Assignment: Effective Approaches in Leadership and Management

Assignment: Effective Approaches in Leadership and Management
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Nursing is traditionally the backbone of health care. However, increased dissatisfaction with the profession and the reduced number of enrolment in nursing courses indicates that the profession is under threat. The current supply of nurses is unable to meet the demand for health care in hospitals across America. Shortage and high turnover also attributed to the decreased socially construed value for nursing as a viable profession, poor working conditions such as forced overtime, insufficient training and work related stress which result in burnout. Shortage in the US is expected to intensify due to the increasing number of aging nurses and it is estimated that by 2020 eight hundred thousand nursing positions will be vacant. The problem is likely to intensify further because it is unlikely that the US will be able to fill these positions considering the current situation (Highmark Foundation, 2009). In addressing these problems, nurse leaders and managers would employ differing tactics to achieve positive health outcomes in healthcare.
Nurse leaders play a significant role in reducing nurse turnover and shortage through enhancing retention levels. They employ transformational leadership tactics that promote job satisfaction among nurses. Nurse leaders employing the transformational leadership style work towards enhancing staff nurse’s commitment to the profession (Kleinman, 2004). Transformational leadership entails inculcating spirited motivation, consistent communication about the organization’s vision, guiding staff towards realizing the goals of the organization, and cultivating openness and acceptance to staff suggestions and contributions.
Nurse leaders would also encourage staff retention to reduce turnover rates by encouraging an organizational culture that revolves around sharing responsibilities with other nurses. This is where the nurse leader develops good working relationships with other staff nurses in a culture of shared responsibility. The leader builds a sense of teamwork that contributes to a shared job satisfaction and ultimately reduces staff turnover.
Nurse leaders would also focus on the longer term solutions to the turnover and shortage problem. The leader would involve staff nurses and other stakeholders such as nurse educationists in exploring solutions to the problem. For instance, nurse leaders may call for a multisectoral approach in developing a public campaign. This campaigned would be aimed at portraying a positive outlook of the nursing profession to increase nursing students’ enrollment. In dealing with shortage, the nurse leader may also initiate a taskforce that continuously performs analysis of staffing levels. The taskforce would also be mandated to recommend ways of solving the problems in an ongoing way rather than last minute solutions typical of manag...