Effective Approaches in Leadership and Management Comprehensive Nursing Paper Sample

Effective Approaches in Leadership and Management Comprehensive Nursing Paper Sample

Nurse turnover and how it impacts quality of care and patient safety

Nurse turnover occurs every time a nurse leaves an organization for any reason ranging from personal reasons, retirement, job dissatisfaction, career growth, and changing professions. Job dissatisfaction, nurses feeling underappreciated, and unequal opportunities score high among the reasons for nurse turnover. Nurses always work in a fast-paced environment offering care to patients, attending to family members, and following the required practices and procedures (Shaffer & Curtin, 2020). The work environment is always stressful and can increase the turnover rate if leadership decisions are not effective in managing workers and their needs and feelings. High turnover has an impact on the quality of care and patient safety. When nurses leave, the ones remaining have more roles to play and are often overworked. Few healthcare workers compared to the workload affects the quality of patient care in terms of longer services’ waiting time, unattended needs, lack of specialized expertise. Overworking reduces the nurses’ productivity. The shortage of nurses due to high turnover adversely affects satisfaction and outcomes among nurses and patients. According to Antwi (2018), a high mortality rate is always associated with high nurse turnover.(Effective Approaches in Leadership and Management Comprehensive Nursing Paper Sample)

How professional standards of practice should be demonstrated to help rectify nurse turnover

Employee turnover is often a reaction to leadership and managerial decisions. Nurses’ managers and leaders play a vital role in reducing the rate of turnover in an organization (Vaughn, 2020). Adopting effective professional standards of practice can improve retention. A healthcare organization requires a nurse retention strategy. The strategy includes the implementation of standards in nurses’ hiring and staffing processes. The effectiveness of the hiring process determines the time nurses can be at an organization. The recruitment and staffing processes should integrate onboarding and training to ensure nurses understand their roles before beginning work. Onboarding allows candidates to familiarize themselves with the environment and workplace responsibilities preparing them for what lies ahead. The organization should clearly describe the characters and personalities required to work there. Utilizing these personality and job descriptions in the recruitment processes helps select the best-suited individuals for the job and who can remain at the organization longer. There should be clear role function descriptions for every nurse. A clear understanding of one’s responsibilities in the organization makes it easier and reduces confusion and workplace stress. Effective and efficient recruitment processes also help deal with retirement, which is inevitable.(Effective Approaches in Leadership and Management Comprehensive Nursing Paper Sample)

Nurse Managers and leaders need to maintain motivated nurses by involving them in decision making and offering equal opportunities for promotion and career growth. Nurses should be involved in all sectors and boardrooms where decisions are made. This involvement makes nurses feel heard and valued, which is important for retention. Nurses’ involvement should be part of an organization’s culture. Most nurses want to advance their careers or climb the ladder of hierarchies. An organization should provide an educational and learning environment for nurses to add to their skills and knowledge and equal opportunities in promotions and transfers (Dewanto & Wardhani, 2018). Managers and leaders also need to establish communication lines between parties. Effective communication creates and maintains a workplace harmony that improves employee satisfaction. Emotional intelligent leaders can help reduce nurse turnover by offering counseling and mentorship. Such leaders can comprehend other people’s feelings and design initiatives to produce positive outcomes, helping nurses go through a difficult situation. Leadership and managerial support empower nurses to embrace their profession.(Effective Approaches in Leadership and Management Comprehensive Nursing Paper Sample)

Differing roles of nursing leaders and nursing managers in this instance and the different approaches they take to address the nurse turnover and promote patient safety and quality care

Nurse leaders and managers influence the success of a healthcare organization. Their role is pivotal in staff development and retention, ensuring the objectives, goals, and missions of the organization are translated into daily practice (Gunawan, Aungsuroch & Nazliansyah, 2018). Managers and leaders have the responsibilities in the recruitment process, assigning duties and tasks, communicating with employees and giving feedback, and solving conflicts. They are also responsible for attending to nurses’ needs and providing a way forward while confronting situations. Leadership and managerial decisions affect nurse turnover as they influence job satisfaction and workplace stress and pressures.(Effective Approaches in Leadership and Management Comprehensive Nursing Paper Sample)

Leaders can adopt approaches such as job promotions, better remunerations, employee motivation, effective communication, respect, flexibility, and autonomy to cultivate a culture of permanency, increasing retention, and promoting quality of care and patient safety (Shaffer & Curtin, 2020). Most nurses that feel they deserved promotion but the opportunities are not there or are given to other people often leave. Therefore, leaders and managers should learn to practice fairness in promotions. Salary and benefits affect turnover. Considering the high competition for healthcare workers in the industry, leaders, and managers should include luring packages to attract and retain workers. Leadership support and effective communication motivate employees, increasing retention. Leaders need to maintain an engaging workplace, establish collaborative initiatives and teamwork, which motivates employees. Leaders should be considerate while assigning duties and ensure no overload, reducing burnout, which is a factor in employee retention. Managers and leaders should also maintain flexible work schedules to allow nurses to balance personal life and work. Respectful leaders make their employees feel valued, and they would always be ready to make meaningful contributions. Stress is the major contributor to nurse turnover, and leaders need to possess the emotional intelligence to understand their employees and develop required strategies such as counseling and mentorship to empower employees.(Effective Approaches in Leadership and Management Comprehensive Nursing Paper Sample)

