Instructions
Scholarly Paper #3- Nurse Leader Interview
In this assignment the student will engage with and interview a nurse leader. Choose a nurse leader who holds a leadership nursing position in their organization who have direct reports (they supervise other employees). Examples of this include Director of Nursing, Director, Unit Manager. Develop an interview guide before conducting the interview. Identify information that you want to know before the interview and plan clarifying questions. You must include at least one question about technology/informatics.
Conduct an interview regarding their professional role in the organization, and a current health care issue that is of interest to you (ethics, conflict management, budget, staffing, culture of safety, “just cultureâ€, career advancement, quality improvement, etc.). Identify the name of the organization and use names of all involved (no anonymity).
Sample questions below. Feel free to vary the content of the questions to fit your interview:
Please describe the nursing and inter-professional teams that operate in this facility/on this unit.
Can you provide an example of a nursing practice that has been changed in the last year based on current best evidence?
What do you consider your biggest challenge?
What do you love most about your position?
Why did you choose this position?
How would you describe your company’s culture?
How would you describe your role in admission and staffing decisions?
What is your leadership style?
To what extent do nursing staff of this unit support patient-centered care of individuals and families whose values differ than their own? What are the barriers supporting this fully? How can it be improved?
Describe the nursing and inter-professional teams that operate on this unit.
Provide an example of how an unwanted variation that occurred within the last year on the unit changed practice and improved patient outcomes.
How are national safety guidelines implemented on this unit?
What are the two main issues with the Electronic Medical Records on this unit?
All papers should be written using full APA style--- in-text references and a final reference list. Papers are limited to a total of 5 pages (which include the title page, and full reference list). No less than 6 references are expected. All references must be from professional sources. The majority of all references must be primary source, research/data based , original articles. Yoder-Wise course text must be included as one of the references in this assignment.
Nurse Leader Interview
Today’s nurse leaders need competencies that will enable them to perform their roles effectively in a constantly changing healthcare environment. Interviewing a nurse leader can help one to understand the issues that these incumbents commonly face in practice and the strategies that they employ to address the challenges that they encounter (Yoder-Wise, 2019). This paper will analyze the responses obtained after interviewing ………(add real name; no anonymity), the Director of Nursing at….(add name of the organization; no anonymity).
The Nursing and Inter-Professional Teams That Operate in the Facility
Nursing and interprofessional teams work together to ensure the smooth flow of operations in the facility. As reported by the nurse leader, the nursing and interprofessional teams that operate in the facility include registered nurses, physicians, psychologists, pharmacists, community health workers, social workers, respiratory therapists, administrative staff, and subordinate staff. According to McLaney et al. (2022), interprofessional team collaboration enhances the delivery of quality, safe, and person-centered care that improves both organizational and patient outcomes.
The Leader’s Biggest Challenge
The nurse leader indicates that her biggest challenges are inadequate staffing and workplace violence. The nursing shortage is affecting healthcare delivery as the few nurses available are sometimes unable to manage the workload. The facility now hires temporary staff to help address the staff shortage issue (Griffiths et al., 2021). The leader further indicates that workplace violence is a common ethical issue encountered when interacting with patients and staff. Just recently, the nurse leader proposed a zero-tolerance policy for bullying and violence as a way to end incivility in the workplace (Edmonson & Zelonka, 2019). Rates of bullying and incivility have reduced significantly in the organization since the new policy was created.
What the Leader Loves Most About Her Position
One thing that the nurse leader loves the most about her position is being able to steer nurses in the facility to engage in practices that promote safety and quality. The ability to promote patient safety and healthcare quality is a key competency that nurse leaders should possess (Xie et al., 2021). The nurse leader indicates that her focus on patient safety and healthcare quality has enabled her team to provide high-standard patient-centered care.
Description of the Company’s Culture
According to the nurse leader, the company’s culture is a combination of two subcultures namely a safety culture and a just culture. Guided by the safety culture, employees strive to engage in practices that minimize errors and adverse events (Mannion & Davies, 2018). Additionally, a just culture influences employees to believe that activities that undermine patient safety usually occur due to weak organizational systems (Kim & Yu, 2021). In this respect, workers are always willing to strengthen the systems within the organization by encouraging the reporting of events that as threats to patient safety.
