Transformational Leadership And Nursing Practice Coursework Example

Transformational Leadership and the Nursing Practice
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Abstract
A leader is characterized by a combination of skills, charisma, values, intelligence, and situational interaction. Leadership implies the capacity to steer a team or an organization towards the attainment of common goals. It is a skill that applies to various fields, including the nursing profession. It is necessary for a leader to find a style that is most effective in leading people or an organization depending on the situation. Different leadership traits can be applied to guide a team or an organization towards meeting goals. The most appropriate leadership to apply in the nursing practice is transformational leadership. This paper focuses on the importance and application of this style among nurse leaders. It shows the role of transformational leaders to their teams and the responsibility of those nurses to the patients. Aspects of job satisfaction and employee empowerment are discussed, and the relationship of these aspects to transformational leadership. The influence of education on enhancing transformational leadership is also discussed.
Keywords: leadership, nurses, transformational leadership, nursing practice, employee empowerment, job satisfaction
Introduction
Leadership is defined as the skill to steer a team or an institution towards attaining common objectives. It is also a remarkable area of research that attracts attention from personalities in various fields. It is a field with various debates on what constitutes leadership and where leaders get their leadership status.

The definition of a leader varies across worlds and perspectives. One of the most famous debates about leadership is whether leaders are born or raised. What aspects can be taught to a person to make them a leader depends on factors such as teachability (Alharbi, 2017). However, not everyone can become a leader in every situation. Depending on their traits, different people excel in different fields, depending on what skills the position requires. Therefore, a leader is a combination of skills, charisma, values, intelligence, and situational interaction.
Because of the aspects of leadership stated above, there are different kinds of leaders and leadership styles that are excellent for different people and situations. The approaches to leadership depend on the traits of a person, their skills, and the situation. The same leader, with the same skills and traits, might vary their approach depending on the kind of people he/she is supposed to lead and guide. Some of the most common leadership styles include democratic leadership, dictatorial leadership, laissez-faire, and transformational leadership (Alharbi, 2017). This paper will discuss the application of transformational leadership in the nursing practice. The applications of this form of leadership are essential in the development of the nursing profession. The needs of this profession could be easily met through transformational leadership.
Leadership in Nursing
The nursing profession is one of the most critical fields that require sensitive care and consideration when it comes to leadership. The interactions the nurses have with their patients require that they have the necessary traits, and skills to understand the needs of the patients and lead them throughout recovery. They need to inspire confidence in the healthcare they represent, and to guide their patients through the challenges they face under their care. The leadership process in nursing is hierarchical, with each level of leadership influencing the levels directly below it. Nurse heads and managers influence the nurses, who in turn influence and guide their patients. Extreme emphasis is put on this field since it deals with a critical issue that is health. Since nursing involves close interaction with vulnerable patients, the leadership they portray matter so much to these patients. They should, therefore have the ability to put their needs second to those of the patients (Alharbi, 2017). They should be willing to lay aside their baggage to ensure their entire focus is on the patient. Therefore, the development of these leadership skills is vastly important, especially through educational programs, which are essential transformational tools of leadership. Transformational Leadership
This style of leadership involves the concept of emulation. The behavior and demeanor of a transformational leader inspire members of a team to perform even beyond the expectations of the organization. There are elements of this leadership style that makes it a suitable and successful approach to leading. One of them is charisma (Higgins, 2015). The leader should exude characteristics that make the team members want to become more like their leader. Another element is that of inspiration. The transformational leader exudes and inspires confidence and a sense of purpose among the followers. He/she also values creativity and autonomy in doing things (Higgins, 2015). The leader allows people to serve and lead the best way they can without limiting them to a single approach. The transformational leader also understands and considers the needs and characteristics of each member of a team and uses them to influence them. Different motivators work for different people and cannot be applied to all people. Understanding them allows the leader to appeal to each separately. These aspects of this leadership style are essential in the nursing profession.
Importance and Application of Transformational Leadership in the Nursing Profession
In the nursing context, a leader exercising this leadership style appeals to the intellectual appeals of the followers and team members and makes them understand the importance of their role in promoting organizational image through offering quality care. The transformational leader also understands the influence of the skills and traits of the nurses to the ultimate care of the patient (Higgins, 2015). He/she, therefore, use them to appeal to them and influence them to exercise appropriate leadership practices when dealing with their patients. Such leaders also teach the role and influence of morals in the upholding of appropriate nursing practice when dealing with patients.
