Nursing Leadership and its Impact on Healthcare Systems and Economies

Can you imagine a University without a Vice Chancellor, a Church without the Pastor, a football team without a captain, an aeroplane without a pilot, or a ship without a captain? There would be chaos, lawlessness, confusion, and disagreement with everyone acting the way they feel is right resulting in backward movement with little or no progress.

A society cannot thrive without a leader because most people are not willing to take charge, make decisions, and accept responsibility for others or even themselves. As a result, a world without efficient leaders will be disorganized, constrained, and filled with chaos.

Who then is a Leader?

According to vocabulary.com, a leader is one who in charge and who convinces other people to follow his path. Another source describes a leader as someone who can see how things can be improved and who rallies people to move toward that better vision.

Where can Leaders be found?

From time immemorial, leaders have always existed and have contributed in the decision making processes with regards to their individual offices.

Leaders can be found everywhere and in every setting as they play a major role in inspiring confidence in other people and moving them to action. A leader is goal oriented, motivated, and seeks the good of his followers.

Characteristics of a Leader

While some people may argue that leaders are born, others may also argue that it is false as leaders are made. While these arguments might have valid points, every leader possesses unique characteristics that distinguishes him from his followers.

Some of these qualities include:

1. Resilience

2. Passion

3. Creativity

4. Flexibility

5. Courage

6. Effecfive communicator

7. Good listener

8. Empathy

9. Focus

10. Visionary

11. Goal oriented among many others.

Nursing Leadership

According to Mandy T. Bell, DNP, MSN, RN, clinical faculty of graduate Nursing at SNHU, Nurse leadership is the ability to inspire, influence, and motivate health care professionals as they work together to achieve their goals. It entails creating motivated, coherent, and strategic teams of Nursing professionals who are equipped to provide the highest standards of patient safety, comfort, and care.

Bell also states that a key responsibility for a Nurse leader is to engage in self-awareness as it will help them to proactively drive positive change in healthcare.

It is impossible to talk about Nurse leadership without acknowledging the efforts of some of the founders of Nursing like Florence Nightingale, Dorethea Orem, Clara Barton, and many others who fought tooth and nail to ensure that Nursing got its global recognition today.

Florence Nightingale demonstrated excellent transformational leadership skills during the Crimean war. Her leadership style is identified as the stair step leadership development model. This model emphasizes that Nurses have the capacity to become leaders and can develop leadership competence.

Despite the fact that Nightingale had been warned about the horrific conditions in Crimea, she was still bent on finding out what the cause of the high death rate among the soldiers could be. On her arrival in Crimea, she discovered that the hospital’s environment was compromised with contaminated water. Patients were also lying on dirty floors. The bandages and soaps available to care for them were relatively low when compared to the number of the patients present. This made many soldiers die from various infectious diseases like typhoid and cholera rather than injuries from the war.

Florence Nightingale displayed that she was a role model by showing others what to do to improve their health. She appealed for scrub branches and commanded people to scrub the floor and the ceiling. Then, she moved around with a lamp attending to the patients. She is regarded as the 'lady with the lamp' because she was a leader of compassion. Due to her leadership and strategic work, the death rate was reduced drastically by two-thirds.

At the beginning of the 19th century, hospitals could accommodate just around 3,000 patients. However, 50 years later, this number grew to about 8,000 as these hospitals were not only larger but improved the training of their staff.

Nightingale was instrumental in the growth of British hospitals through her development within Nursing and care for the sick and poor from their homes and workplaces.

According to Mandy T. Bell, leadership in Nursing begins at the bedside. It continues by developing and honing fundamental leadership skills in positively impacting patients outcomes.

Nursing leadership plays a major role in shaping healthcare systems and driving economic growth. With an evolving healthcare system and a remarkable increase in demand for quality care, efficient Nursing leadership is very essential for navigating challenges, advancing healthcare, and ensuring maximum patient care.

Impact of Nursing Leadership on Healthcare Systems

Nursing leadership is not restricted to a particular area as it encompasses various roles from being frontline caregivers in the hospitals to being leaders in executive positions with the sole aim of working collaboratively to improve patient outcomes.

Nursing leadership also has great influence on a patient's quality of care as it ensures accountability, continuous improvement in enhancing patient outcomes and satisfaction. Nurse leaders advocate for patient centered care approaches by emphasizing empathy, communication, and interdisciplinary collaboration in order to achieve positive healthcare services.

When there is effective and efficient leadership within the Nursing profession, it would ensure that healthcare facilities are well equipped and able to address the complex healthcare needs of the population.

Nursing leadership also helps to create a supportive work environment for healthcare professionals where their voices are heard and opinions considered. An effective nurse leader prioritizes staff participation, development, and overall wellbeing.

Through strategic and targeted planning, adequate resource allocation, improved pay, Nurse leaders are able to contribute to increased productivity, reduced healthcare cost, and improved patient outcomes. This is achieved by driving initiatives that enhance care and optimize healthcare delivery processes.

They also play an important role in addressing healthcare disparities and promoting health equity by advocating for culturally competent care practices, equitable access to services, and initiatives that address health.

Impact of Nursing Leadership on Economies

A functioning healthcare system with strong Nursing leadership contributes positively to a country's economic growth. By promoting preventive care, chronic disease management, and community health programs, Nurse leaders help reduce healthcare costs, improve productivity, and enhance workplace participation.

Investments in the development and empowerment of Nurse leaders also contributes to an increase in economies.

By investing in Nursing education, healthcare development, strengthening research programs, and workplace improvement, a country's economy will experience rapid progress and economic development.

Nurse leaders championing evidence-based practices also emerge as influential contributors to overall patient safety outcomes.

In conclusion, recognizing the importance of Nursing leadership and training effective and efficient Nurse leaders will help in making a strong impact on the healthcare systems, which would in turn lead to improvement in the quality of care provided to the populace leading to a healthy and productive society.

Images culled from google.

References

The Role of Nurse Leadership in Driving Economic Efficiency and Patient Safety May 2022. Journal of Nursing Research Patient Safety and Practise 2(23):8-13

Nurse Leadership. Dr. Marie Morganelli Jul 13, 2021