NURS 8302 Discussion Leadership for Change
Sample Answer for NURS 8302 Discussion Leadership for Change Included After Question
What are the characteristics of a transformational leader?
As you have examined this week, a transformational leader is a leader who is able to inspire change and bring out the best in those around them. However, what characteristics does this leader have? Perhaps a transformational leader is trustworthy, inspiring, and charismatic? Perhaps this leader leads with integrity, respect, and empathy? Perhaps this leader is team-focused, encouraging, and positive?
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How would you define a transformational leader, and when might you have experienced this type of leadership?
For this Discussion, consider the role of transformational leadership for change. Explore the need for transformational leaders, and describe experiences you may have had with these leaders. Additionally, analyze how these leaders might enhance quality improvement in healthcare organizations and nursing practice.
To Prepare:
- Review the Learning Resources for this week, and reflect on potential leadership strategies for promoting change in healthcare organizations and nursing practice.
- Consider the potential impact of project management for supporting transformational leadership approaches for promoting change in organizations.
- Reflect on the relationship between transformational change, leadership strategies, and the need for quality improvement in your healthcare organization or nursing practice.
By Day 3 of Week 10
Post a brief explanation of the relationship between transformational leadership for change and the need for quality improvement.
Share any experiences you may have of transformational leadership in your healthcare organization or nursing practice. Then, describe how you would recommend the application of project management approaches to support transformational leadership practices for the promotion of a quality improvement initiative in your healthcare organization or nursing practice. Be sure to include any short- and long-term milestones or goals associated with the quality improvement initiative described. Be specific and provide examples.
By Day 6 of Week 10
Read a selection of your colleagues’ responses and respond to at least two of your colleagues on two different days by expanding upon your colleague’s post or offering an alternative recommendation on using project management approaches for leading quality improvement efforts in your colleague’s healthcare organization or nursing practice.
Note: For this Discussion, you are required to complete your initial post before you will be able to view and respond to your colleagues’ postings. Begin by clicking on the “Post to Discussion Question” link and then select “Create Thread” to complete your initial post. Remember, once you click on Submit, you cannot delete or edit your own posts, and you cannot post anonymously. Please check your post carefully before clicking on Submit!
Submission and Grading Information
NURS 8302 Discussion Leadership for Change Grading Criteria
To access your rubric:
Week 10 Discussion Rubric
Post by Day 3 of Week 10 and Respond by Day 6 of Week 10
To Participate in this Discussion:
Week 10 Discussion
A Sample Answer For the Assignment: NURS 8302 Discussion Leadership for Change
Title: NURS 8302 Discussion Leadership for Change
Relationship between Transformational Leadership for Change and the Need for Quality Improvement
Leadership style and effectiveness certainly plays a significant role in strengthening and improving quality and patient care. Although there are various leadership styles, the transformational leadership style seems to align very well with our complex and ever-changing health care system, as it encourages adaptation and change. The principles of this leadership style are well suited for our fast-paced, diverse workforce (University of Massachusetts Global, 2020). The four components of transformational leadership are individualized consideration, inspirational motivation, idealized influence, and intellectual stimulation. This is a leadership style characterized by creating relationships and motivation among staff members (Sfantou et al., 2017). It aims to cause change in individuals as well as social systems by creating positive changes in followers with the ultimate goal of developing followers into future leaders. This type of leadership involves leaders to achieve goals by learning from and meeting the personal needs of those who choose to follow them, and it is this process and learning from those following them and meeting their needs that allows them to develop a sense of ownership with regards to their processes, which in turn inspires them to strive and reach for greater levels to meet the organization’s goals (Omar, 2017). Transformational leadership supports quality improvement by focusing management and leadership attention on the training and personal development of the followers and improvement processes (Omar, 2017).
Experience with Transformational Leadership in my Health Care Organization
My experience with transformational leadership has been a positive one. This style of leadership strives to improve the overall work environment as well as the personal lives of the followers. Transformational leadership seems to make upper management more accessible to the employees. Leaders which utilize this style, focus less on establishing strategic plans and more on facilitating overall organizational collaboration which helps to drive a vision forward (University of Massachusetts Global, 2020). Management is visible, available, and encouraging of questions and feedback from employees so that they may provide adequate support and employ individualized consideration. Team member engagement surveys are distributed quite frequently to all members via the organizational intranet and we are all highly encouraged to participate with our responses. Incentives are even provided with prizes being awarded by randomly choosing the name(s) of survey engagement submission participants. Engagement surveys are utilized as a means by which to identify factors that lend themselves to disengagement, and the goal at this point is to address those factors and make changes that are meaningful to the employees.
