Transformational leadership in Nursing practice 

Transformational leadership in Nursing practice

Nursing practice necessitates an individual to make decisions commensurate with a leader. Nurses encounter situations that prompt them to make timely decisions to determine procedures for quality patient care (Bahadori, Hajibabaee, Ashghali, and Peyrovi, 2016). The leadership style in a healthcare institution determines the nature of the working environment, job satisfaction, employee retention, quality of patient care, and outcomes. Besides, nurses face conflicts on work that require resolutions based on the leadership at the institution. Evidence suggests that healthcare organizations prefer transformational leadership because it is dynamic. Transformational leaders communicate a clear vision while creating an empowering working environment to achieve set goals (Boamah, 2017). Notably, effective communication with physicians, influences nurses on the decisions they make concerning their patients. Appropriate healthcare processes improve quality care and patient outcomes. Transformational leadership creates an environment that fosters continued nurse professional growth with a focus on the achievement of the organizational goals.

In nursing practice, transformational leaders set high levels of expectation towards nurses. However, the management creates an empowering environment that ensures the success of the nurses. The leaders inspire nurses to exercise extra efforts to realize the organizational vision (Asif et al.,2019). Subsequently, nurses become more committed and work industriously to achieve their targets. Additionally, the management provides the necessary support to guarantee the continual proficient growth of nurses to meet their expectations (Boamah, 2017). Moreover, transformational leadership molds nurses to rise into leaders of the organization. As a result, nurses develop a high level of commitment and trust the organization leading to quality patient care and improved outcomes. Though, transformational leaders set high targets for the nurses, continued support fosters the achievement of desired results.

Transformational leaders pay attention to the needs of the nurses to help in their professional growth. The leadership creates robust relationships with the subordinates by listening to them and providing support (Asif et al.,2019). Therefore, nurses feel empowered to make the right decisions that impact on the procedures and patient care they implement. Moreover, leaders work to ensure safe and healthy working relationships with attending physicians. Thus, nurses manage conflicts that arise in the workplace leading to job satisfaction and retention among the nurses (Sfantou et al.,2017). As a result, nurses attend to patients in a more professional promoting patients’ satisfaction and trust in the organization. Although in a management position, transformational nursing leaders create an environment that supports the specific needs of the nurses.

Conflicts arise in healthcare organizations because of interactions with people from different cultural backgrounds. Evidence cites intrapersonal, interpersonal, intragroup and intergroup, competitive, and disruptive(interprofessional) as the frequent conflict’s nurses experience (Higazee, 2015). An intrapersonal conflict when a nurse is assigned a task that is not commensurate with expertise. For this reason, the nurse feels unfit to handle the task may want to leave the job. Miscommunication between a nurse and a physician are other causes of interpersonal conflicts. Moreover, differences in attitude, unclear authority, diversity of perception, and a chaotic work environment also contribute to interpersonal conflicts (El- Dahshan and Moussa, 2019). The wrong assignment of tasks and the interactions at work contribute to intrapersonal and interpersonal conflicts.

Nurses in professional groups experience intragroup conflict due to a lack of support or changes in the roles of members. Besides, intragroup and competitive conflicts arise among nurses because of competition on opportunities for growth and development. Moreover, intragroup and competitive conflicts occur because of selective abuse by nurse leaders. Such disputes demotivate nurses leading to job dissatisfaction, poor quality of patient care, and overall outcomes (Amestoy et al., 2014). On the other hand, intergroup conflicts are a result of different goals, opinions, and attitudes between groups. Two or more nursing groups compete, leading to a low achievement of the groups. Notably, good relations between healthcare groups in an institution are necessary to achieve the set goals. However, the need to surpass another team result in poor decision making that hamper efforts to meet set targets. Disruptive conflicts arise from the interaction between a nurse and an attending physician. Evidence cites the role boundary, the scope of practice, accountability, and incitement from dominant leaders as causes of disruptive conflicts. Such conflicts lead to nurse dissatisfaction, high turnover, and poor quality of patient care and outcomes (El- Dahshan and Moussa, 2019). Conflicting situations affect the work output of nurses and thus need for amicable ways of resolutions

