site.
Grading Rubric Guidelines DQ
| Performance Category | 10 | 9 | 8 | 4 | 0 |
| Scholarliness
Demonstrates achievement of scholarly inquiry for professional and academic decisions. |
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| Performance Category | 10 | 9 | 8 | 4 | 0 |
| Application of Course Knowledge –
Demonstrate the ability to analyze, synthesize, and/or apply principles and concepts learned in the course lesson and outside readings and relate them to real-life professional situations |
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| Performance Category | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 0 |
| Interactive Dialogue
Replies to each graded thread topic posted by the course instructor, by Wednesday, 11:59 p.m. MT, of each week, and posts a minimum of two times in each graded thread, on separate days. (5 points possible per graded thread) |
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Summarizes what was learned from the lesson, readings, and other student posts for the week. |
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| Minus 1 Point | Minus 2 Point | Minus 3 Point | Minus 4 Point | Minus 5 Point | |
| Grammar, Syntax, APA
Note: if there are only a few errors in these criteria, please note this for the student in as an area for improvement. If the student does not make the needed corrections in upcoming weeks, then points should be deducted. Points deducted for improper grammar, syntax and APA style of writing. The source of information is the APA Manual 6th Edition |
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| 0 points lost | -5 points lost | ||||
| Total Participation Requirements
per discussion thread |
The student answers the threaded discussion question or topic on one day and posts a second response on another day. | The student does not meet the minimum requirement of two postings on two different days | |||
| Early Participation Requirement
per discussion thread |
The student must provide a substantive answer to the graded discussion question(s) or topic(s), posted by the course instructor (not a response to a peer), by Wednesday, 11:59 p.m. MT of each week. | The student does not meet the requirement of a substantive response to the stated question or topic by Wednesday at 11:59 pm MT. |