Leadership is continually encouraging feedback for recommendations, and/or the identification of issues that they feel need to be addressed, which encourages employees to be creative and innovative, and results in intellectual stimulation. The lines of communication are always open and management is easily accessible. Upper management makes rounds on the units to speak to and engage employees as an opportunity to hear “real-time” questions/comments/concerns from that which are affected by them directly as a way to garner buy-in and meet the employee’s needs, an approach which is clearly supported by the transformational leadership style. In exchange for this type of approach, employees are more than willing to push themselves harder and meet the organizational goals and have their actions align with the organizational values and vision (Omar, 2017). The unified vision that encourages team members to exceed expectations is an example of inspirational motivation. This leadership style inspires employee confidence, staff respect, and communicates loyalty through a shared vision which strengthens employee morale, job satisfaction, and increased productivity (Sfantou et al., 2017). Earning the necessary level of trust and respect from followers towards leadership helps leaders to guide decision-making that provides an overall organizational improvement, an example of idealized influence.
Application of Project Management Approaches to Support Transformational Leadership Practices for the Promotion of a Quality Improvement Initiative
Transformational leaders work to change the system while maximizing their team’s abilities, they serve as role models for their followers/team members and challenge their followers to overachieve and outperform by empowering them to perform at their very best. They utilize planning structures, set goals, and then work to create new systems to accomplish it by gaining buy-in from their followers to adopt common goal(s)/vision(s) to achieve improvements that benefit all pertinent stakeholders, via the use of team communication, cohesiveness, collaboration, and effective and efficient team-building (Ali et al., 2021). This is where transformational leadership and project management join forces. A transformational leader will employ collaborative efforts to achieve organizational improvement with the aid of their followers (Omar, 2017). Project managers/leaders much like transformational leaders are agents of change, and this is the same philosophy that is the general underpinning of transformational leadership.
A project manager with a transformational leadership style is someone with the right attitude and drive to formulate a quality improvement initiative vision, propose the change, easily get follower/team member buy-in, and has the ability to get others to be excited and enthusiastic about not only the proposed improvement initiative but also the change process, which improves project performance (Ali et al., 2021). The transformational leader makes an effective project manager due to the fact that they possess the characteristics of this leadership style, and as such would be able to easily convey their vision, justify the project improvement investment to the proper stakeholders, secure resources, get the proper team members engaged to become active participants in the quality improvement team, develop a specific management plan, lead and motivate the team, execute the plan, monitor for change and progress, meet all due dates, and carry the project to completion (Sipes, 2020). A project leader with a transformational leadership style will not have to chase down team members to accomplish tasks or stay focused and on task. It is the transformational factor that makes quality improvement initiatives successful when this approach is adopted, and this style is implemented.
References
Ali, H., Chuanmin, S., Ahmed, M., Mahmood, A., Khayyam, M., &Tikhomirova, A. (2021). Transformational leadership and project success: Serial mediation of team-building and teamwork. Frontiers in Psychology, 12(689311). https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.689311
Omar, H. O. (2017). Transformational leadership in quality management. Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers. https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd/11018
Sipes, C. (2020). Project management for the advanced practice nurse (2nd ed.). Springer Publishing Company.
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
University of Massachusetts Global. (2020). What is transformational leadership? Understanding the impact of inspirational guidance. https://www.umassglobal.edu/news-and-events/blog/what-is-transformational-leadership
A Sample Answer 2 For the Assignment: NURS 8302 Discussion Leadership for Change
Title: NURS 8302 Discussion Leadership for Change
Thank you for a wonderful post. Your focus on transformational leadership is excellently done and highly insightful. You have brought exceptional points about the relationship between transformational leadership for change project and need for quality improvement, practical experiences of transformational leadership in your practice, and how project change management approaches can support transformational leadership. I agree with you. However, despite the many benefits that are associated with transformational leadership, organizations and project managers should always be aware of the various pitfalls of this leadership approach and take actions to combat the limitations (Collins et al., 2019). One of the common limitations of transformational leadership includes disruption of routines. Application of this leadership approach requires workers to change how they think about work, which can cause confusion and disruption (Jacobsen & Staniok, 2020). Moreover, if an organization is undergoing extensive changes simultaneously, unified system may fall apart or employees risk forgetting typical set of rules and best practices. The approach is also risky since employees can be influenced to satisfy vision of their leader even if it lacks merits and deceptive (Moon et al., 2019).