Transformational leadership requires that the leaders give up their needs or place them second to those of those they serve making it an important factor in the nursing profession. Nursing requires selflessness in serving patients. This approach to leadership allows the nurses to consider the needs of the patients and their well-being before focusing on their interests or the attention and effort that process requires (Alharbi, 2017). Further, it encourages leaders to be conscious of their actions and attitudes as a way of depicting a positive image of the organization. Leaders in the nursing field should have attributes that they desire their teams to adopt. They should lead by example and inspire the same values among the members of this profession.
Areas of interest when studying transformational leadership are job satisfaction and employee empowerment. One of the ways of promoting and enhancing employee performance in the care of patients is through empowerment (Choi, Goh, Adam, & Tan, 2016). Transformational leaders argue that empowering their nurses allows them to feel confident, and hence good at their work, making the job more satisfying. As discussed before in this paper, there are different motivators for various employees. Leaders seek them out and use them to empower employees. One such way is through monetary incentives. However, most transformational leaders use the intellectual methods to empower and influence their team members. One such way is through involvement in the decision-making process (Choi, Goh, Adam, & Tan, 2016). Employees feel important when their leaders value their input. However, there has to be a balance to reduce over empowerment. Sometimes, employees feel too important and even overrule the decisions of their superiors since they overuse the autonomy extended to them (Choi, Goh, Adam, & Tan, 2016). Transformational leaders should, therefore, regulate their efforts to empower these nurses to safeguard the integrity of the practice.
In a study focusing on Taiwanese nurses, transformational leadership was found to be an amicable style of leading professionals in the nursing practice (Lin, MacLennan, Hunt, & Cox, 2015). This research indicated that there is an association between transformational leadership and job satisfaction. Transformational leadership requires that leaders understand the capabilities, skills, and thresholds of the nurses. Failure to do so creates unrealistic expectations of the nurses, resulting in frustration and reduced quality of care. The frustration worsens when the actions of the leaders in the nursing profession do not reflect the same dedication and values expected of them. Subordinates observe the behaviors of their seniors and draw lessons from them. The Taiwanese study indicated that one of the key reasons why nurses quit their jobs is overworking (Lin, MacLennan, Hunt, & Cox, 2015). Therefore, transformational leaders need also to understand the needs of their teams to maximize their potential and performance.
The influence of education in transformational leadership is great and not to be ignored. This influence should start at the training level in undergraduate studies. This studying should involve teaching student nurses the importance of organizational commitment and the importance of playing their role to the maximum while serving patients. Understanding their role and responsibilities to the patient and organization as well is one way of ensuring that aspects of transformational leadership impact to them. The need for educational programs is also essential for the promotion of transformational leadership within a hospital setting. As much as individualized efforts such as stress management are effective, these programs could also foster organizational commitment among nurses (Lin, MacLennan, Hunt, & Cox, 2015).
Conclusion
Diverse studies have established that there is a link between the quality of care offered by nurses and transformational leadership. Aspects of the job such as job satisfaction and employee empowerment depend on how effective this style of leading is in the nursing sector. Transformational leaders exercise charisma in leading and also serve and lead by example. They should, therefore, exercise the values they seek to inspire among their team members in the delivery of nursing care. They should also ensure they meet the needs of those team members to inspire them further. However, a lot of research needs to be conducted with regards to transformational leadership and the nursing practice. It is especially so as pertains to the mental health of the nurses expected to emulate transformational leadership style. The quality of their care delivery depends on the state of their minds as they work.

References
Alharbi, A. Y. (2017). Leadership Styles of Nurse Managers and their Effect on Nurse Organizational Performance, Issues, and Problems. International Journal of Information Research and Review, 04(09), 4516-4525. Retrieved from http://www.ijirr.com/sites/default/files/issues-files/2269.pdf
Choi, S. L., Goh, C. F., Adam, M. B., & Tan, O. K. (2016). Transformational leadership, empowerment, and job satisfaction: the mediating role of employee empowerment. Human Resources for Health, 14(1). Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5131441/
Higgins, E. A. (2015). The Influence of Nurse Manager Transformational Leadership on Nurse and Patient Outcomes: Mediating Effects of Supportive Practice Environments, Organizational Citizenship Behaviors, Patient Safety Culture and Nurse Job Satisfaction. Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository, 1-206. Retrieved from https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://scholar.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=4453&context=etd
Lin, P., MacLennan, S., Hunt, N., & Cox, T. (2015). The influences of nursing transformational leadership style on the quality of nurses’ working lives in Taiwan: a cross-sectional quantitative study. BMC Nursing, 14(1). Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4437742/