Leadership style
The nurse leader combines both servant and transformational leadership styles. As a servant leader, she prioritizes meeting the needs of patients and staff. According to Goestjahjanti et al. (2022), a leader who utilizes a servant leadership style motivates his or her followers to achieve results and meet organizational goals. The servant leadership style has helped the nurse leader to encourage staff to engage in innovative practices that are aimed at improving healthcare quality and promoting patient safety. As a transformational leader, the nurse leader builds strong relationships with followers, inspiring them to support change initiatives that promote continuous quality improvement. As Goestjahjanti et al. (2022) explain, transformational leaders provide the mission and vision, communicate expectations, encourage intelligence, and work with employees at the individual level to make meaningful changes and solve organizational problems. The nurse leader attributes her leadership successes to both servant and transformational leadership styles.
Two Main Issues with the Electronic Medical Records in the Facility
As stated by the nurse leader, the organization had integrated electronic medical records technology into the healthcare delivery process. It uses the technology to record and store patients’ data allowing easy tracking of data over time and accurate identification of patients (Yoder-Wise, 2019). The two main issues that are faced with electronic medical records in the facility are privacy and technological disruption. The nurse leader indicates that many patients are reluctant to allow clinicians to store their data in the electronic medical records systems citing privacy and confidentiality concerns. Additionally, many nurses have complained that the technology has disrupted workflow and that it will soon render some of them jobless. Tsai et al. (2020) has identified rising privacy concerns and workflow disruption as some of the issues surrounding the implementation of electronic medical records in today’s healthcare settings.
Professional Organization
The nurse leader is a member of the American Nurses Association (ANA). Her motivation to join ANA was influenced by the organization’s focus on healthcare advancement through research and practice (American Nurses Association, n.d.). Additionally, the nurse leader intends to benefit from the continuing and certification programs offered by ANA.
References
American Nurses Association. (n.d.). About ANA. https://www.nursingworld.org/ana/about-ana/#:~:text=Fostering%20high%20standards%20of%20nursing,affect%20nurses%20and%20the%20public.
Edmonson, C., & Zelonka, C. (2019). Our own worst enemies: The nurse bullying epidemic. Nursing Administration Quarterly, 43(3), 274–279. https://doi.org/10.1097/NAQ.0000000000000353
Goestjahjanti, F. S., Pasaribu, S. B., Sadewo, T. I., Srinita, S., Meirobie, I., & Irawan, A. P. (2022). The effect of transformational leadership, servant leadership, and organizational learning on manufacturing industry performance. Frontiers in Psychology, 13, 895361. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.895361
Griffiths, P., Saville, C., Ball, J. E., Jones, J., Monks, T., & Safer Nursing Care Tool study team (2021). Beyond ratios – flexible and resilient nurse staffing options to deliver cost-effective hospital care and address staff shortages: A simulation and economic modelling study. International Journal of Nursing Studies, 117, 103901. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2021.103901
Kim, B. B., & Yu, S. (2021). Effects of just culture and empowerment on patient safety activities of hospital nurses. Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland), 9(10), 1324. https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare9101324
Mannion, R., & Davies, H. (2018). Understanding organisational culture for healthcare quality improvement. BMJ (Clinical research ed.), 363, k4907. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.k4907
McLaney, E., Morassaei, S., Hughes, L., Davies, R., Campbell, M., & Di Prospero, L. (2022). A framework for interprofessional team collaboration in a hospital setting: Advancing team competencies and behaviours. Healthcare Management Forum, 35(2), 112–117. https://doi.org/10.1177/08404704211063584
Tsai, C. H., Eghdam, A., Davoody, N., Wright, G., Flowerday, S., & Koch, S. (2020). Effects of electronic health record implementation and barriers to adoption and use: a scoping review and qualitative analysis of the content. Life (Basel, Switzerland), 10(12), 327. https://doi.org/10.3390/life10120327
Xie, J., Ding, S., Zhang, X., & Li, X. (2021). Impact of a patient safety leadership program on head nurses and clinical nurses: a quasi-experimental study. Revista Latino-americana de Enfermagem, 29, e3478. https://doi.org/10.1590/1518-8345.4328.3478
Yoder-Wise, P.S. (2019). Leading and managing in nursing, 7th edition. St. Louis, MO: Mosby.