Essay on Leadership and Communication of Nurse Managers

Nurse leaders have a central responsibility in nursing facilities since they act as a link between the junior nurses and the corporate goals. Despite the fact that the administrators also serve as employees, they have to coordinate expertise with specific policies, vision, and mission for the practical achievement of various set goals. Based on this mandate it is imperative that they must have unique communication skills to empower the lower level nurses and support them in developing a sense of being part of the continuum of health care provision (Cullen & Gordon, 2014). Though the correlation between nurse managers communication and leadership skills on the outcomes among medical, surgical nurses is not well determined, an assessment of some of the predictors indicates that they have at least some evidential link.

Just as in any corporate leadership, nurse leaders have different ways to emancipate individual nurses towards a common positive outcome. Some of these ways include ensuring flexible work timetables, preventing workplace harassment, and tolerable workloads. Nonetheless, effective communication overrides all them as the only effective means through which the leader can incline nurses towards shared goals and emancipating them to develop a sense of belongingness (Cullen & Gordon, 2014). In a practical nursing situation, the level of patient satisfaction and health outcomes depend primarily on the contentment of the nurses. Nursing is entirely service-based hence, the perceptions that the nurses have about the system if management has a great imperative on their performance and eventual medical outcomes among the patients. Therefore, as a leader, the administrators have to nurture the abilities and perceptions of the nurses so that they achieve the highest sense of satisfaction.

Communication skills are necessary among nurse leaders since it helps in leveraging stakes among the lower level nurses, provide for their different welfare needs and orient them towards the ultimate goal of ensuring patient safety, support and healing. Effective Communication skills by the top management result in an open and honest workplace culture. An all-inclusive corporate culture promotes self-actualization, professional development, and job satisfaction (Cullen & Gordon, 2014). An effect nurse leader establishes a system of communication that allows for the upward and downward flow of information. The two away communication system allows the low-level acute care nurses to air their concerns, frustrations, opinions, and recommendations while at the same time enabling the flow of instructions from the top management.

Effective communication skills portrayed by the nurse leaders result in a unique leader-member relationship in which everyone in the chain of command feels included in the operations. An active leader-employee exchange in nursing situations fosters a relationship based on trust and openness that is critical in successful operations of nursing facilities. Logically, when junior nurses feel included in critical decision-making and empowered to contribute to their implementation, they feel valued (Cullen & Gordon, 2014). The feeling of being valued thus makes them more committed to their demanding work and ability to develop new means of responding to the changing nursing needs such as evidence-based approaches and integration of technology in care delivery. Therefore, it is arguable that the more nurse leaders can engage their juniors, the more productive and successful they become.

Though there are prescribed standards for communication among nurse leaders, it is important that they also embrace informal communication that helps in removing employee obstacles that have a potential of impeding work within the critical nursing situations. It also ensures that departments within the organization are working well together, and address employee innovations promptly (Cullen & Gordon, 2014). On the other hand, formal communication skills are critical in mainstreaming organizational policies, mission, and vision.

Reference

Cullen, C. B., & Gordon, P. A. (2014). The relationship between leadership and communication skills of nurse managers and the organizational citizenship behaviours of medical-surgical nurses and nursing assistants. Management and Organizational Studies, 1(2), 23-28.