Nursing Organizational and Systems Leadership

Comprehensive Essay
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Comprehensive Essay
Nurses should be able to apply their education, knowledge, and skills in real-life nursing practice. The nursing practicum project allows nurses to apply this knowledge and skills into practice with the support of a leader or mentor. It also allows nursing students to incorporate the essentials of a master's education in nursing and facilitate their transition from nursing students to graduate nurses with nursing competency (Kaihlanen et al., 2020). This essay highlights how my practicum project on early dysphagia screening to reduce aspiration pneumonia among stroke patients has prepared me to be a competent nurse and how it has incorporated the essentials of a master's education in nursing.
Background for Practice from Sciences and Humanities
In my practicum project, I was able to apply the science of quality assessment and improvement to address gaps in clinical intervention to ensure that stroke patients are receiving comprehensive care that not only caters to their stroke treatment but also enhances the prevention of aspiration pneumonia. My project incorporated the scientific bases of illness prevention because it focused on an evidence-based intervention that can prevent aspiration pneumonia, namely, early dysphagia screening. The practicum project allowed me to have hands-on experience on how to identify and evaluate credible scientific resources that can be used in evidence-based practice. This is an essential part of the background for practice in sciences because the best evidence for practice is based on the best scientific resources. This way, I believe I am better prepared to identify scientific resources that can help provide safe and high-quality care for a diverse population with diverse health needs.
Organizational and Systems Leadership
According to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) (2011), leadership skills in the organization and the health system are essential because they facilitate decision-making to provide safe and high-quality care. My practicum project incorporated organization and systems leadership in that it allowed me to demonstrate my leadership capacity. I not only identified the need to incorporate early dysphagia screening for stroke patients but also presented this proposal to a group of stakeholders. I took a leadership position to influence these stakeholders to support my proposal. I also demonstrated my leadership skills by taking a leading role in training other nurses on how to best conduct a dysphagia screening and even gave them a step-by-step tool that highlighted how they could perform dysphagia screening using the Gugging Swallowing Screen (GUSS). I now fully understand that leadership is not just about being in a leadership position but also about being able to influence others to create positive change at the organizational and system levels. According to Miles and Scott (2019), nurses, whether in a formal leadership role or at the bedside, should understand leadership in the context of healthcare.
Quality Improvement and Safety
Nurses have a responsibility to promote continuous quality improvement and safety to ensur...