Transformational Leadership
As prospective leaders, nurses who have got a doctorate of nursing practice should strive to ensure that a nursing staff is providing the best possible care for the patient through the use of evidence-based practice methodologies. Research shows that when nurses are accorded the right leadership, there is exhibition of improvement in the satisfaction of the clients by the medical facilities, and improved safety outcomes for the patients.
Nurses that possess DNPs will be often asked to provide better health care to the patients. The cultivation of effective leadership style plays a very vital role in ensuring that the NDP educated nurses can manage the stuff nurses effectively (David, Denise, Amali, Marani, & Albert, 2016). Nursing leadership, therefore, is critical as far as well coordinated and integrated healthcare is concerned. Different styles should, therefore, be included in the nursing leadership so that each section is covered in the different leadership styles (Mannix , Wilkes , & Daly, 2015). Our discussion will show different leadership styles that needs to be inculcated in the nursing leadership and which bring about improvement in the healthcare. One leadership style cannot Manage to be effective as far as nursing leadership is concerned hence there is a need for different styles (Fowler , 2016)
Nursing leadership is extremely important regardless of where the leadership is being applied. The latter is mostly required especially where nurses are directly involved with the patients for long periods of time. In the case of the advanced practice registered nurses and who are looking forward to being prepared by DNP practitioners, there is a need to have leadership education (Wong & Cummings, 2014). The different leadership styles impact positively on the morale of the nurses and also on the productivity in all working places (Coomber & Barriball, 2015).
Transformational leadership, for instance, is known to build a positive relationship and lead to a motivation of the individual staff membership and the team as a whole. Transformational leadership brings about enthusiasm, charisma and positive output. It is viewed as the gold standard in the nursing leadership since it leads to the promotion of the improved patient results and an increase in the job satisfaction amongst the nurses (Xirasagar , Samuels , & Stoskopf, 2016). Research done by Burns James show that in a transformational leadership, the leader and the follower have a great relationship as far as motivation is concerned. In a clinical situation, a staff will require encouragement from the nurses and the nurses also need encouragement from their leader. All this is meant to make sure that the satisfaction of the patients is attained.
Autocratic Leadership
This style should be used in any leadership since it is a key factor in receiving a coveted magnet designation. However, due to several shortcomings that it has, it is always advisable not to use this type of leadership style alone but use it along with other leadership styles as this will increase the performance of the nurses and at long run improves the satisfaction of the patients (Lok & Crawford, 2014). Once this leadership style has been included and used together with the other leadership styles, then leaders find it easy to know the strengths and weaknesses of all the members of the staff (Laschinger & Havens, 2015).
On the other hand, one leadership style will also not manage to cover the transactional leadership which is meant to lead to the motivation of the employees by the use of a system of rewards and punishment which is meant to get the daily tasks being accomplished in time (Boyle , Bott , Hansen , & Woods, 2015). Managerial leaders will focus on getting the assigned job being accomplished without making any significant changes. In this leadership style, there is believed in the extrinsic motivation, rules and also procedure to gain compliance (Boyle , Bott , Hansen , & Woods, 2015). However, it cannot be used alone since it has been noted to hinder the long-term relationships and impacts negatively on the motivation of the nurses (Marie , Dragan , Terry , Alison , & Christine, 2015).
Autocratic leadership is the one whereby decisions are made without the other outputs being considered. Here, the leaders make use of the negative reinforcement and punishment as they try to enforce the rules (Boyle , Bott , Hansen , & Woods, 2015). The leaders here withhold information from the staff with an aim of retaining power. After mistakes are made, the leaders blame individual wrongdoers instead of blaming the whole faculty. However bad this type of leadership may seem, it cannot work for the case of day to day situations but it is crucial in where little time for discussion is required. This leadership skill helps in the enforcement of policies and procedures (Xirasagar , Samuels , & Stoskopf, 2016). However, it cannot be used alone since it does not lead to the promotion of trust or communication. This leadership style is viewed as too dictatorial and people in most cases view it from the positive side.it is hence commendable to use it alongside other leadership styles so as to bring balance in leadership since when applied alone, it can lead to poor services and the level of dissatisfaction of clients will be very high (Robyn , Kristiana , & Luke , 2017).
Laissez-Faire Leadership
This kind of leadership is also known as an absence of leadership. It leads to the promotion of the hands-off approach to the personnel management and hence allows nurses to work in the absence of direct supervision or guidance from the leaders (Coomber & Barriball, 2015). Recent research shows that Laissez-faire type of leadership can impact negatively to the workers since it promotes unit socialization and leads to the creation of culture blame. On the other hand, Laissez-faire has been noted as an important and effective leadership instrument in the cases whereby when highly skilled, trained and motivated staffs are involved (Boyle , Bott , Hansen , & Woods, 2015). Nursing leadership needs to take or else strike a balance in the application of Laissez-faire leadership tool.in this case; nurses are assumed not to be in need of managers to keep an eye on them each and every other time (Wong & Cummings, 2014).
The leaders who are democratic give encouragement to the staff nurses to openly learn to communicate and also give their contribution to decision making (Laschinger & Havens, 2015). A leader who is democratic enough will focus on building strong relationships while keeping an eye on the satisfaction of the job and also the development of the members of the staff. Democratic leadership, therefore, aims at improving the systems and processes rather than having to blame the individual members of the given groups for the mistakes done (Xirasagar , Samuels , & Stoskopf, 2016). It gives encouragement for the building of a consensus (Boyle , Bott , Hansen , & Woods, 2015). When democratic leadership is involved, there is, however, slow decision making and time is so much consumed. The latter comes up due to the fact that there is an increased participation that includes all members of the team (Boyle , Bott , Hansen , & Woods, 2015). In some other cases; there is an increased anxiety for nurses brought about by participation of some of them who are half-baked and who lack enough experience and at the same time giving room for the experienced nurses to have a direct and disproportionate influence in decision making. This kind of leadership style alone is therefore not fit to be used alone in the clinical leadership but it needs to be used together with the other leadership styles discussed above if at all leaders need to get the best performance in nursing staff (Laura & James , 2014).
Democratic Leadership
Conclusion
Of all the leadership styles discussed above, the transformational is the one that is most effective and has been lauded as good for many nurses including those nurses having DNP. DNP is meant to bring about transformational leadership by molding the leaders to acquire the required leadership skills. As a result of their educational and experimental backgrounds, nurses who have DNPs have been noted to have undertaken the leadership roles by encouraging the presence of exploration, all types of communication and also evaluation. However, for there to be effective in clinical leadership and generally any other type of leadership, there is need to involve all the above-discussed leadership styles since each one of them has their own weaknesses and strengths. Selection of one leadership style and sticking to it will not yield enough and desirable performance in the work setting and this will bring about the dissatisfaction of the patients.
References
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