The Concept of Using Theory to Guide Leadership in Nursing

Annotated Bibliography
Charter, S. (1975). Understanding Research in Nursing. World Health Organization, Geneva. Retrieved from  HYPERLINK "http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/36976/1/WHO_OFFSET_14.pdf" http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/36976/1/WHO_OFFSET_14.pdf
The concept of using theory to guide leadership in nursing is not a new phenomenon. In this 1975 article by Shirley Charter, the author has tried to establish how nurse leaders can use theory to guide their leadership in the nursing profession. In order to enable the patient to attain his goals, a wide range of nursing care actions is presented to the nurse. Some of the nursing actions are reasonably standard techniques and procedures and these are usually delegated to other individuals in the health care team. However, other nursing actions are more intricate and need autonomous judgments and thoughtful decisions. The choice of ideal nursing care measures is shaped by the nurse from a plethora of nursing knowledge and from factual data about the patient. In order to get the best outcome, the nurse should apply theory into research hence the reason why the curriculum on nursing is inclusive of many other disciplines. In this historical article, the author recognizes that for the nurse leader to be effective there is need to apply leadership theory into their practice. Although written four decades ago, this article is expertly written and points out the reason why it is crucial for the graduate nurse to apply theory into their practice. The article encompasses a wide area of research and will therefore form an integral part of my introductory paragraph.
Craig, L. (2011). Transformational Leadership. Journal of Nursing Administration 41(12), 501-502.
This article by Craig Luzinski takes an analytical examination of transformational leadership in the health care sector. As the United States experiences the peak transformation in healthcare, health care institutions must be willing to react to the unprecedented changes in a deft and effective manner. The available literature on leadership has moved from focus on the ability of leaders to manage change to the capability to change the organizational structure. Transformational leadership is mostly concerned with searching for opportunities for change as well as being able to relocate resources from where they are less needed to the area where they are highly required. In the contemporary impulsive healthcare climate, successful leaders must seek for inventive means to change the beliefs, values and behaviors that are prevalent in their organization to meet the strains of the coming days. Ideally, it is easy to lead people to where they want to go but the transformational leader should lead the people to where they are supposed to be even if they do not want to go to that direction. This theory is highly applicable to the DNP scholarly study of leadership since the major focus of the degree is to transform the nursing profession through the use of practice. The article has been well written and is therefore ideal in understanding the theories that are necessary in the DNP leadership journey.
Hutchinson, M., & Jackson, D. (2013). Transformational leadership in nursing: Towards a more criti...