A Peer Response must be substantive by bringing information to the discussion or further enhance the discussion. Each Peer Response must have a minimum of ONE reference with citations (the best is a peer-reviewed article). Word count is greater than 75 words or at least 5 sentences in length. Statements like “I agree” or “great post” does not count for the words or sentences.
Discussion question/Participation #1
Nurses are the front-line staff in the care of people affected by this highly contagious and deadly disease. Nurses should insist on the best interests of nursing staff when staff is often in difficult situations. Nurse leaders serve as advocates by conducting quality assurance programs, auditing, avoiding wrongdoings, asking a patient review to regulate quality care, and ensuring that legal and ethical services are followed.
Workshops should be conducted so as current skills are updated (Edmonds et al, 2020). Current knowledge as well should be updated by conducting continuing education program. Regular meetings should be conducted so that requirements and needs are asked and met. Speak to higher levels of government for higher wages and other nursing benefits. Nursing leaders act as mentors to help staff make the right decisions in critical situations.
It helps maintain a specialized organization that solves nursing problems.
Provision of better patient outcomes and good quality care services results from nurses listening to patient feedback and conducting a quality assurance program. Auditing and continuing all workshop activities will improve the nurse’s skills and knowledge and continue the nursing program. Increasing the staff’s salary, reducing the nurse’s working hours and their workload enhances the nurse’s provision of services and performance. The nurse also helps avoid unnecessary problems for patients and their families and make the right decisions (Williams et al, 2018). In clinical practice, nurses face violence from the patient’s family members, and they will need their leader’s guidance in learning how to maintain a good relationship with the patient and how to educate family members to be patient so that the medical personnel can do their jobs.
Discussion question/Participation #2
To increase staff morale and commitment, nurse leaders and managers need to make sure that the mission and ethical goals of an organization align with everyday practices and operations (Thomas, 2018). Incompatibility of ethics with everyday practices to lead to poor patient outcomes (Thomas, 2018).
This is one way that managers advocate for their employees. Another way is to use effective communication and education techniques to keep their employees informed and up-to-date on practices (Thomas, 2018). Healthcare is a rapidly changing field and nurse managers and leaders have better patient outcomes when one of several change management models is used (Thomas, 2018). Nurse managers and leaders also use operational processes to ensure that employees understand current practices.
They use an open organizational system so employees feel comfortable questioning practices or suggesting improvements (Thomas, 2018). Lastly, using continuous quality improvement gives nurse managers and leaders a structure within which to implement higher quality practices and measure their effectiveness (Thomas, 2018). When employees are provided with the tools that allow them to perform their job at an exemplary level, they are more likely to do so, and patient outcomes improve (Sprajc, Podbregar & Hribar, 2018).
Discussion question/Participation #3
Nurses leaders not only use their advocacy skills to patients but also continuously
advocate for their employees as well as the nursing profession as a whole.
Nursing
leaders choose to lead from the servant position, making sure the follower’s need
are met through wise and thoughtful interactions. Being an advocate of employees is
to identify the issues to be addressed and develop goals and a strategy to address
those issues. So, they must possess the ability to problem-solving, communicate
clearly and concisely, influence other to act, and collaborate with others to achieve
the goal (Tomajan, 2012) These skills will enable the nurse leaders to address the
staff’s workplace concerns that will help to promote positive work environments
hence leading to positive patient care and outcomes.
Nurse leaders can actively involve employees in decisions that directly affect the
practice environment and by promoting a collaborative culture that involves staffing
committees and self-scheduling approaches that meet the needs of both patients
and staff.
Furthermore, leaders fulfill advocacy role by involving employees in the
budget scrutiny, work process redesign, or workflow change which promotes
understanding of the operating challenges of the current health care environment
(Tomajan, 2012). So it is essential for nurse leaders to understand that their
advocacy must lead in improving work processes on the front lines; creating new
integrated practice models; working with others, from organizational policy
makers to state legislators, to craft practice policy and legislation that allows
nurses to work to their fullest capacity (IOM, 2011). This will ensure the nurse’s
voice is heard and empower them to translate and apply research findings to draw a
conclusion on medical problems which ultimately ensures patients’ safety and care.
Discussion question/Participation #4
Surveys show that far too many nurses feel powerless in their jobs: their perception is that they are unable to act autonomously or even have a voice in the policies that affect them. Some of it is rooted in the historical view of nursing as “women’s work” within a patriarchal medical hierarchy.
But recent standards of nursing education are a contributing factor as well – nurses often receive no training in leadership skills, which are known to foster self-confidence.
The problem with powerlessness within the nursing profession is clear: it creates job dissatisfaction, stress, and burnout. It can lead to ineffective nursing management that compromises patient safety. And it is incompatible with today’s increasing emphasis on multi-disciplinary care, where collaboration is key. In theory, nurses who have advanced to management positions have acquired, either through education or experience, a sense of personal empowerment.
Yet, research suggests we might still have a long way to go. A 2011 study found that nurses in middle management in an acute care hospital setting did not feel fully empowered. A more recent study, published in 2014 in the Journal of Nursing Administration found only moderate levels of empowerment among 140 clinical nurse managers at one large healthcare system in the northeast.
We need nurse leaders who not only feel empowered themselves but have the skills to empower the nurses they supervise. Empowered nurses demonstrate autonomy and independent decision-making skills. They can perform well without constant feedback. They feel like stakeholders in the whole care delivery system.
Nurses are more likely to develop a sense of empowerment when they work at an organization that values structural empowerment – for example, by including nursing representatives in the process of creating policies. This gives nurses some influence in areas that have traditionally been governed by executive-level hospital administrators, and it is known to help promote the highest level of nursing excellence (American Sentinel College of Nursing and Health Sciences, 2017).
Discussion question/Participation #5
According to Wagner (2020), organizational culture can be described as “the implicit knowledge or values and beliefs within the organization that reflect the norms and traditions of the organization” (Mancini & Wong, 2015, p. 152). Schein (cited in Ko, Murphy, & Birdman, 2015) further describes organizational culture as “the pattern of shared basic assumptions . . . as the correct way to perceive, think and feel” (p. S676).
The number one barrier to advocacy that makes leaders (and staff nurses) feel powerless is the feeling of lack of support from administration (Thomas, 2018). I have seen this throughout different organizations that I have worked for. I hear management and leaders say that they brought up topics for discussion with leaders higher up in the organization and that they felt like they got nowhere. When this happens, it turns into discouragement on the leader’s part from trying or bringing things up in the future which then impacts that staff resulting in the same feelings.
A study conducted by Scalzi et al. (2006) found that in 3 organizations the barriers included exclusion of nurses from culture-change activities, perceived corporate emphasis on regulatory compliance and the “bottom line,” and high turnover of administrators and caregivers. They also identified that things that enabled included a critical mass of “change champions,” shared values and goals, and empowerment at the facility level.
Discussion question/Participation #6
Organizational culture is defined as values and beliefs displayed within an organization (Thomas, 2018).
Many things can cause barriers for nursing leaders which results in them feeling powerless. One of the barriers is lack of leadership education and development. In today’s healthcare the environment has been created for the need for nursing to lead policy discussions and influence the direction healthcare is going in the future (Addressing barriers in leadership for nurses, 2014). On top of having more complex patients and need more evidence-based practices, and future oriented leadership. Companies need to invest more in the education of the leadership and have these skills available to new nurses (Addressing barriers in leadership for nurses, 2014). Leadership starts with the new nurses and then continues as they grow.
