Health Care Environment Samples for Students †MyAssignmenthelp.com

Question: Discuss about the Health Care Environment and Leadership Skill. Answer: Introduction: Health care environment has become very complex and demanding and in such situation, it has become necessary to develop future nurse leaders. However, the current challenge innursing is that despite recognition of the need for future leaders, very few graduate nurses focus on developing leadership skills. In the future, the growing demand and needs for service will create new challenges in the health delivery system. The generational cohort of nurse leaders will retire and young graduate are expected to fill those position by 2020 (Dyess, Sherman Chiang-Hanisko, 2016). Hence, newly placed graduate nurse have the opportunity to extend their role and engage in effective communication and teamwork with other health care professionals to successfully emerge as a leader in the long run. In the daily practice of a graduate nurse, leadership skills is demonstrated by activities like coordinating with team of nurses and support on duty, managing challenging situations, supporting staff on d uty and striving to promote the successful operation of the shift (Blair, 2015). This report gives an understanding of the methods by which graduate nurse can show leadership skills in complex situation by the analysis of the case scenario of Ms. A, a newly graduate nurse has to take control over ICU unit issues. 5R explaining the scenario: Reporting: While working as an EEN in the hospital, I got to see the unique leadership challenges faced by Ms. A, a newly placed graduate nurse who was in charge of the intensive care. While being assigned to the duty of managing successful operation in the intensive care unit, many challenges confronted her. The first challenge was that in the morning shift, adequate number of nurse was not present and performing assignment in the absence of two nurses created high workload for other nurses. The main issue for the nurses in the shift was that majority of the patients were on ventilators and in such situation, nurses required extra help while conducting the task of vocative infusion to support blood pressure of patient. Another issue for the nurse in charge of the ICU ward was that there were lot of nurse managers on the unit but no one bothered to help the nurse and they were busy with their own paper works. The nurse manager has a critical role in health care setting. They need to juggle and manage patient care issues, staffs concerns, supply inadequacies and other institutional issues (Kath et al., 2013). However, no such initiative was taken bynursing managers in the intensive care ward in the case scenario. Responding: In such situation, I believe that acting in a calm way is not possible for any newly placed graduate nurse. They are most likely to become nervous and develop anxiety, however Ms. A was calm and confident in her decision making. As an EEN, I feel that nurse managers must support the nurses in shift if they face any issues in the delivery of care issues (Roche et al., 2015). However based on my experience so far in my duty, I have found that instead of supporting thenursing staff by means of negotiation with other health care staffs, they often blame the nurse for not prioritizing the task carefully. However, I feel that if there is shortage of nurse in particular shift, it is not the fault of the nurse and the nurse managers should come forward to support nurses in such situation. In the context of the reaction of Ms. A, in this situation, I was amazed to find that instead of attacking nurse managers, she handled the situation maturely and decided to apply her graduate level course i n team work and communications in this situation. She was highly successful in displaying leadership skills too. Relating I find Ms. As decision to be very effective because unnecessary questioning and interrogation with the nurse managers would have made the situation more worse and affected the nursing assignment and patient safety process. However, engaging in a polite conversation with nurse managers was the most appropriate step considering the unit situation and the immediate requirement to complete nurse assignments in the ICU ward safely. Ms. As action is commendable because she understood the gravity of the situation and the need to manage and resolve conflict despite being newly placed to nursing practice. She displayed leadership skills to identify and effectively respond to the challenge. She actualized her role in the practice environment and used her training in team work and communication to good use in actual practice (Dyess Sherman, 2011). I feel that greater coordination of care across health care staff and across health care setting improves patient outcome, quality of care and reduc es extra spending due to adverse events. Nurses are best positioned to lead in a transformative health care environment (Salmond Echevarria, 2017). Ms A. responded well in her duty as ICU nurse in charge and displayed exceptional leadership and team work skills. Reasoning: The main issue experience by Ms. A in the scenario was the lack of coordination and team work between the nurse managers and the nursing staff in the ICU ward. Although nursing managers have the responsibility to manage staffs concerns too, but they paid more importance to their own paper work. Such non collaborative action among team members impedes safety, restricts full participation of team and undermines team work (Salmond Echevarria, 2017). Ms. A realized these issues in ICU ward unit and went against reprimanding the nurse manager because this would have again perpetuated the dysfunctional culture. Nurse Managers would have expressed resentment and negative behavior would have blocked the progress towards the completing the task successfully. However, Ms. As decision to engage in polite conversation and explaining the nurse manager that their expertise is needed at that time had a positive impact on the nurse manager. The use of communication skills helped Ms. A to increase c reative thinking in the team, make staffs aware about sensible action in the situation and resolve conflicts (Amestoy et al., 2014). Hence, communication and leadership skills can support graduate nurse to mitigate interpersonal conflict and direct all staffs to work for the same goal. Reconstructing Based on the final outcome of using polite conversation and communication skills to changes the nurse managers action of supporting nurse in complex care environment like ICU, I can say that taking training in team work was an important step by Ms. A. This is reflective of the nurse desire to develop as a leader in the future. I also aim to expand my professional competency in leadership skills so that I can contribute to management of conflicts and handling leadership role in the future. To create a healthier work environment, my goal is to develop strong connection with front line staff and closely observe my nursing managers to see how they manage complex health operations and address challenges faced by staffs and ultimately achieve quality care (Grossman Valiga, 2016).. Evidence also proves that nurse who work with nurse manager preceptors develop positive appreciation