Democratic Leadership in Nursing

Democratic Leadership in Nursing

Leadership plays a significant role in any organization, including in nursing. The primary role of nurses in the healthcare field is to ensure that patients are getting the best of care so that they can recover from the condition they are suffering from within the shortest time. However, apart from taking care of patients, nurses also have other goals for themselves. These goals may include moving up the leadership ranks through job changes and promotions. There are several leadership styles that a nurse may choose to adopt in their leadership. The style of leadership that a nurse utilizes depends on the style that they feel is best for him/her. Democratic leadership is one of the most commonly adopted leadership styles in the nursing field. The paper will address the democratic leadership style by highlighting its benefits and drawbacks. The paper will also discuss the characteristics of democratic leadership.

Democratic leadership style is a model of leadership in which the leader allows the junior employees to participate in decision making for the entire organization. This means that the employees have an opportunity to share their views with the management on what they feel should be done to improve service delivery within the organization. During decision making, the leader first collects ideas and feedback from all staff members before he/she can make the final decisions. This means that although employees are allowed to participate in decision making, the final decision still lies with the leader.

The democratic leadership is considered to be one of the most effective leadership styles in the healthcare setting. Allowing employees to participate in decision making helps to make the employees feel valued and recognized by the management. Once the employees feel valued and appreciated, they tend to give their best in their service delivery. Democratic leaders understand the role of employees in the organizations and acknowledge that they are the most critical asset for the growth of the firm. This is what makes democratic leadership style the best mode of leadership as all professionals’ skills and abilities contribute equally to the success of the organization.

The democratic leadership style has some unique characteristics as compared to other leadership styles. One of the features is that this form of leadership encourages the employees to share their views and opinions, although the leader makes the final decision-maker. This means that the leader cannot make significant decisions that will affect the entire organization without considering the views of his/her employees. Another characteristic of this form of leadership is that creativity is encouraged and rewarded. The act of allowing the members to participate in decision making encourages them to become more creative in solving problems. This helps to nature future leaders and helps the employee to acquire problem-solving skills.

For a nurse to become a democratic leader, he/she needs to have the following traits. For one, the leader should be creative. The leader needs to be creative so that he/she can come up with the strategies to ensure that all the employees feel appreciated and valued. Secondly, a democratic leader should be fair to all the employees. The leader should treat all the employees equally and allow each to share their views. Successful democratic leaders are those that can inspire trust and respect for the people they lead. He/she should also be honest, competent, and intelligent. The leaders ought to be sincere in their actions and that their decisions should be based on moral values. These traits help to inspire followers to take action and work hard towards ensuring that the patients have the highest level of care.

The use of democratic leadership in nursing has some benefits. For one, democratic leadership enables the leader to come with new ideas and more creative solutions to the challenges that they are facing. This style of leadership allows all the employees to share their views on how to improve their performance and ways in which problems can be addressed. This gives rise to new ideas to new ideas that even the leader could be having.

Secondly, the democratic leadership is associated with increased member commitment. As seen from the above discussion, this style of leadership encourages inclusivity in the running of the organization by allowing employees to participate in decision making. This helps the employees to express their challenges to be addressed. This makes the employees feel valued, which makes them more committed to service delivery. Group members also tend to feel more committed and involved in achieving healthcare goals.

Thirdly, adopting democratic leadership helps to improve productivity through enhanced service delivery. When employees are involved in decision making, they tend to put more efforts into delivering their services, which leaders better performance and patient satisfaction in the healthcare sector.

Although democratic leadership has been recognized as the most effective mode of leadership in the nursing sector, the style also has some potential drawbacks. For one, this style of leadership may result in delays in decision making. This form of leadership requires that all employees participate in decision making. The consultations, therefore, consumes a lot of time, resulting in delays before the final decision is made. There might also be communication failures in situations where roles are unclear and in cases where there is no time for consultations.

Secondly, democratic leadership may result in poor decision making. It is important to note that not all employees in healthcare are skilled in making informed decisions. Consulting with group members who lack the necessary expertise or knowledge to make informed decisions may result in poor decision making which will have adverse effects on the organization, thus putting the lives of the patient in danger. Lastly, the leader is the final decision-maker. This means that he/she will be the one to decide on the ideas to adopt and those that are not to be considered. As a result, some people, especially the minority, may feel not valued when their opinions are not taken into account. This creates division among the employees between those whose views are considered and those whose views get overridden. This may negatively affect the employees by lowering their morale and satisfaction

In conclusion, democratic leadership refers to a style of leadership in which the leaders allow the employees to run the organization by allowing the employees to participate in decision making. All employees are given a chance to share their views on what they feel should be done to address the current situation, although the leader makes the final decision. This style of leadership has several benefits in nursing, which include; improved performance and inclusivity, among others. However, this form of leadership also has some drawbacks. They include delays in decision making, division among the employees when some employees feel that their views are not being taken to account. For this model of leadership to be effective, the leader should come up with ways to address the challenges.