Effective Leadership and Management in Nursing Effective Leadership and Management in Nursing Nursing is considered as adivine profession, and nurses are envisaged as the angels of compassion. Clara Barton, Florence Nightingale, Margaret Sanger and others are the renowned nurses who dedicated their lives to serving the humanity. But in the present world, healthcare has advanced exceptionally, and this, in turn, demands nurses to be versatile professionals who have subtle knowledge, technical proficiency, communication skills, and dedication. Healthcare has, throughout the years, emerged as an industry, and since nursing is an important aspect of this industry, effective management and leadership are constitutive to this vocation.

The proverb says: “A leader knows the way and a leader shows the way.” This describes what a leader should be. The methods of leadership differ as we come across different disciplines, but the ideals of leadership are similar everywhere. My personal view on leadership is that the leader should know the visions and goals of the group he or she is leading and know how to accomplish this goal utilizing the resources available. In my opinion, a leader is also a manager, as he has to manage his resources properly. A group without a charismatic leader is like a building without a strong foundation. It can collapse anytime.

As mentioned above, there are several aspects of management in leadership. But management is only a part of leadership, and leadership has many other constituents in it. In a document by Thomas International Ltd (2008), it is written that leaders manage long-term goals and they are entitled to inspire their group. The leaders decide the targets and time-frames for the group. They must impart clearly what output is expected from their group and the methods and ideals that must be followed by the group members. Managers are to handle matters rather diplomatically, and they are assigned to manage the processes in producing the output that the leader has indicated. Their job is rather appointive or directive. Skills in concept making, public relations, and technology are expected from them. For example, in a company, its CEO is the leader and its HR manager is a person who manages processes in building the output set by the CEO. As for nursing, we have nursing stations in every hospital, and a nursing administrator will be present as a leader of other nursing personnel in order to provide sophisticated nursing services to the patients. A note from the Ethiopia Public Health Training Initiative by the Addis Ababa University defines leadership in nursing as follows: “Nursing service administration is the process of planning, organizing, leading and controlling that encompasses human, material, financial and informational resources in an organizational environment to achieve the predetermined objectives” (Cherie & Gebrekidan, 2005).

The characteristics of an effective leader differ as per the context. But any leader should be an owner of a dynamic personality. He or she must be able to provide the exact information on queries from his or her followers and should be bold enough to make strict decisions on time. The ability to maintain public relations is cardinal. Intelligence in the concerned field is definitely a prerequisite. He or she should be a model to the followers. In other words, managerial, interpersonal, decisional, informational, and technical skills constitute the characteristics of an effective leader.

Nursing is essential to healthcare, and effective management and leadership is important in today’s nursing. We feel this in real life when we come across some critical surgeries or at the time of some epidemics. A nursing administrator should have dynamic leadership qualities in addition to a humanitarian outlook, technical knowledge, and personality. He or she must be familiar with the advancements in technology and medicine. Only a team of such an administrator and dedicated staff can render ace healthcare services to the needy. They can surely uplift the dignity and ethics of nursing and healthcare.

References

Cherie, A., & Gebrekidan, A. B. (2005). Nursing Leadership and Management. Lecture notes for nursing students. Retrieved from http://www.cartercenter.org/resources/pdfs/health/ephti/library/lecture_notes/nursing_students/LN_nsg_ldrshp_final.pdf

Thomas International Ltd. (2008). Leadership: A personal view. Solving your people puzzle. Retrieved from http://www.thomasinternational.net/Portals/2/PR_Marketing/Articles/Leadership%20A%20Personal%20View.