Healthcare Smart Goals

As Finkelman (2006) stated, “Mentoring, and important career development to that can be used by nurses any type of set or specialty, can be used to develop the critical leadership skills needed by nurses. All successful leaders have had mentors are our mentors” (Finkelman,2006, p. 390).

In today’s healthcare system, effective leadership is essential to improving and reaching organizational outcomes. A leader is someone with the ability to influence others but, an effective leader uses positive strategies to inspire employees to work towards the same goal. Leadership in nursing requires a constant effort to motivate others to become part of the organizational transformation. This can be achieved using a transformational leadership style with a focus on communication, motivation, and empowerment.

Every day, a set team of nurses and nursing managers set out to ensure the health and well-being of their patients. To achieve this goal, a nurse manager must adhere to a specific style of nursing leadership. There are many different styles of leadership in the healthcare field. Bass and Barnes (1985) stated that the two most common are transformational and transactional (as cited in Frankel, 2008, p.24). This paper will define leadership, the two different styles, how each are executed, as well as pros and cons of each.

A review of the relevant research specific to the question of the effectiveness of mentorship programs was conducted (see evidence summary table, Appendix A). The bulk of the published studies evaluating the implementation and effectiveness of mentoring programs for newly registered nurses demonstrated the beneficial effects mentorship has on job satisfaction and retention rates (Edwards, Hawker, Carrier & Rees, 2015; Zhang et al., 2015).

The aim of the literature review was to determine if the initiation of leadership mentoring programs would improve the competence and integration of new nurse leaders to increase patient health outcomes in clinical practice settings. “Trends such as low morale, a general apathy regarding professional collegiate support, heavier workloads, reduced resources, and higher patient acuity can contribute to job dissatisfaction, poor work performance, and may be putting positive patient health outcomes at risk” (Bally, 2007).

“Nursing is informed caring for the well-being of others” (Swanson, 1993, p. 352). Kristen Swanson’s relationship-based caring theory encompasses maintaining belief, knowing, being with, doing for, and enabling. Nursing is a profession with vast opportunities for growth and development. Each nurse has his or her individual passions; mine reside within obstetrics, women’s health, and nursing leadership. Nurse leaders play an integral role in the success of healthcare organizations. Nurse leaders shape the roles of nurses within their organizations. Nurse leaders seek methods to improve patient care. They also use innovation to gain efficiencies in care delivery and decrease healthcare cost. Many nurse leaders have an ultimate goal to aspire to be a chief nursing officer in a healthcare

To foster strong leaders, nurses need to take responsibility of their own personal and professional growth. Nurses must seek opportunities through nursing associations and education programs to develop and exercise their leadership skills. Strong leadership skills warrant the federal government to ensure that leadership positions are available for nurses so that future health care needs of the changing population can be met effectively.

Mentors now have to be aware of the NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement, NHS leadership Qualities Framework, which gives mentors clear instructions about their responsibilities (Kinnell and Hughes 2010). However, meeting these requirements alone will not make a nurse a successful mentor. Mentors have to plan and provide appropriate opportunities for teaching and learning activities, with clinical experience to achieve learning outcomes and develop professional competencies (Choun and Suen 2001). This will enable them to assess students performance,

A mentoring relationship can ¬¬occur at any phase of an individual’s career, whether a new graduate, an experienced nurse assuming a nurse manager or clinical nurse specialist position, or an established clinician taking on a leadership position as the chairperson of a shared governance council. (“Mentoring Nurses,” 2013, para

The training of the mentors would involve teaching them about transformational leadership as one element of becoming a mentor. Leaders must have certain characteristics to effectuate change. Transformational leaders pinpoint the need for change, and guide the team through the execution of those changes. This type of leader portrays charisma, is well educated, humble, and inspires peers to accomplish exceptional results (Marshall, 2011). Mentoring using a transformational leadership approach can create a vision to guide novice nurse practitioners as they progress in their new roles. Transformational leaders can inspire novice NPs to express areas in which the novice NP is struggling, without feeling incompetent. Furthermore, a transformational leader can assist novice NP’s in developing self-awareness and improving self-management (Marshall, 2011). Rich et al. (2015) developed a model for a two-day mentorship workshop that included teaching mentors the foundations of them mentorship relationship so mentors would know how to help the NP learn and assist the NP in taking action

In the United States nursing is the nation’s largest health care profession and there are more 3.1 million registered nurses nationwide (American Association of Colleges of Nursing, 2011, para. 1). The number of registered nurses is projected to grow by 16 percent from 2014 to 2024 (U.S. Department of Labor, 2015, para. 5) and given these growing numbers there will be an increased need for nurse leaders. Nursing leadership plays a pivotal role not only in striving to implement safe patient practices, but also for nurse retention and satisfaction (Bormann & Abrahamson, 2014, p. 219). Nurses will need development and mentoring to develop the leadership skills needed to support the development of healthy work places (Sherman & Pross, 2010,

Throughout this clinical semester, I have worked with several different registered nurses (RNs) and have been able to develop mentoring relationships with many of the staff on the unit. During our time together, I interviewed several of my nurse mentors and elicited information regarding their nursing experiences and the culture of the environment in which they work. The following conversations provide a summarization of my nurse mentors’ responses to the selected interview questions.

Though Bally and Nemcek are both concerned about high attrition rates in registered nurses and seek ways to increase retention rates and decrease the rate of turnovers, the factors which they consider critical in addressing the shortage of nurses by increasing rates of retention are vastly different. Nemcek is concerned with the internal emotional states and experiences of registered nurses and the impact that has on the nurse's experiences with respect to job satisfaction and life satisfaction-two factors which are already closely related. Bally on the other hand approaches the problem of nurse shortages by exploring the importance and consequences of environments which have strong mentoring cultures on job performance and satisfaction. Particularly, she focuses the role of nurse leaders in fostering such a mentoring environment.

The emotional stress and the needs to develop competence are commonly challenging newly graduated nurses (Oermann & Garvin 2002). Mentoring or coaching young professionals can support them in career development and resilience (Davidson, Elliott & Daly 2006). Mentors play various roles in clinical settings, such as advisers and counsellors (Ali & Panther 2008). Their support does not limit to

Nursing leadership plays a crucial role in the success of meeting the established goals in quality and value initiatives. Nursing leadership helps to create effective “mentoring culture in acute care environments” (Farmer, 2009, p. 535). Nurses should be ready to demonstrate their leadership skills when they perform the tasks to achieve the established goals in improving health care practices. Personal mastery and competence of nurses form the basis of leadership nursing. Besides, nurses demonstrate their leadership skills through the application of their cultural values, which affect their personal and professional values. According to the findings provided by the National League of Nursing, there are four major dynamic values that should be reflected in nursing leadership, including “caring, integrity, diversity and excellence” (Kelly & Tazbir, 2013, p. 5). Nursing leadership practices help to