Introduction
In this short essay it is the intention to reflect upon the motivators that inspire and attract highly skilled leaders within health care services. These leaders come from a wide range of disciplines: caring, economical, operational and strategic concepts in which many of which are professionals within a specific field.
However, in the current climate of care, in particular within the National Health Service (NHS), these roles are fragmented and composite within the political sphere of devolved health care in the United Kingdom.
Reflection
The specific role that is currently under significant levels of leadership change is that of the nurse practitioner, moreover, the desire for leadership is often tangled in a wider complexity of motivational factors and conditions. In stating this, it is vital to acknowledge that the role has become extremely ambiguous within a much wider scope of ‘doing’ duties, that are, themselves practically complex and diverse.
In reflecting on the practitioner’s role moves through a plethora of: administrative duties, human resourcing, service user care and moreover, strong self management and discipline, which has to tightly fit into a wedge of various levels of being a ‘team player’ with a variety of not so well defined roles.
In order to find personal levels of specific motivation the practitioner must be seen to be a ‘hands on’ team player, across a wide range of disciplines cited above. Albeit, the role even though it has significantly changed over recent decades, still demands people of the highest calibre and without wishing to sound, old fashioned, a person with a real ‘vocation’ to nurse, at whatever the level of expertise, drive or experience.
In particular these frontline health care ‘leaders’ have to be able to be proactive, engaged, committed, a maintainer of effectiveness, cohesion and moreover a focused holistic team manager, and one who can and will ensure that the ‘team’ engages operationally and strategically across the many diverse levels of NHS management and accountability.
To ensure that the nurse practitioner is enabled to be the ‘team leader’, he/she needs to be completely self motivated, accountable for their own and the actions of the team; cohesive, dynamic, a problem solver, passionately focused, upon motivating and supporting others.
Self managed leaders in the area of nursing are often seen as team oriented people, who through a level of professional discipline, can command the respect of colleagues, lower and higher levels of a diverse strategic and operational intra-organisational and inter-organisational command and accountability structure.
Being able to ensure that through their own ‘self managed’ abilities, they are enabled to ‘hone’ their skills, aspirations, needs, care and discipline necessary to ensure that the disciplines of care within the leadership role, noted above, are carefully brought together in both the philosophy of care and its practice; within the scope and sphere of the given leadership tasks.
Conclusion
In this short reflective essay, we have considered aspects of the role of nurse practitioner within health service leadership. In so doing, we have succinctly consider the role, its dynamics, concepts and motivators.
The nursing practitioner at any senior level which engages a multi-faceted level of disciplines across, a wide range of management systems must be a serious ‘self motivated’ professional.
In which through their own role, they are competently able to influence outcomes, manage operational strategies and ensure that they have full command of a wide and varied plethora of tasks and duties, that flow in a seamless style of management, because of their skills; in essence provide the motivational factors for being a health service leader within the NHS.