Communication with Stakeholders
Communication with stakeholders is an integrated part of the nurse leader’s job, especially in a pandemic. Prestia (2020) notes that nursing leaders are the only ones who can balance the needs of the staff and the needs of the patients. For effective communication, nurses must demonstrate such qualities as honesty, openness, truthfulness. This is especially important during a pandemic crisis, as patients experience an increased need for attention, and staff – an increased workload (Prestia, 2020). Therefore, nursing leaders should minimize negative impacts and promote mutual understanding and success. It is noteworthy that in times of crisis, the relationship between the leader and the follower is actualized, which sharpens the importance of all the actions of the leaders’ nurses.
Training
The scholars highlight the importance of nurses’ role as leaders in providing training. Interestingly, “the nurse manager’s ability to lead was one of the three strongest factors in the enjoyment of clinical nursing at the department level” (Spiva et al., 2021, p. 42). Moreover, the cultural values and work atmosphere that is formed through effective communication of nursing leaders can reduce the turnover and desire of nurses to leave (Spiva et al., 2021). Transformational and relational approaches have been recognized as the most effective leadership styles that have contributed to maintaining nursing feedback with their leaders. Significantly, transformational leaders educate their followers about the autonomy and resilience needed to cope with crises.
Budget
Nurses often see finance as the hardest part of their responsibilities. Therefore, it is not uncommon for medical institutions to conduct training for nursing leaders, where they study budget management, often using various technologies (McFarlan, 2020). Then, nurses take certification exams in budgeting conditions, performance metrics, variance analysis, and personnel budgeting. Therefore, nurses must know about health finance to effectively fulfill their role.
Change Management
The roles and responsibilities of nurses include skills in change management. Healthcare facilities operate in an ever-changing environment under national and local initiatives and policies. Therefore, nursing leaders must know how to implement these changes at the hospital level by developing various guidelines and regulations. Such guidelines contribute to more effective patient service delivery (Lowe et al., 2018). Typically, nurses manage change using theories of change as a map in the process. As a result, they effectively inform employees about future management policies and other changes. Interestingly, when managing change nurses, leaders must consider the professional culture and organizational structures.
Change Management Theory
Lewin’s Theory of Change is one of the most important theories for change management. According to this theory, there are two additional perspectives on change management within behavior change. Nurse leaders may view change as self-regulation, or as a sequential transition through stages of change. In the first case, the nurse can make an effort to change the perception of the situation by all who are affected by the change (Bamberg & Schulte, 2018). In the second case, the changes must be carried out in three stages – unfreezing, moving, and refreezing. Remarkably, nursing leaders should pay particular attention to the process of transition, and take into account that each stage has its needs and barriers that should be met.
Authority
The leadership of nurses and their authority have a serious impact on the performance of the entire medical institution and nursing followers. Authority is the influence on nursing assistants through professional development and work chain of command. Equally important, the influence of nurses reflects the state of health care and patient outcomes. The leader nurses demonstrate authority and impact the results of health care. According to the scholars, the authority attributes may include “advocacy, communication skills, competence, confidence, reliability and involvement” (Sundean et al., 2021, p. 286). Qualities such as credibility, cooperation, and honesty among nursing leaders lead to improved commitment and improved decision-making, and influence motivation, change compliance, and resistance.
References
Bamberg, S., & Schulte, M. (2018). Processes of change. Environmental Psychology: An Introduction, 307-318.
Lowe, G., Plummer, V., & Boyd, L. (2018). Nurse practitioner integration: Qualitative experiences of the change management process. Journal of Nursing Management, 26(8), 992-1001.
McFarlan, S. (2020). An experiential educational intervention to improve nurse managers’ knowledge and self-assessed competence with health care financial management. The Journal of Continuing Education in Nursing, 51(4), 181-188.
Prestia, A. S. (2020). The Moral Obligation of Nurse Leaders:: COVID-19. Nurse Leader, 18(4), 326-328.
Spiva, L., Hedenstrom, L., Ballard, N., Buitrago, P., Davis, S., Hogue, V., & Case-Wirth, J. (2021). Nurse leader training and strength-based coaching: Impact on leadership style and resiliency. Nursing Management, 52(10), 42-50.
Sundean, L. J., Han, H. P., Waddell, A., & Adams, J. M. (2021). A concept analysis of influence for nurse leaders. Nursing Outlook, 69(3), 286-292.