Transformational Leadership Within A Health Care Setting

Transformational leaders are those who praise others for their work and show them how gladly appreciated they are. D.G encourages the health care members on her floor to achieve all their goals while on shift and also reward them for a job well done. She has also built many strong relationships with many nurses and physicians which she is considered highly trustworthy. Her leadership involves promoting group collaboration, nurse empowerment and increasing job satisfaction. A transformational leader displays various components. “Transformational leadership is composed of four main elements: “individualized consideration, intellectual stimulation, inspirational motivation, and idealized influence” (as cited by). D.G meets the needs of the nurses

Journal of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners, 27 (7), 389-397. Doi: 10.1002/2327-6924.12165. Marshall, E. (2011). Transformational leadership in nursing:

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.

When one thinks of leaders, they think of those who hold a high profile position or someone who is highly visible in the public eye. A leader, regardless of prestige is someone who can easily influence and inspire the actions and goals of others. The definition of a leader in Nursing Leadership and Management in Nursing states, “leadership is commonly defined as a process of influence in which the leader influences others towards goal achievement (Kelly, 2012 p.2). Leaders are needed at all levels and nurses take a leadership role by being advocates for their patients. There are many leadership theories and styles in nursing but this paper will focus on transformational leadership and its application to nursing. Transformational leadership is important in nursing, due to its ever changing and ever evolving healthcare methods and technology.

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.

Leading a health care organization comes with immense responsibility and is not an easy task. Transformational leadership has proven to be an effective leadership style in the nursing profession, demonstrating a clear mission, a commitment to excellence, and the ability to motivate and lead others to higher levels of achievement (Schwartz, Spencer, Wilson, & Wood, 2001). Characteristics and qualities of an effective leader include

My nursing leadership philosophy is based on transformational leadership to which I ascribe. Transformational nurse leaders have a vested interest in the success of those they lead and their organization’s vision. They are visionaries in the pursuit of cutting-edge ways of completing the tasks and goals of the team and organization. They are able to inspire, encourage, open to mentorship, see the potential in those they lead while challenging them, and knowing their strengths and weaknesses. I am cognizant of my own limitations, strengths and weaknesses, acknowledge my mistakes and open to change.

Change is inevitable in healthcare. The purpose of this paper was to discuss and guide the facilitators of change through the process of implementing a future care delivery model. Leadership qualifications and roles were described in an effort to assist the leader in identifying and rectifying complications that can impede progress. Potential conflicts among the enablers of change were discussed as well as tools necessary to minimize these barriers. The Twelve Bed Hospital Model was reviewed in detail and recommendations for transitioning into this model were suggested. Transformation Leadership theory was utilized to build successful change leaders and followers and a democratic approach encouraged strong bonds between the nursing

Evidently, a lack of motivation and empowerment leads nurses to feel inadequate and powerless. Therefore, there is the need to raise leaders who will empower and motivate future nurses to achieve a higher level of potential. This can be achieved with transformational leadership which empowers nurses to be more involved in decision making, planning process, and play a part in quality improvement for patient care (Castro,Van Regenmortel, Van Hecke, Sermeus, & Vanhaecht, 2016, p. 1926). Indeed, the advantages of empowerment and motivation of future nurse leaders are numerous as it improves a nurses’ confidence in day to day tasks, decreases job stress, burn out and improves job satisfaction rates (MacPhee et al, 2012, p.160). Thus, nurses stay longer, they feel like voices are being heard, patient’s satisfaction rates go up and they contribute more success to the organization.

A transformational leadership style along with good communication skills can be used to manage the multiples issues Hartland Memorial faces. “Transformational leadership involves anticipating future trends, inspiring followers to understand and embrace a new vision of possibilities, developing others to be leaders, and reward learners” (Hellriegal & Slocum, 2009, p. 301). Elizabeth and her associates should have the necessary qualities of a transformational leader; integrity, accountability, and motivation, so the staff can identify with them. The nurse manager could give nurses opportunities to demonstrate and experience leadership in their profession on a regular basis. Effective leadership is critical in delivering high quality care; equally

The type of leadership theory the chief of nursing facilitates is transformational leadership. In the transformational leadership, “the leaders and followers raise one another to higher level of motivation and morality” (Grossman & Valiga, 2009, p. 73). After the training was completed, we felt comfortable and equipped to responding to an emergency in a war zone.

The main focus of the theory is motivation, inspiration and empowerment to create changes. It is based on the idea of empowering others to facilitate overall goal. Bennis and Nanus (1985) describe this new leader as a leader who “commits people to action, who converts leaders into leaders, and who converts leaders into agents of change” (p.3).177. According to processes to engage and motivate staff article “Transformational leadership is important for high quality care delivery, and behaviors that nurse leaders inspire, role model and reinforce are instrumental in creating work practice that deliver optimum care”.

Transformational leadership is an emerging type of leadership that is more adaptable the changing environment within healthcare and has the ability to guide and empower staff to embrace the changes (Finkelman, 2012). This type of leadership is especially important today with many nurses felling unsatisfied, or unappreciated. In order to have a successful organization, it must first have the ability to retain nurses through job satisfaction. Transformational leaders have the ability to encourage staff members to embrace the changes to come, by promoting such things as team work, and recognition of hard work done by staff members (Smith, 2011). Having the ability to recognize staffing needs along with the compassion to try and meet those needs while maintaining the functionality of the organization, is the key to future

Without competent leadership change can have negative impact on both the employees and the patients. According to Wright (2010), lack of leadership in change management could lead to adverse outcomes such as resentment, rebellious attitudes, and could end up damaging the same people it intended to make better (p.20). Therefore, experts warned that it is very important to have competent leadership at the helm of change management (p.20). As the focus of providing leadership shifts to nurse administrators who are often in the frontline of change management, nurse administrator should use essential tools such as the American Organization of Nurse Executives (AONE) five domain of competence as a framework in change management.

The focus on transformational (and transactional) leadership was also identified in a systematic review performed by Gilmartin and D’Aunno (2007) examining health care leadership research from 1989 to 2005. They concluded that studies in health care provide strong support for transformational leadership theory and identified links with staff satisfaction, unit or team performance, organisational climate and turnover intentions. They suggest these effects are stronger when assessed among more junior than senior staff. Positive effects of transformational leadership have also been demonstrated in relation to work-life balance, staff well-being, positive nursing outcomes, patient safety, openness about errors, and patient and staff satisfaction