Servant Leadership in Nursing

The concept of leadership is an essential function in management, crucial to achieving efficiency and set goals. The definition of leadership has changed over time from concentrating on the top management to considering the lower management levels. This essay discusses the principles of servant leadership, qualities, and their support for inter-professional communication in the context of patient care.

Servant Leadership

Servant leadership refers to leaders as those who see themselves as servants, being under the will of others. In the modern context, servant leadership constitutes ten principles first developed by Greenleaf and later distilled by Larry Spears.

These principles include; listening, empathy, awareness, persuasion, conceptualization, foresight, stewardship, commitment to people’s development, and building community (Waterman, 2011).

Contextually, this type of leadership focuses on meeting the need of the subordinates. In this sense, subordinates are seen as ends rather than means to realize their ability and perform optimally.

Therefore, the servant leadership approach is found when leaders foster respect, value, and motivate followers.

Servant Leadership Qualities

Two servant leadership qualities that are consistent with inter-professional communication in healthcare delivery include active listening and empathy.

Active listening is crucial for communication in hospital management (Jahromi et al., 2016). Appropriate listening facilitates fast and quick solutions to arising clinical issues presented by the patient or medical personnel.

On the other hand, empathy enables a nurse leader to understand the patients or medical personnel and their concerns by paying personal attention to feelings and emotions (Moudatsou et al., 2020). Therefore, empathy is crucial for managing patient-physician-manager relationships in a clinical setting.

Servant leaders play crucial roles in the development and growth of an organization. In healthcare, servant leaders understand the feeling and concerns of others, including patients and medical staff. Therefore, servant leaders in healthcare can create a suitable clinical environment through listening and empathy, thus, quality care delivery.

References

Jahromi, V. K., Tabatabaee, S. S., Abdar, Z. E., & Rajabi, M. (2016). Active listening: The key to successful communication in hospital managers. Electronic physician, 8(3), 2123. https://doi.10.19082/2123

Moudatsou, M., Stavropoulou, A., Alegakis, A., Philalithis, A., & Koukouli, S. (2021, February). Self-Reported Assessment of Empathy and Its Variations in a Sample of Greek Social Workers. In Healthcare (Vol. 9, No. 2, p. 219). Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute. https://doi.10.3390/healthcare8010026

Waterman, H. (2011). Principles of servant leadership and how they can enhance practice. Nursing Management, 17(9).https://doi.10.7748/nm2011.02.17.9.24.c8299