References
Collins, E., Owen, P., Digan, J., & Dunn, F. (2019). Applying transformational leadership in nursing practice. Nursing Standard, 35(5), 59-65. doi: 10.7748/ns.2019.e11408
Jacobsen, C. B., & Staniok, C. D. (2020). Sharing the fire? The moderating role of transformational leadership congruence on the relationship between managers’ and employees’ organizational commitment. International Public Management Journal, 23(4), 564-588. https://doi.org/10.1080/10967494.2018.1486930
Moon, S. E., Van Dam, P. J., & Kitsos, A. (2019, December). Measuring transformational leadership in establishing nursing care excellence. In Healthcare (Vol. 7, No. 4, p. 132). Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute. https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare7040132
A Sample Answer 3 For the Assignment: NURS 8302 Discussion Leadership for Change
Title: NURS 8302 Discussion Leadership for Change
Transformational leadership is a leadership style that focuses on creating change in an organization. When a leader has a transformational leadership style the correlation to change, meaning adopting new changes or techniques, is positive (Peng, Wang, and Lin, 2021). This knowledge shows us why it is important to strive to have transformational leadership in place in an organization that needs change.
I have had many great leaders throughout my nursing career. One leader used transformational leadership style in her leadership practices. Everyone on the unit loved working for her and with her. She was often seen on the floor helping where she could and promoting teamwork and unity. If there was a change that she wanted to pilot we were more than willing to go along with her because we knew that she would have our backs and that she would support us and help us. She was a wonderful leader. When she switched to a different unit many of the nurses followed her because they liked her so much and felt so supported.
The project management approach to support transformational leadership practices is a great option for the advanced practice nurse. Project management comes naturally to many nurse leaders because many of the same concepts are used in project management and the nursing process (Sipes, 2020). I could use the project management approach in my organization through the use of outlining the project to improve quality and showing the steps that could be required for the improvement of quality. For example, at my long term care facility there has been an increase in pressure ulcers acquired at the facility. The first step in the project management process is to create a quality improvement team, from there decisions will be made about what interventions need to be implemented. The decision is made to set up big clocks outside the residents rooms who need to be turned. These clocks show what side the resident should be on during every two hour interval. This intervention is put into place. After that the results of the quality improvement project would be monitored and reported to the director of nursing to see if the visual clocks were helpful in reducing the amount of pressure ulcers. The short term goals would be to have 75% of residents be on the appropriate side during any two hour time span. The long term goals would be to decrease the number of pressure ulcers in the facility.
References
Peng, J., Li, M., Wang, Z., & Lin, Y. (2021). Transformational leadership and employees’ reactions to organizational change: Evidence from a meta-analysis. Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 57(3), 369–397. https://doi-org.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/10.1177/0021886320920366
Sipes, C. (2020). Project management for the advanced practice nurse (2nd ed.). Springer Publishing Company.
NURS 8302 Discussion Leadership for Change Rubric Detail
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Content
Name: NURS_8302_Week10_Discussion_Rubric
| Excellent
90–100 |
Good
80–89 |
Fair
70–79 |
Poor
: 0–69 |
||
| Main Posting:
Response to the Discussion question is reflective with critical analysis and synthesis representative of knowledge gained from the course readings for the module and current credible sources. |
Points Range: 40 (40%) – 44 (44%)
Thoroughly responds to the Discussion question(s). Is reflective with critical analysis and synthesis representative of knowledge gained from the course readings for the module and current credible sources. No less than 75% of post has exceptional depth and breadth. Supported by at least three current credible sources. |
Points Range: 35 (35%) – 39 (39%)
Responds to most of the Discussion question(s). Is somewhat reflective with critical analysis and synthesis representative of knowledge gained from the course readings for the module. 50% of the post has exceptional depth and breadth. Supported by at least three credible references. |
Points Range: 31 (31%) – 34 (34%)
Responds to some of the Discussion question(s). One to two criteria are not addressed or are superficially addressed. Is somewhat lacking reflection and critical analysis and synthesis. Somewhat represents knowledge gained from the course readings for the module. Cited with fewer than two credible references. |
Points Range: 0 (0%) – 30 (30%)
Does not respond to the Discussion question(s). Lacks depth or superficially addresses criteria. Lacks reflection and critical analysis and synthesis. Does not represent knowledge gained from the course readings for the module. Contains only one or no credible references. |
|
