Nursing Leadership and Management: Qualities of a Nurse Leader

Introduction

            Nurse leaders are vital persons within a health care organization, considering they oversee nurses, who are perceived as the backbone of any health care system (Sikka, Morath, & Leape, 2015). Becoming a nurse leader has always been part of my professional goals, and courtesy of this assignment, I got a chance to shadow a nurse manager based at Morse Life Healthcare named Viji Savio and interview him. Doing this allowed me to understand better the intricacies associated with becoming a nurse manager.  In preparation for this interview, I came up with a list of ten questions Savio would respond to.

Interview Report

            Like most health care professionals, nurse managers are typically very busy individuals considering the various duties and responsibilities. Despite this, I was able to contact Viji Savio and schedule an interview during his time off. The interview session lasted approximately sixty minutes after I gathered all the pertinent information I was seeking. After exchanging pleasantries and informing Viji of the question-and-answer format the interview will be taking, I proceeded to pose the first question to him. My question sought to enquire why Viji decided to become a nurse and subsequently a nurse manager. Viji pointed out that, unlike most nurses, he did not join the nursing profession due to a calling in response to this question. Instead, he was driven by the desire to do something in his career, which he categorized as challenging and interesting. Furthermore, becoming a nurse would also allow him to make a significant difference in people’s lives, an aspect that makes Viji love the job he does at Morse Life Healthcare even more.

Regarding why he became a nurse manager, Viji alluded to the fact that the nursing profession is riddled with numerous challenges that adversely affect nurses' ability to deliver high-quality, affordable, and safe care to patients. As a nurse, Viji felt that he could do little to affect how the health care organization he worked for addressed concerns about patient safety. Nurse managers are generally expected to facilitate the creation of safe and healthy workplace environments to support the work done by health care professionals (Warshawsky & Cramer, 2019). Viji knew that becoming a nurse manager would give him greater say concerning patient safety, especially since assuming the position gives him administrative powers to make management, budgetary, and work schedule decisions that positively contribute to enhancing patient safety (Warshawsky & Cramer, 2019).

When I asked Viji whether he has undertaken any other jobs besides being a nurse, he was quick to point out that he has never done any other significant job other than nursing. His reason for this was that his sole focus since he joined college was to become a nurse, and thus Viji had not considered applying for any other jobs. Despite this, Viji intimated that he worked at a coffee shop to raise extra money to cover his college expenses at one point in college. Once we were done with this, I proceeded to ask Viji why he decided to join Morse Life Healthcare and not any other health care facility. He pointed out that one of the major things that stood out to him was the facility's culture, precisely its approach to patient safety.

I then sought to understand more about this culture Viji speaks so glowingly about. Viji intimated that Morse Life Healthcare's culture is predominantly focused on enhancing the patient experience and the work-life balance of its employees. When I enquired further on this culture, Viji began by describing the concept of patient experience at his facility. Patient experience refers to the diverse interactions patients have with a health care system, thus including the care patients receive from health care workers and insurance providers (Sikka et al., 2015). Viji further pointed out that such an approach allows the facility to identify any challenges associated with the provision of high-quality care and come up with measures to deal with these challenges. By doing this, the facility can enhance patients' perceptions of the care accorded to them and their satisfaction levels.

About the second core component of Morse Life Healthcare, Viji intimated that his facility endeavors to ensure it has a motivated and engaged workforce. According to him, an engaged workforce does not solely equate to a happy workforce but rather encompasses having employees who feel a sense of accomplishment and find meaning or purpose in their contributions to healthcare service delivery. Therefore, when health care professionals are motivated and engaged, they will offer high-quality and safe care to patients (Sikka et al., 2015). Nurse managers normally deal with numerous challenges that might curtail their ability to perform their assigned tasks effectively. In line with this, I enquired from Viji whether he has encountered any challenges and what he considers the most significant challenge he has so far faced. According to Viji, the greatest challenge he faces as a nurse manager revolves around the nurse staffing levels at the facility.

Nurse leaders are responsible for scheduling shifts for health care professionals (Warshawsky & Cramer, 2019). Fulfilling this duty is quite challenging for Viji, considering he has to account for overtime and do as much as possible to prevent nurses and other health care professionals from working beyond their stipulated time. In addition to this, Viji must also contend with special scheduling requests made by nurses, such as those seeking time off. The nurses handed special-duty assignments to cover for other nurses recovering from illnesses or injuries. Coming up with work schedules while also considering such requests is very hard, especially when there is an influx of patients with severe or life-threatening issues at the facility. This description prompted me to ask Viji whether he plays any role in his facility’s admission and staffing decisions.

My question was also informed by the fact that nurse leaders are increasingly being expected to play a pivotal role in enhancing patient safety at their organization. For this to happen, nurse leaders must be involved in vital decision-making processes such as whether to admit a patient or not and matters to do with the hospital's staffing levels. Viji pointed out that Morse Life Healthcare ensures that he is involved in any decision made pertaining to admission and staffing. Before a patient gets admitted to the facility, Viji must be consulted. After enquiring why this happens, Viji pointed out that since he is the one in charge of scheduling, he knows whether the facility has sufficient health care professionals to attend to the patient's needs effectively. Failure to consult him might result in the facility admitting patients and not having adequate nurses to care for such patients, an aspect that puts their well-being at risk.

With respect to staffing, Viji intimated that the facility’s administration involves him in budgetary meetings and when hiring decisions are being made. His involvement is since he is perfectly placed to understand the facility's staffing needs. Thus, Viji's input will help the HR department make better-informed staffing decisions. Since Viji serves as the facility’s ICU nurse manager, I asked him about his unit's nursing and inter-professional teams. His unit comprises critical care nurses, advanced practice providers, respiratory care practitioners, pharmacists, and rehabilitation specialists. These individuals collaborate to ensure high-quality and safe care to patients admitted to the facility's ICU. Upon further inquiry, Viji intimated that Morse Life Healthcare had been forced to make some changes regarding the identification and management of septic patients.

According to Viji, identification of sepsis is challenging because a patient's physical responses manifest themselves as a syndrome of non-specific symptoms, which then curtails the recognition, diagnosis, and subsequent treatment of the condition. As the nurse manager for the facility’s ICU, Viji was concerned with the current sepsis identification and treatment process, especially since it puts the well-being of septic patients at risk. Such concerns prompted him to approach relevant personnel to change the practice and adopt a more effective and evidence-based sepsis identification and treatment approach. The facility decided to abandon its prior practice and adopt a sepsis care bundle approach when dealing with septic patients. When the interview was coming to a close, I asked Viji about his preferred leadership style. Viji pointed out that he is a servant leader, predominantly because this leadership approach allows him to empower the nurses working under him and influence them to provide high-quality and safe care to patients.

Conclusion

            The interview with Viji gave me a chance to understand him better and the role a nurse manager should play within a health care facility. Viji pointed out the various challenges nurse leaders encounter, their role as agents of change within their organizations, and the importance of having an organizational culture that predominantly focuses on enhancing the quality and safety of care accorded to patients (Warshawsky & Cramer, 2019). One key point I noted from this interview is the importance of loving the job one does. According to Viji, when a person loves their job, they will be motivated to come to work every day. When they do, they will be engaged and satisfied, which will allow an individual to always perform excellently.