Leadership and Management Theories in Clinical Practice

For effective leadership, resources should focus on the maximisation of patients' outcome. Leaders can use their authority to impact peoples' behaviour and influence others to achieve their own goals. To be a great leader, one needs to have a clear shared vision and mission of the people or institution their lead. Leadership is all about motivating a team, communicating effectively with your team, giving direction, listening, and supporting the team (Gifford, 2017). It can also involve coordinating ideas from the healthcare team to provide the best services to the patients. If you need assistance with healthcare dissertation help, understanding these leadership aspects can significantly enhance your research and analysis.

Different successful leaders have founded various leadership theories. There are many leadership theories, but the most functional leadership roles are situational and trait theory (Lea & Cruickshank, 2017). To ensure patients safety and high-quality care, graduate nurses should develop relevant leadership roles. They can achieve this by taking part in day-to-day leadership roles. For any nursing graduate, it is necessary to be an effective communicator, have clinical knowledge and competence, have a vision, and provide support to the team and patients (Lea & Cruickshank,2017). A nursing graduate leader also needs to guide patients and their families and initiate a change of improving service delivery and high-quality care services to the patients. It is critical to give graduate nurses independence for the foundation of their leadership role. Graduate nurses primary function is to be at the patients' bedside to maintain their safety and care continuity. They should also assist the nursing personnel in compassionately providing patient care. A graduate nurse leader should impose these skills to fulfil this purpose; coordinate with another healthcare member, have practical communication skills and has clinical competence (Lea & Cruickshank,2017). They should also have an interpersonal understanding.

Another theory is the situational theory which suggests that no single leadership is the best. However, this theory is flexible and adaptable, too, as it relies on the leadership type and strategies suited for the specific task (Gifford, 2017). The situational theory is best for graduate nurses. It helps them have situational awareness and adapt to the organisation's environment to meet their needs (Parand et al., 2014). There are no specific skills in this theory, but instead, it uses an adoption style of management. This leadership style helps graduate nurses use their insight to know when and what leadership style they should use. Its flexibility allows graduate nurses to switch from one leadership style to the other to meet organisational requirements

Clinical leadership is defined as leadership that involves patient care directly at the bedside. The roles of clinical leaders are often confused as the target development of nurse executives and managers. Clinical leadership is one of the highly valued leadership in nursing. Therefore, it is critical to have good nursing leadership in every hospital's nursing department, providing inpatient care and nursing patient credibility. For any graduate nurse, they need to have good management and leadership skills for the patients' safety and provide quality services; because graduate nurses are supposed to demonstrate their leadership skills by providing quality services to their patients (Parand et al., 2014). They should have the ability to make fast quality decisions on observations on results findings. In any case, graduate nurses need support; they should seek it from immediate professionals. An engaged workforce facilitates patients by engaging them with experience gained from inpatient care and patient-centred care. There are different challenges associated with in-hospital care, including high maintenance demands, constraints in finances, safety, and quality issues (Parand et al., 2014). The paper discusses leadership skills and management theory's effects on upgrading graduate clinical nurses' practices as leaders and bedside managers.

Management and leadership skill assist graduate nurses in supervising and delegating roles to others effectively. These skills and knowledge gained will help them develop therapeutic relationships and trust. Characters and traits such as extroversion, communication skills, empathy, openness and motivation are essential in promoting good leadership (Parand et al., 2014). By creating an empowering work environment, a nurse leader offers graduate nurses the opportunity and resource to learn and grow their leadership skills. With a good work environment, they will learn to grow in the setting and develop strong collegial and support professional autonomy

Leaders should allow their team to take part in the decision-making process and seek their opinions. By members taking part in decision making will help build trust between management and the team and improve the overall team performance and coordination (Hughes, 2008). The overall impact of this will be job satisfaction and empowerment. Leaders should empower the team by motivating them in commitments of organisational values. Another theory is the contemporary theory. It aids graduate nurses to create an environment that is integrated for advanced nursing practitioners in supporting their knowledge development (Gifford, 2017). In a case where there is a change, nurses need to embrace the change positively.

To excel as a leader in the healthcare set up, one should be a transformational leader. Clinical practice leadership requires that those in charge should always influence activities to ensure quality care and patient safety (Gifford, 2017). They need to take adequate actions, advocate for patients, decision-making process and engage in critical thinking for everything to happen as desired (Hughes, 2008). They should ensure that the organisation has a culture that patient safety and quality care is always guaranteed. Transformational leadership enable leaders to connect with their colleagues and influence them towards a specific course (Hughes, 2008). They will always take care of nurses' interest while focusing on organisational and patient needs. The values of the organisation always come first, and everything takes place with the set standards.

Empowering, motivating, and inspiring others towards achieving individual and organisational goals is one of the transformational leaders(Xu, 2017). They always strive to fulfil their needs and those of their followers. Their commitment is to have evidence-based decision-making by having a committed and competent management of knowledge (Xu, 2017). The leadership style that is best for a clinical practice environment encourages positivity and empowering followers. They should influence the nurses to embrace changes smoothly without much resistance.