| Main Posting:
Writing |
Points Range: 6 (6%) – 6 (6%)
Written clearly and concisely. Contains no grammatical or spelling errors. Adheres to current APA manual writing rules and style. |
Points Range: 5 (5%) – 5 (5%)
Written concisely. May contain one to two grammatical or spelling errors. Adheres to current APA manual writing rules and style. |
Points Range: 4 (4%) – 4 (4%)
Written somewhat concisely. May contain more than two spelling or grammatical errors. Contains some APA formatting errors. |
Points Range: 0 (0%) – 3 (3%)
Not written clearly or concisely. Contains more than two spelling or grammatical errors. Does not adhere to current APA manual writing rules and style. |
|
| Main Posting:
Timely and full participation |
Points Range: 9 (9%) – 10 (10%)
Meets requirements for timely, full, and active participation. Posts main Discussion by due date. |
Points Range: 8 (8%) – 8 (8%)
Meets requirements for full participation. Posts main Discussion by due date. |
Points Range: 7 (7%) – 7 (7%)
Posts main Discussion by due date. |
Points Range: 0 (0%) – 6 (6%)
Does not meet requirements for full participation. Does not post main Discussion by due date. |
|
| First Response:
Post to colleague’s main post that is reflective and justified with credible sources. |
Points Range: 9 (9%) – 9 (9%)
Response exhibits critical thinking and application to practice settings. Responds to questions posed by faculty. The use of scholarly sources to support ideas demonstrates synthesis and understanding of learning objectives. |
Points Range: 8 (8%) – 8 (8%)
Response has some depth and may exhibit critical thinking or application to practice setting. |
Points Range: 7 (7%) – 7 (7%)
Response is on topic and may have some depth. |
Points Range: 0 (0%) – 6 (6%)
Response may not be on topic and lacks depth. |
|
| First Response: Writing |
Points Range: 6 (6%) – 6 (6%)
Communication is professional and respectful to colleagues. Response to faculty questions are fully answered, if posed. Provides clear, concise opinions and ideas that are supported by two or more credible sources. Response is effectively written in standard, edited English. |
Points Range: 5 (5%) – 5 (5%)
Communication is mostly professional and respectful to colleagues. Response to faculty questions are mostly answered, if posed. Provides opinions and ideas that are supported by few credible sources. Response is written in standard, edited English. |
Points Range: 4 (4%) – 4 (4%)
Response posed in the Discussion may lack effective professional communication. Response to faculty questions are somewhat answered, if posed. Few or no credible sources are cited. |
Points Range: 0 (0%) – 3 (3%)
Responses posted in the Discussion lack effective communication. Response to faculty questions are missing. No credible sources are cited. |
|
| First Response: Timely and full participation |
Points Range: 5 (5%) – 5 (5%)
Meets requirements for timely, full, and active participation. Posts by due date. |
Points Range: 4 (4%) – 4 (4%)
Meets requirements for full participation. Posts by due date. |
Points Range: 3 (3%) – 3 (3%)
Posts by due date. |
Points Range: 0 (0%) – 2 (2%)
Does not meet requirements for full participation. Does not post by due date. |
|
| Second Response: Post to colleague’s main post that is reflective and justified with credible sources. |
Points Range: 9 (9%) – 9 (9%)
Response exhibits critical thinking and application to practice settings. Responds to questions posed by faculty. The use of scholarly sources to support ideas demonstrates synthesis and understanding of learning objectives. |
Points Range: 8 (8%) – 8 (8%)
Response has some depth and may exhibit critical thinking or application to practice setting. |
Points Range: 7 (7%) – 7 (7%)
Response is on topic and may have some depth. |
Points Range: 0 (0%) – 6 (6%)
Response may not be on topic and lacks depth. |
|
| Second Response: Writing |
Points Range: 6 (6%) – 6 (6%)
Communication is professional and respectful to colleagues. Response to faculty questions are fully answered, if posed. Provides clear, concise opinions and ideas that are supported by two or more credible sources. Response is effectively written in standard, edited English. |
Points Range: 5 (5%) – 5 (5%)
Communication is mostly professional and respectful to colleagues. Response to faculty questions are mostly answered, if posed. Provides opinions and ideas that are supported by few credible sources. Response is written in standard, edited English. |
Points Range: 4 (4%) – 4 (4%)
Response posed in the Discussion may lack effective professional communication. Response to faculty questions are somewhat answered, if posed. Few or no credible sources are cited. |
Points Range: 0 (0%) – 3 (3%)
Responses posted in the Discussion lack effective communication. Response to faculty questions are missing. No credible sources are cited. |
|
| Second Response: Timely and full participation |
Points Range: 5 (5%) – 5 (5%)
Meets requirements for timely, full, and active participation. Posts by due date. |
Points Range: 4 (4%) – 4 (4%)
Meets requirements for full participation. Posts by due date. |
Points Range: 3 (3%) – 3 (3%)
Posts by due date. |
Points Range: 0 (0%) – 2 (2%)
Does not meet requirements for full participation. Does not post by due date. |
|
| Total Points: 100 | |||||
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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
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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