Nur 492 - Effective Leadership and Management in Nursing

Effective Leadership and Management in Nursing

Sean Ashby

NUR/492

June 6th, 2011

Lita P.Tsai MSN

Effective Leadership and Management in Nursing

This paper is being written to answer three questions that pertain to leadership and management in nursing. The first question is what are my personal views of leadership? The second question is how does leadership differ from management? And finally the third question is what the characteristics of an effective leader are?

My personal views on leadership begins with the idea that people come into work to do a job for a paycheck for the most part, but when it comes to nursing that is not the only reason we do what we do. As nurses we have chosen this profession to care for another person and to help people through their path in life not only as caregiver, but as educators even sometimes as a shoulder to lean on in a tough time and first and foremost in my mind is being an outstanding patient advocate. We do this job because we care about people and want the best for all that come into our circle. A Leader in my estimation exemplifies these characteristics with every action they make. A leader must also be clinically relevant, staying up to date with not only clinical skills but new technologies that become available to improve patient care this includes new imaging techniques and new computer charting systems. A true leader is resource person for other staff members and if they don't have the answer they will always know where to get the answer. One last thought on leaders they remain cool under pressure when a patient is not doing well they react with calm reassurance to all parties involved knowing that how they respond to a high pressure situation will directly affect the surrounding members of the healthcare team.

How leadership differs from management. Management has their authority derived from the parent company of the facility they work for. Leaders authority was not assigned them by a company directive; a leader's power is given to them by their followers they have earned in real work situations. Managers don't have followers managers have subordinates and are work focused because they are subordinate to someone who has set constraints on performance and expenditures with a bottom line always looming in the background. Leaders are adept at inspiring people to do what they want by enticing them with the idea of becoming better and more like the leader who is well respected and thought of amongst their peers. Managers are transactional in that they use a reward system to get things done often the subordinates salary or at least with food is used to motivate. Leaders realize that you