Introduction
Competent and responsible leadership in the field of nursing is a pledge not only for effective work of junior medical personnel but also for positive patient outcomes. Different aspects of the activity should be observed in order to successfully control subordinates’ performance and not to make mistakes that could adversely affect the treatment process. To analyze the specifics of work in the leadership position in the field of nursing, the activity of the representative of this sphere will be considered. The subject of the study is Suraida Mula Guiamla who is a skilled, talented and professionally registered nurse with fifteen years of extensive experience in providing quality care to patients. Her work will be evaluated from three perspectives – strategic planning, conflict management, and the proper organization of working time. The goal of the paper is to determine which approaches are most successful in order to achieve a competent implementation of these three components of successful leadership. It is supposed that experience and the desire to professionally perform immediate duties are the primary criteria for the effectiveness of nursing practice.
Person’s Roles and Functions
In the process of working as a nurse, it is essential to strive to improve performance results since this criterion is one of the indicators of the quality of care and the professionalism of employees. In order to provide patients with full-fledged assistance, it is significant for a medical specialist to be able to not only perform immediate duties but also to take on the role of leader if necessary. In the case of Suraida Mula Guiamla, her experience gives her an opportunity to correctly apply all the available knowledge in practice and supervise the activities of her colleagues, independently achieving performance success. One of the integral conditions of the specialist’s work is the ability to strategically plan the range of tasks and focus on the most urgent of them. This approach to work deserves particular attention and will be discussed from the position of the considered registered nurse.
Strategic Planning
One of the conditions for strategic planning, as Suraida Mula Guiamla notes, is the fulfillment of the standards specified by specific boards. Nursing practice is not an area where it is possible to improvise and apply many different theories to achieve a positive result. According to Haythem (2015), “the strategic plan establishes the basic nature and direction of the organization,” and the registered nurse confirms that following the standards established by the Accreditation bodies is an integral component of the plan (p. 2). Therefore, in her practice, Suraida Mula Guiamla adheres to a strict approach to monitoring the compliance of performed tasks with the instructions of senior management.
Also, the nurse notes the need for professional training. She is sure it is impossible to achieve positive outcomes without regular education. Constant subordinates’ training is one of the mandatory working conditions. The more skills a medical specialist has, the higher the chances of successful care will be. Suraida Mula Guiamla mentions the need for a trial period when a new employee needs to be tested for job responsibilities. At the same time, relations with subordinates should not be authoritarian. As Sadeghifar, Jafari, Tofighi, Ravaghi, and Maleki (2015) claim, the lack of leadership initiatives and the requirement to carry out as many tasks as possible adversely affect the quality of work. It, in its turn, leads to poor performance and negative patient outcomes. To avoid it, a stable planning system should be established where each employee will perform the assigned role and will not be responsible for all potential errors. Fatigue, improper performance of assigned tasks, as well as nursing errors that are unacceptable, can be the indicators of increased workload. If all the conditions of strategic planning are met, Suraida Mula Guiamla is confident that the safe delivery of care to every patient will be ensured.
Conflict Management
The ability not to allow conflicts of subordinates is the quality of a responsible and competent leader. If the misunderstanding is inevitable, it is significant to prevent any negative relationship in the team and to promptly respond to controversial situations. According to Johansen and Cadmus (2016), work stress often develops due to conflict within the team, and a favorable working environment, on the contrary, increases motivation and reduces the likelihood of nervous breakdowns. Suraida Mula Guiamla confirms that a healthy atmosphere is necessary for quality care and good relations in the team.
Another important property that an effective leader should possess is the ability to listen. The nurse mentions cases when the wrong decisions were made because of the lack of correct information regarding a particular issue. If the conflict occurs in the nursing community, their leader should solve the problem because physicians, as a rule, do not want to participate in the resolution of disputable situations (Weiss & Tappen, 2014). Communication provides an opportunity to obtain information from each of the parties and make an appropriate verdict. This method, according to Suraida Mula Guiamla, is the most effective and should be used by all managers in order to avoid prejudice and erroneous decisions.
Time Management
Time management is the skill that, as Suraida Mula Guiamla notes, allows planning personal schedule intelligently in order to fulfill the most pressing tasks. Attempts to carry out as much work as possible do not usually lead to success if insufficient attention is paid to time planning. According to Cherry and Jacob (2016), if this skill is not developed, it will be difficult to achieve high performance because of the inability to prioritize correctly. Therefore, time management plays a significant role in nursing practice.
Suraida Mula Guiamla also gives several examples of successful work aimed at training the ability to efficiently distribute tasks. She advises not to despair if small challenges slow down the work process. Also, she recommends minimizing distractions, that is, to concentrate on a specific objective and achieve it in every possible way. This approach to work is also mentioned by Goudarzian, Ranjbar, Hatkehlouei, and Heidari (2017) who emphasize the importance of the ultimate goal and its achievement by nurses. As Sadeghifar et al. (2017) remark, nurses have many opportunities to control time today, for example, with the help of an appropriate technical base. Therefore, it is essential to learn to distribute responsibilities in accordance with their relevance in order to become a successful and effective leader.
Conclusion
Working experience and the desire to properly perform immediate duties form the personality of an effective leader in the sphere of nursing. When looking at Suraida Mula Guiamla’s approaches to the organization of labor, it is possible to see that they can be used as a guide to personal development. The leadership functions mentioned by the nurse are characterized by a modern and effective attitude to job responsibilities. Following these standards will allow achieving career growth and becoming the leader of the team.
References
Cherry, B., & Jacob, S. R. (2016). Contemporary nursing: Issues, trends, & management (7th ed.). St Louis, MO: Elsevier Health Sciences.
Goudarzian, A. H., Ranjbar, M., Hatkehlouei, M. B., & Heidari, A. (2017). Assessment of time management in Iranian critical care nurses: Predictive factors. Journal of Critical Care Nursing, 10(2), 1-5.
Haythem, A. (2015). The role of strategic planning in performance management. Express, an International Journal of Multi Disciplinary Research, 2(3), 1-3.
Johansen, M. L., & Cadmus, E. (2016). Conflict management style, supportive work environments and the experience of work stress in emergency nurses. Journal of Nursing Management, 24(2), 211-218.
Sadeghifar, J., Jafari, M., Tofighi, S., Ravaghi, H., & Maleki, M. R. (2015). Strategic planning, implementation, and evaluation processes in hospital systems: A survey from Iran. Global Journal of Health Science, 7(2), 56-58.
Sadeghifar, J., Tofighi, S., Roshani, M., Toulideh, Z., Mohsenpour, S., & Jafari, M. (2017). An assessment of implementation and evaluation phases of strategic plans in Iranian hospitals. Open Medicine, 5, 1-6.
Weiss, S. A., & Tappen, R. M. (2014). Essentials of nursing leadership and management (6th ed.). Philadelphia, PA: FA Davis.