Aspects managers and leaders would need to initiate to ensure professionalism throughout diverse health care settings while addressing nurse turnover

There are various leadership strategies to promote nurse retention in diverse health care settings. Leaders need to cultivate trust. Many people have left their workplace because of leaders and managers. Leaders require strong moral ethics like integrity and accepting responsibility. Employees feel valued when leaders and managers show trust. Leaders also need to be honest and clear in their communication to eradicate misunderstanding while working with a diverse workforce. Leaders should initiate authenticity and aestheticism to establish and sustain a healthy work environment. Authentic and aesthetic leaders are likely to provide fair and just solutions. Another aspect would be safety and security. (Effective Approaches in Leadership and Management Comprehensive Nursing Paper Sample)Leaders should ensure employee safety, especially for nurses working in an acute care setting. Nurses are mostly tired due to understaffing, which makes them uncomfortable. Leadership support can help ensure nurses’ safety (Hughes, 2017). Nurses also need to be assured of their job security and work in an environment free of bullying, harassment, and violence. Leaders and managers should initiate workplace harmony by solving conflicts as they arise. Job security is vital for nurse retention since their future is guaranteed. A leader and manager that helps employees feel appreciated, stimulates trust, ensures collaboration and autonomy, builds a spirit of teamwork, and is supportive is vital in nurse retention.(Effective Approaches in Leadership and Management Comprehensive Nursing Paper Sample)

A leadership style that would best address nurse turnover

Servant leadership style can help reduce nurse turnover in a healthcare environment. This style stipulates leaders as servants and not masters. Servant leaders pay attention to the needs of their followers. Servant leadership is vital in empowering employees, building trust, compassion, and positive role-modeling (Jordaan & Jooste, 2012). This style cultivates trust relationships between leaders and nurses, allowing nurses to be autonomous. Nurses can formulate and initiate their vision, which helps them address difficult situations and make uncoerced decisions. Servant leaders are keen on listening to their followers, demonstrate empathy, persuasion, stewardship, foresight, and conceptualization. Servant leaders are also emotionally intelligent and aware of their followers’ needs. Servant leadership makes employees feel valued, boosting their motivation levels. Servant leaders act as role models and can build a workplace community where employees can thrive in. Most employees would like to work in a caring environment.(Effective Approaches in Leadership and Management Comprehensive Nursing Paper Sample)

Conclusion

Leadership is pivotal in ensuring nurse retention. Nurse turnover impacts organizational success in terms of quality of care and patient safety. Leaders and managers need to adopt retention strategies that aim at retaining new hires and old hires with desired traits. Some of the approaches leaders can employ in addressing workforce turnover include effective and efficient recruitment and staffing, a healthy work environment, practicing justice and fairness, offering career development opportunities, employee engagement, and managerial support. Satisfied and happy employees tend to stay longer.(Effective Approaches in Leadership and Management Comprehensive Nursing Paper Sample)

Resources

Antwi, A. Y. (2018). The Impact of Nurse Turnover on Quality of Care and Mortality Nursing Homes: Evidence from the Great Recession.(Effective Approaches in Leadership and Management Comprehensive Nursing Paper Sample)

Dewanto, A., & Wardhani, V. (2018). Nurse turnover and perceived causes and consequences: a preliminary study at private hospitals in Indonesia. BMC nursing, 17(2), 1-7.(Effective Approaches in Leadership and Management Comprehensive Nursing Paper Sample)

Gunawan, J., Aungsuroch, Y., & Nazliansyah, A. S. (2018). The lived experiences of becoming first-line nurse managers: A phenomenological study. Iranian journal of nursing and midwifery research, 23(1), 66.(Effective Approaches in Leadership and Management Comprehensive Nursing Paper Sample)

Hughes, V. (2017). Leadership strategies to promote nurse retention. Scientific Journal of Nursing and Practice, 1(1), 001-005.(Effective Approaches in Leadership and Management Comprehensive Nursing Paper Sample)

Jordaan, E., & Jooste, K. (2012). Student nurses’ perceptions of the nurse manager as a’servant leader’. Africa Journal of Nursing and Midwifery, 14(1), 76-88.(Effective Approaches in Leadership and Management Comprehensive Nursing Paper Sample)

Shaffer, F. A., & Curtin, L. (2020). Nurse turnover: Understand it, reduce it.(Effective Approaches in Leadership and Management Comprehensive Nursing Paper Sample)

Vaughn, N. (2020). Nurse Turnover Rates: How To Reduce Healthcare Turnover.(Effective Approaches in Leadership and Management Comprehensive Nursing Paper Sample)

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/