Effective leadership is key for any sector to thrive, grow, and allow those operating within it to offer the best service. Healthcare is no exception, and this is especially true for the modern healthcare sector, which is often complex in its makeup. Due to this, inspirational leaders are vital across the industry, and nursing is a very good example to focus on.
Visionary leaders in nursing are crucial for delivering the best patient outcomes in their facility and providing a clear direction for staff to follow. Their expert leadership also gives patients confidence that they will be well looked after and helps to improve the overall reputation of the healthcare industry as a result.
How to become a nurse leader to positively impact healthcare
As the above demonstrates, there is no doubt how important nurses in advanced roles, such as chief nursing officer or nurse manager, are to the entire healthcare sector. This is unsurprising when you think of the direct impact they can have on the teams that provide direct primary care to patients.
If you are planning to move into nursing leadership to make this kind of positive impact on healthcare, it is wise to know how to go about it. You would initially need to study to become a registered nurse and then spend some time gaining work experience in a management role.
Following this, it is possible to continue your studies and pick up the advanced knowledge needed for leadership positions. The DNP-ENL program at Baylor University is ideal for those with prior executive experience, looking to move into advanced nursing leadership role and contains modules in key areas such as strategic economic and financial concepts. With a firm foundation in leadership principles and high-level clinical practice, it’s the ideal preparation for working in senior nursing jobs.
How do nursing leaders benefit the healthcare sector?
Although we have mentioned a few general ways that nursing leaders are able to have a positive influence on the healthcare industry, it is interesting to dig a little deeper into this. When you do, you see that there are a number of specific ways that they can achieve this.
But what might they be?
Clinical excellence
The healthcare sector is only able to stay relevant over time if it offers true clinical excellence in terms of the care it provides. Nursing leaders are able to have a major impact in this area by upholding high levels of clinical excellence in their teams and ensuring that any staff they manage perform any clinical tasks/duties to the highest standards. They can also perform their own clinical duties to the highest standard when called upon in order to set a good example for staff to follow.
Improvement in quality of care
In addition to upholding high levels of clinical excellence in health, nursing leaders are also beneficial for driving improvements in care quality for non-clinical tasks within the sector. This once again sees them highlighting to staff how critical this issue is to the patient experience and ensuring that they always deliver the best quality of care in non-clinical tasks. As with clinical excellence, the best leaders will make sure to set a good example for staff to follow, and offer high-quality care at all times.
Staff development
When leaders find ways to enable staff development, they can benefit the healthcare sector overall, and facilitating this through training is one example of how they go about it. Regular professional development reviews can also be used by leaders to help nurses pinpoint training needs, drive improvements in areas they may currently be weaker in, and deliver better care overall.
The best leaders will also create a working environment that encourages staff development and leads to better patient care in health overall. This can be achieved by making it easy for staff to complete training courses and fostering an environment where training is valued.
Focus on team collaboration
Healthcare, as an industry, relies heavily on teamwork to function efficiently. This is true within nursing, where the ability to work closely with one another helps staff to deliver high-quality care.
Leaders can make a significant impact here by fostering an environment where teamwork is valued and where people within the team are fully committed to working together. This can be achieved through regular team meetings or managers stepping in to sort out disputes between staff that threaten team cohesion.
Leaders can deliver patient-centered care
Leaders in nursing are able to benefit healthcare overall by ensuring that team members put patients at the heart of what they do and deliver care that focuses on their individual needs at all times. A good example of this might be a nurse coming off their break early when they hear a patient in distress and needing help.
Leaders can also help by adopting a patient-centric approach to any decisions they make that could impact those they care for (such as considering how a new visiting hours policy could impact how long visitors have with patients).
Strategic planning and resource management
Leadership in nursing might mainly focus on patient care, but it also encompasses other elements. Strategic planning is a good example and sees leaders properly planning for the future within their area/team. This allows them to avoid any current trends in health negatively impacting the care they offer and means that the health sector overall operates in an organized planned way.
Resource management is also important in this regard and helps nurse leaders to manage their resources properly. This could be anything from ensuring that enough nursing staff is on shift at any one time to provide the best care to making sure that key medical supplies are managed properly so that they don’t run out.
Advocacy for the nursing profession
Nursing leaders are able to use their senior positions to advocate for nurses in general and guarantee that they receive fair treatment overall. Advocacy work can also see nursing leaders fight against unjust policies that affect nurses or drive change in health guidelines that do not promote the best patient care. By doing this, nurse leaders are not only able to raise the level of patient care in health but also motivate nursing staff to offer the best patient outcomes.
Nursing leaders are key to the future of healthcare
As the above shows, nursing leaders offer many benefits to healthcare overall and the nursing sector in particular. This sees them emerge as key figures for patient care, staff development and patient outcomes.