for leadership activities in daily routine (Dyess et al., 2016). Strategies: For the critical reflection on professional practice, the topic of developing leadership qualities in graduate nurse was specifically taken because there is lack of experience nursing leaders, however graduate nurse need to acquire the leadership role in the future after the retirement of senior nurse. Young graduate nurse pay less attention to succession strategies and developing leadership skills today (Sherman et al., 2015). Hence, when they are assigned a task like that of managing complex care environment like ICU (in the Ms. A case scenario), they fail miserably and contribute to negative outcome in health care environment. There is great expectation from generation Y nurse to take up the leadership role in the future (Sherman et al., 2015). Hence, all graduate nurse must identify and develop strategies to develop leadership role and maintain the team dynamic in health care environment. One of the strategies that graduate nurse can employ to demonstrate leadership skills is to take mandatory training in management responsibilities and skills for specialized department of health care. This can make them aware about professional obligation to adhere to organizational policies, develop confidence in risk management and coordinating with multi-professional health care team (Sherman et al., 2013). Leadership competencies can lead to the development of helpful behavior in nurses such as motivating followers to actively engage in quality control and patient safety process, clearly communicating expected standards of care and ensuring effective resource utilization (Pollard Wild, 2014). Apart from personal efforts by graduate nurse, role of organization is also important to retain nurse and enhance their motivation for accepting the leadership role. This is because lack of opportunities for upward mobility, experiences of stereotyping and inflexible organizational culture are the reasons for nurse not preferring leadership roles (Keys, 2014). Hence, to support graduate nurse in their leadership role, organization must take the responsibility to prepare the nurses for the clinical leadership role. Another useful succession planning strategy for the Gen Y nurse may include tailoring mentoring efforts according to the specific generation (Keys, 2014). Another strategy that graduate nurse can employ in their preparation for the leadership role is to focus on communication skills targeted towards team work. This is extremely important for lateral integration of care and conflict management. One of the important steps to bridge the gap between individual and other colleagues or support staffs is to maintain clear communication with all stakeholders and building strong relationship with them. This can increase coordination of care across setting and help reduce fragmentation and lapses in health care delivery (Bender, Connelly, Brown, 2013). Ms. A was also found to use communication skills effectively to motivate the nurse manager to change their attitude and accept the need to support the staffs. Hence, professionally competent communication skills can help graduate nurse to easily transition to the leadership role and manage group processes regarding patient care. One of the important roles of nursing leader is to engage in difficult conversation with stakeholders and facilitate effective team work in health care process. However, team dynamic is affected when senior and managerial level staff does no coordinate with junior staffs to promote efficiency in the care process. Ms. A also experienced similar issues while taking in charge of the ICU unit. The best strategy to demonstrate leadership skills in such situation is to collaborate with team members to make them aware about their role and striving to build cohesive relationship with staff instead of interrogating and responding. Taking time out to identify their needs and concerns also reduces conflicts and motivates the team to work towards the common goal of quality care and patient safety. Supervised learning can also foster emotional intelligence and support nurse leaders to use motivational strategies to changes the attitude of demotivated staffs (Waite Brooks, 2014). Conclusion: From the critical reflection of the challenges faced by Ms. A while in charge of the ICU unit and the method of handling teamwork issues, it can be concluded that developing leadership is critical for nurse in their succession planning. As the mature nurses are going to retire, the Gen Y nurses have to fill in the position of nursing leaders. However, very few nurses are found to accept or prepared for this role. There is a need for organization to support the nurse in developing leadership competencies and increasing their motivation to develop leadership competencies. Special training on leadership and communication skills during the starting of placement can help the nurse to become a confident leader and effectively handle complex and transforming health care environment. References Amestoy, S.C., Backes, V.M.S., Thofehrn, M.B., Martini, J.G., Meirelles, B.H.S. and Trindade, L.D.L., 2014. Conflict management: challenges experienced by nurse-leaders in the hospital environment.Revista Gacha de Enfermagem,35(2), pp.79-85. Bender, M., Connelly, C. D., Brown, C. (2013). Interdisciplinary collaboration: The role of the clinical nurse leader.Journal of Nursing Management,21(1), 165-174. Blair, K. A. (2015).Advanced practice nursing: Core concepts for professional role development. Springer Publishing Company. Dyess, M. S., Sherman, O. R., Chiang-Hanisko, L. (2016). Growing nurse leaders: Their perspectives on nursing leadership and todays practice environment.OJ Nurs. Dyess, S., Sherman, R. (2011). Developing the leadership skills of new graduates to influence practice environments: a novice nurse leadership program.Nursing administration quarterly,35(4), 313-322. Grossman, S., Valiga, T. M. (2016).The new leadership challenge: Creating the future of nursing. FA Davis. Kath, L. M., Stichler, J. F., Ehrhart, M. G., Sievers, A. (2013). Predictors of nurse manager stress: a dominance analysis of potential work environment stressors.International journal of nursing studies,50(11), 1474-1480. Keys, Y. (2014). Looking ahead to our next generation of nurse leaders: Generation X Nurse Managers.Journal of nursing management,22(1), 97-105. Pollard, C. L., Wild, C. (2014). Nursing leadership competencies: Low-fidelity simulation as a teaching strategy.Nurse education in practice,14(6), 620-626. Salmond, S. W., Echevarria, M. (2017). Healthcare Transformation and Changing Roles for Nursing.Orthopedic nursing,36(1), 12. Sherman, R. O., Saifman, H., Schwartz, R. C., Schwartz, C. L. (2015). Factors that lead Generation Y nurses to consider or reject nurse leader roles.NursingPlus Open,1, 5-10. Sherman, R., Dyess, S., Hannah, E., Prestia, A. (2013). Succession planning for the future through an academic-practice partnership: a nursing administration master's program for emerging nurse leaders.Nursing administration quarterly,37(1), 18-27. Waite, R., Brooks, S. (2014). Cultivating social justice learning leadership skills: A timely endeavor for undergraduate student nurses.Nurse education today,34(6), 890-893.