Leadership style influences the management of conflicts that arise in healthcare nursing practice. On their part, transformational leaders create an empowering environment that fosters the growth of nurses to deliver quality patient care and improve outcomes (Asif et al.,2019). For this reason, the management opts to use teamwork, accommodation, and compromise strategies in conflict resolution. Through collaboration and compromise, the conflicting parties learn to resolve issues in a way that leads to satisfaction. The support from the management serves to create a positive work environment where nurses feel safe to make decisions that support quality patient care and outcomes (Baddar, Salem, and Villagracia, 2016). Thus, transformational leadership allows amicable approaches to manage conflicts in nursing practice to improve service delivery.

Effective communication in nursing practice improves patient outcomes. Appropriate use of communication provides a transparent, accurate, consistent, and secure nursing service. Communication can be verbal or nonverbal, depending on the situation between a nurse and a patient (Kourkouta, and Papathanasiou, 2014). Nurses may use gestures to communicate with patients in cases where one is unable to speak or where there is a language barrier. However, through listening, nurses evaluate the state and problems of a patient, make a diagnosis, and initiate the process of care. Accurate information from patients is vital in the diagnosis and the implementation of suitable healthcare processes. On their part, nurses provide feedback to the patients through effective communication to ensure calm in fatal situations. On the other hand, continuous feedback concerning the status of the patient is vital in the recovery process leading to positive outcomes. As a result, the nurse feels confident in the profession and works to make the necessary improvements in service delivery. Although nurses experience demanding situations, effective communication enhances patient’s adherence to medication and safety, improving the outcomes.

Timely and quality decisions that nurses make in healthcare institutions lead to improved patient outcomes. The challenging healthcare environment calls for situational analysis, experience and organizational culture for a nurse to make quality decisions (Nibbelink, and Brewer, 2018). Evidence indicates that effective communication between a patient and a nurse leads to vital conclusions and decisions to implement nursing practice on a patient. Besides, collaboration and constant communication between nurses and physicians provide valuable information for making fitting decisions (Nibbelink, and Brewer, 2018). The help accorded to nurses by physicians builds confidence and elevates the self-efficacy of the nursing practitioner. Therefore, a nurse makes important decisions that lead to a better quality of patient care and outcomes.

Leadership style is commensurate with the performance of nurses and the work environment. The constantly changing environment of the healthcare sector requires leadership that aims at empowering nurses (Boamah, 2017). For instance, a transformational leadership style sets high targets for nurses but provides support and skills required for the nurses to perform their duties. Besides, the management is keen on the needs of the nurse and thus creates a working environment that ensures safety. Therefore, nurses make decisions that influence the process of care, leading to an overall improvement in patient outcomes (Boamah and Laschinger, 2015). Evidence shows that access to empowerment structures in health care organizations leads to job independence and self-efficacy. Working in an empowering environment fosters continued professional growth of nurses, promoting safe, quality patient care.

Constantly changing healthcare environment calls for the dynamic transformational leadership style. Such leaders set high standards for achievement but provide the necessary support the nurses require to achieve organizational goals. In the work environment, nurses encounter conflicts like intrapersonal, interpersonal, intergroup, and disruptive that hinder the delivery of quality patient care. However, transformational leadership provides support for strategies in managing the conflicts to ensure the professional growth of the nurses. Evidence suggests that transformational leadership in healthcare institutions use collaboration, compromise, and accommodation approaches to resolve disputes at work. On the other hand, effective communication in healthcare organizations is vital in providing quality patient care and improving outcomes. Although the healthcare work environment is challenging, transformational leadership nurtures a positive work environment resulting in improved service delivery.