Leadership in a Diverse Society
Most countries, including the United States, have been striving by all means possible to improve the quality of health care. For a more extended period, the debate involving leadership in nursing has also popped along with the topic of quality care. As a result, excellent leadership skills also form the foundations for effective performance in health care facilities (Chin et al., 2017). Nursing informatics is also another important fact that can impact the skills of leadership in nursing as far as diversity is concerned. As a result, nursing informatics is a field of nursing that incorporates information sciences, computers, and nursing to develop and maintain medical systems and data to facilitate nursing practices and improve patient care (HIMSS, 2019). This paper explores excellent leadership skills in nursing and how nursing informatics impacts the leadership skills of a nurse.
First of all, time management is a crucially important leadership skill. The debate on whether leadership is innate or acquired after birth has raged on for decades. While no consensus has been reached on the issue, it is generally agreed that all successful leaders possess certain traits. Time management is one of these traits. Time Management Assessment Managing time can be a problematic affair for nurse leaders who have to handle busy schedules that involve staffing problems, meetings, and other issues, every day. Poor time management may result in wasted time, inefficient workflow, shoddy quality work, missed deadlines, as well as decreased work satisfaction (). Leadership Style Nursing is among the most dynamic fields in healthcare. Therefore, nurses should be continuously inspired to embrace change. For instance, a nurse may adopt a transformational leadership style (Chin et al., 2017), where the leader inspires, encourages, and motivates the employees to innovate and bring about the needed change in the organization.
Personality is also another critical factor that may affect leadership in nursing. The specific character thus refers to the unique individual behavior traits and emotional patterns that evolve from biological and environmental factors from which the individual occupies and tends to trigger particular reactions (Chin et al., 2017). Therefore, effective leadership involves bringing together diverse people and helping in finding a common purpose for every individual in anticipation of achieving similar goals. Some personalities, such as being an emotional, judgmental, introvert, and intuitive, may affect effective leadership. Introversion is a personality trait, predominately characterized by circling on internal feelings than on the external sources of stimulation (Toledo et al., 2017). As s nurse, being introvert means being quiet and reserved. Thus, a good nurse leader should not be an introvert for effective leadership.
Intuition is widely used in the health care environment, especially in decision-making processes (Toledo, 2017). An intuitive person is one who senses things about people and their surroundings and experiences that not evident to healthy individuals. Therefore, leadership in nursing requires people with inherent skills to facilitate quality care in health care. Intuition is essential in some situations; the patient may not be able to express themselves comprehensively. Additionally, intuitive nature always ascertains the nurse’s readiness, especially in cases where the patient’s condition worsens abruptly. This type of trait has an advantage of improving effective leadership within the health care environment as patients are attended to promptly and critical conditions detected in advance.
Moreover, leadership in a Diverse Society, especially in the contemporary environment experience rampant conflicts. Change is a crucial component that can fuel particular disputes, which require tactful and appropriate handling from managers or leaders (Toledo et al., 2017). Leaders serve as change agents as they ascertain workplace coherence, as well as harmony. Within the nursing environment, conflicts may unsettle workplace operations, which would hamper the quality of healthcare services provided to the patients. Conflicts in nursing environments can lead to worker turnover and work dissatisfaction. As a result, change and conflict theories deliver the nurses with adequate skills to resolve the conflicts in the best way possible. According to these theories, the nurses need to flexible and adaptive to the new changes in nursing and health care in general.
On the other hand, nursing informatics is also another critical factor that may impact nurses and healthcare in general. Nursing informatics is a field of nursing that incorporates information sciences, computers, and nursing to develop and maintain medical systems and data to facilitate nursing practices and improve patient care (HIMSS, 2019).
As a result, nursing informatics plays an essential role in health. For instance, nurses or specialists working in nursing informatics perform two vital functions, such as utilizing health information technology and testing, facilitating, and implementing new IT (Darvish et al., 2014). Besides, the nursing informatics helps nurses to further their knowledge and studies. It allows resources such as Nursing Reference CenterTM Plus (Quinn, 2017) that offers education tools easy and quick evidence-based information. Informatics also provides social media platforms that allow access to a massive collection of health data while facilitating collaboration with other health care practitioners (Quinn, 2017).
Moreover, informatics enhances effective communication. The advancement in health care IT has enabled nurses, and other clinicians to communicate efficiently through emails and instant messaging. Nursing informatics also facilitates quality health care services through automated blood pressure. Additionally, the EHR help in record keeping offers essential charting pieces that may be used by the nurses to account for their actions (Darvish et al., 2014). The electronic health record is also another essential element of nursing informatics that may help nurses find the patient’s information quickly and chart comprehensively (Quinn, 2017).
Finally, as a leader, nursing informatics or technology may impact communication within and outside the institution. For instance, technology has enabled easy and fast passage and receipt of information. As a result, a leader can coordinate different departments or facilities from one given point without needing to travel. Directives can also be offered through what’s app groups. Technology can also help in tracking the performance of other junior nurses through surveillance and through monitoring the electronic health information. Equally, informatics may also help in advancing my studies because a broader knowledge in nursing is also an added advantage as a leader.
References
Chin, J. L., Trimble, J. E., & Garcia, J. E. (Eds.). (2017). Global and culturally diverse leaders and leadership: New dimensions and challenges for business, education and society. Emerald Group Publishing.
Darvish, A., Bahramnezhad, F., Keyhanian, S., & Navidhamidi, M. (2014). The role of nursing informatics on promoting quality of health care and the need for appropriate education. Global journal of health science, 6(6), 11–18. https://doi.org/10.5539/gjhs.v6n6p11
HIMSS, (2019). What is nursing informatics? HIMSS. https://www.himss.org/resources-what-nursing-informatics
Quinn, J. (2017). Five ways health care informatics help nurses. EBSCO Health. https://health.ebsco.com/blog/article/five-way-healthcare-informatics-help-nurses
Toledo, P., Duce, L., Adams, J., Ross, V. H., Thompson, K. M., & Wong, C. A. (2017). Diversity in the American Society of Anesthesiologists leadership. Anesthesia & Analgesia, 124(5), 1611-1616.