Leadership Style In Health Care

Leadership Style After taking a test to determine my style of leadership, the test stated I was a democratic leader. Democratic leaders focus on involving all members of the group, they also encourage and motivate group members to solve problems. A democratic style involves informing and agreeing upon a common objective and individual roles in completing the task. I am partially this style, I believe that a task should be delegated to group members, rather than being left to a popular vote by the group. By allowing the leader of the group to delegate tasks, a task can be assigned to a person who is skilled in that area. If this skilled individual is also a leader this time should be taken to mentor others in performing the task. I also believe
that not all opinions on a subject are equal, while diversity is key to a successful group, there are boundaries and individuals should focus on improving their specialty and learning from others.
Attributes of a Leader The role of APN leadership involves 3 main characteristics: mentoring, innovation, and activism. An APN can have informal and formal mentors. A formal mentor is assigned by a facility and are bound by contract to assist the APN on performing their new role. These mentors help provide protection for the new APN in controversial decisions and provide guidance. Informal mentoring is based around a mutual relationship that helps both members of the group grow. The relationship of informal mentors is likely to last longer. Mentoring helps to improve the APN’s confidence, assured that they always have someone to reference back to. Innovation, an APN should look for ways to improve the health care delivery system; by working with groups to collaborate and resolve issues.
The APN should have a willingness to name organizational problems and take action to correct these problems. Activism, an APN must be aware of new laws and regulations at the local, state, and federal levels that affect patient care, nursing, and APN’s. They must also show the ability to respond to these laws in a manner that is supportive, or collaborate to amend laws and regulations that may have a negative patient impact. In order for the APN to succeed at these three characteristics they must be a master of communication, committed to the group, develop their own leadership style, willing to take risks, and
collaborate.
“Star Complex” A star complex is referenced as being someone who wishes to minimize their affiliation with nursing. Having the “star complex” according to the literature is my greatest weakness. My personal belief is that a degree in nursing prepares you to perform the role of a nurse. A degree as a FNP is to prepare you to be a FNP. In my personal experience working with FNP’s; those who hold closely to nursing, practice medicine as a nurse and are constantly being critiqued by their delegating physician. As a Nurse Practitioner, I believe you must form a professional relationship with nurses but retain that you are the person writing the orders and that they must follow them. A great Nurse Practitioner will draw on input from fellow nurses and physicians in making decisions in patient care. However, the FNP must not sacrifice patient care for the benefit of fellow nurses. I believe that at least some manifestations of a Star Complex must be present to become a provider and a leader. I will continue to develop my ideas on this subject and examine why this is considered a major weakness in all areas of APN.
Personal Strength I believe that my personal strengths in becoming a leader inside of the role of an APN stem from leadership positions held throughout life.
Using previous experiences to guide my approach to leading individuals to complete a task. My use of a combination of authoritarian, democratic, and delegated style provides the group with a high chance for success while retaining the mentoring and motivational aspects that are vital to long term success of an organization. My area of greatest weakness is acceptance of tasks that are not completed on time. This weakness leads to aggravation with the member of the group who did not complete their portion of the task. Aggravation of the group leader leads to a breakdown of the democratic approach and focuses on a delegative style that has no emphasis on team building but solely on completion of a task. To work on this weakness, I must focus on maintaining a sense of calm within the group and plan ahead incase incidences such as this occur. This is vital because in all large groups someone will always have other portions of life interfere with group assigned tasks. Retaining an aura of learning, acceptance, and empowerment makes for a more efficient and happier
group. Another weakness is my lack of knowledge of current events in the local, state, and federal legislation. This area of weakness should be addressed to maintain adherence to current scope of practice and so that as an APN I can advocate for advancement of all roles of nurses.
Leadership Education Leadership should play a vital role in the development of graduate level education health care programs. Graduate level programs should focus on a mix of technical skills with leadership development. With the evolution of healthcare to involve more interdisciplinary teams the need for leaders is expanding. At the Center for Health and Leadership (CHL) at the University of California students are taught that a leader is: “someone who motivates, empowers, and inspires a group of people to work toward and achieve a common goal or vision.” They furthered this definition by saying that leaders do not have to be in a position of authority but can be horizontal leaders helping to create change and contribute to the goals of an organization, project, or community. The foundation of a leadership development initiatives should be: practice based, process focused, interdisciplinary, diversity based, adaptive, experimental, innovative, empowering, and encourage authenticity. Using the definitions provided by the CHL a Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP) program should focus on teaching a FNP to work cooperatively with nurses, physicians, and other staff at a facility. The FNP may lead the group in discussions and work to assist in quality improvement strategies. These strategies should include a diversity of members and empower members to provide their opinion on a strategy to contribute to the overall goal of the group. A FNP may also play a leadership role in educating a patient on treatment strategies where the goal of this leadership role is improved adherence of the patient to best medical practice. The FNP should listen to the patient and design with the patient a strategy to achieve the goal of improved health that is agreed upon by both members of the group.