Maslow's needs hierarchy theory is fulfilled through transformational leaders and how the nurses handle the nurses (Xu, 2017). Since the graduate nurses are in the learning process, they should always ensure their needs and satisfaction. Nurses should be allowed to participate in governance, decision-making process that encourages a feeling of belonging (Parand et al., 2014). The skill will spur improved performance and a sense of a secure workplace. Through transformation leadership, graduate nurses will have a better chance of making significant contributions to their organisation's success (Xu, 2017). They will continuously develop into future leaders by developing managerial skills that are essential for development. Through the inspiring culture that transformational leadership encourages, it becomes easy to obtain desirable levels. Undergoing transformational leadership training improves decision-making skills (Parand et al., 2014). Therefore, graduate nurses should make use of the skills to remain motivated and solve conflicts amongst them. The training will enhance the level of motivation and develop future leaders.

The importance of communication in solving problems is another theoretical approach that graduate nurses learn. Good leaders can pass information with simplicity and clarity (Parand et al., 2014). It is through this graduate nurses will learn how to pass critical information to colleagues. Further, they could have the ability to communicate innovative approaches in their work and develop problem-solving skills (Parand et al., 2014). Lack of proper communication skills will deter the organisation from engaging in creative ventures that could be profitable in the long run. Besides, they will learn how to communicate with patients and obtain important innovation.

Collaborating as a team is another essential skill that graduate nurse will learn. Not only will they learn skills of collaborating with colleagues but also patients. Teamwork plays a significant role in fulfilling nurses' need and that of patients (Gifford, 2017). Functional leadership in clinical practice requires that leaders develop high teamwork environments for effective quality care and patient safety (Parand et al., 2014). Leadership should encourage teamwork when collecting patient information and analysis for decision-making processes. Transactional and transformational leadership styles develop teamwork and collaboration in an organisation (Parand et al., 2014). A mix of the two will see each complementing the other in the cultural development in the organisation.

The skills obtained through the study of contemporary theory help nurses develop the ability to provide and receive feedback and reflect on their information (Aarons, Ehrhart, & Farahnak, 2014). They also learn how to develop action plans for their patients and other developments to address clinical practice problems (Huber, 2013). Further, the gained leadership skills help graduate nurses make decisions and implement them to be best for the organisation. Continuous development through contemporary theory skills will enable them to form partnerships with essential allies in clinical practice (Parand et al., 2014). Application of the theoretical concepts and leadership skills by graduate nurses will help them make nursing practice easy and enjoyable (Aarons, Ehrhart & Farahnak, 2014).. It will allow them to have an easy transition into their nursing profession.

The essential skill out the studies is relationship development in a working environment. When translating from school into their profession, the skills will play an important role in settling down (Huber, 2013). Also, other leadership styles applied in clinical practice. Relational leadership has a good concept that will help graduate nurses develop relationships with their patients and other clinical practice members (Marquis & Huston, 2012). Through the skills, graduate nurses will have better relationships that will allow them to excel in their roles. Emotional intelligence is one of the core skill that relational leadership. Developing this skill enables nurses to control, understand, and express their emotions (Marquis & Huston, 2012). They will understand how to establish relations that are more vibrant and helpful in fulfilling their professional roles.

Delegation and rotation are another important that will have a significant impact on graduate nurses. With the lack of experience, it will be easy for them to get extra roles to develop their job skills. As leaders of the future, they will have better skills by learning from other assigned tasks. Besides, they will develop other skills that the course did not have, like record keeping (Marquis & Huston, 2012). IT will enable them to become all-around professionals. In the nursing profession, most cut across different departments, delegation and rotation will help nurses understand how they can help other departments (Heppell, 2016). They will learn the skill of dealing with understaffing and scarce resources through this vital role. Further, delegation and rotation support the development of teamwork in an organisation. The graduate nurse will find this skill very important while they perform their professional roles.

Understanding different leadership styles is an essential skill that graduates nurses will find very useful. They will be able to apply them and understand why those who will be leaders used a given approach in a specific situation (Jeans & Rowat 2014). For example, the autocratic leadership style is applied when nurses need orders to perform a given task. In case of an emergency, graduate nurses may be required to take orders without question due to the prevailing condition. Authentic leadership requires that individuals have self-awareness and have relational transparency and adequate balance processing (Heppell, 2016). Authentic leadership will enable graduate nurses to develop their values and credibility in their roles. Besides, they will understand other leadership forms that they will apply under different circumstances of dispensing their duties.

Leadership and management theories play a significant role in helping graduate nurses transition into their professional life. They also assist in developing leaders who will lead clinical practice effectively. Managerial skills are essential as they will enable graduate nurses to grow into top positions. The skills allow them to adapt to the working environment and have the ability to understand areas they should improve to make perfect leaders in clinical practice. Since graduate nurses will have to take an important decision when undertaking their duties, they will assist them in the decision making process. Being close to patients, graduate leaders will have to make quick decisions that will determine the quality of care and patient safety; leadership and management theories will help form an informed decision. The thinking ability, communicational skills, emotional intelligence, rotational, delegation, and risk management obtained from the course will directly impact their services' daily dispensation. Because no one comes into clinical practice with all relevant experience, the skills will help in the transition process.

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References

Part A

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