Leadership Styles and Patient Safety for Nurses -myassignmenthelp

Question: Write about theLeadership Styles and Patient Safety for Nurses. Answer: Nurses play a major role in the health setting and the manner in which they are managed by their leaders affects their performance and patient outcomes. The nurse leaders have the responsibility of establishing a culture of patient safety and this is greatly influenced by the kind of leadership style they choose. Effective nurse managers ensure that the best resources and manpower are sufficiently utilized in order to realize optimal patient outcomes and quality of care. They use appropriate leadership styles to do so and also to attract and retain the top-performing nurses. There are various leadership styles that have a major impact on patient safety such as transactional, transformational, democratic, laissez-faire and authoritarianstyles (Frankel PGCMS, 2017). This essay will focus on transformational, transactional and laissez-faire types of leadership and the various ways they affect patient safety in healthcare. Patient safety is an important principle in healthcare and it refers to the reduction of risk of medical errors and negative effects to patients. It is a discipline that emphasizes mainly on safety in healthcare which is achieved through reduction, prevention and reporting of unnecessary errors that lead to adverse effects (World Health Organization, 2016). This is greatly influenced by the type of leadership style used by nurse leaders who are in a better position to control the healthcare environment. Generally, all leadership styles have their own place and a good leader ought to know the most appropriate one to be implemented at a particular situation. The chosen style has an impact on the nurses performance and this can be seen through patient satisfaction and safety, the levels of medication and recording errors, patient falls, hospital-acquired infedtions and patient mortality rates (Wong, 2015). According to James McGregor Burns, transformational leaders engage with their subordinates in a manner that both the leaders and followers boost one another to greater levels of morality and motivation (Fischer, 016). Therefore, transformational leadership can be defined as a style in which the leaders conduct inspires and transforms the followers. Leadership is by example. The leaders are proactive and motivate their followers to strive for greater performance. The followers feel encouraged to perform beyond the levels of expectations and to put the good of the organization before their self-interests. This style embraces inspirational motivation which entails the provision of a vision for the future by the leader to their followers and motivating them to exceed the levels of expectations. Additionally, it includes intellectual stimulation which replaces the conventional assumptions and beliefs with a novel culture. The leader is always concerned with the skills and needs of each of their followers and this can be termed as individualized consideration (Yoder-Wise, 2014). Transactional leadership is a style whereby the leader encourages compliance with rules amongst their followers using rewards and punishments. Those who follow the set rules and instructions and manage to achieve the set goals are rewarded appropriately. Conversely, those that fail to obey and achieve the set goals are punished. This style majorly focuses on supervision of followers, ensuring that the organization runs effectively and improving group achievements. The leader pays attention to the followers performance in order to find deviations or fault. Transactional leadership is suitable in times of crisis and emergency cases and also when highly detailed tasks need to be done in a specific manner (Lorber, Treven Mumel, 2016). In laissez-faire leadership, the leader gives little or no instructions or supervision and takes a hands-off approach. They prefer to let their followers do what they have to do on their own, probably believing that they will perform without guidance. Although it promotes independence, this style can have many adverse effects. First, crucial decisions are not made on time and positive changes rarely take place in the organization. Quality improvements are made only when the situation demands so. This approach is often used by inexperienced or new leaders who are still learning or by transitional leaders who believe that things will be dealt with by their incoming replacements (Lorber, Treven Mumel, 2016). The above leadership styles have different impacts on patient safety. To begin with, transformational leadership has been greatly associated with improved safety and reduced adverse effects in the healthcare setting. When this approach is used, things are done more carefully as followers are determined to go beyond the usual level of expectations. In a number of studies previously conducted, it has been related to reduced patient mortality rates as well as reduced medication errors (Vaismoradi,Griffiths, Turunen Jordan, 2016). The style has also been related to reduced patient falls. Additionally, studies have reported that this style is related to fewer cases of hospital-acquired infections. Patients tend to receive quality carein a safe climate. It has also been identified with increased patient satisfaction in the home health care and acute care settings. Since the leader leads by example and motivates followers to exceed their expected levels of performance, there is reduced sta ff turnover trends as compared to other styles. Generally, it has been considered to be a style that has positive contributions to a safer climate in healthcare (Hutchinson Jackson, 2013). On the other hand, the laissez-faire style of leadership has been seen to have a negative effect on unit socialization as it cultivates a culture of blame among the followers. Subsequently, this has a negative effect on patient safety. Due to the lack of directions and supervision, there are several cases of medication errors, patient falls and hospital-acquired infections (Merril, 2015). Transactional leadership has its focus on the reward system of nursing tasks instead of the holistic nature of organizing, facilitating and communicating evidence-based care. The focus shifts from patient safety and outcomes and followers are determined to complete the assigned tasks and acquire the conceptualized reward. This style may put the patients safety at risk and its effectiveness has not been proven in the provision of quality care. Besides this, the positive effects of transactional leadership are short-lived and the leader only intervenes when something goes wrong (Wong, Cummings Duchar me, 2013). However, in a case where the transactional leader sets clear expectations for their subordinates, this style plays a significant role in engaging the nurses in patient safety efforts. It also helps to ensure that the followers adhere to the set safety policies since obedience calls for a reward. An effective transactional leader is vigilant and monitors performance to ensure that there are no conditions that endanger the patients safety (Grossman Valiga, 2016). In conclusion, the essay has discussed on the transformational, transactional and laissez-faire types of leadership and the various ways they affect patient safety in healthcare. In this case, it is the role of nurse leaders to ensure that patient safety is upheld. To this end, they need to choose the most suitable style of leadership and as evidently seen, transformational leadership is the most effective. The transformational leadership conduct of nurse leaders will encourage the staffs attitude towards safety guidelines and this will influence their compliance with patient safety practices. In return, there will be reduced patient mortality, erroneous medication, patient falls and hospital-acquired infections. On the other hand, laissez-faire style of leadership has a negative effect on patient safety. Transactional leadership can promote patient safety if appropriately used and when the leaders are vigilant and strict enough to ensure that safety guidelines are adhered to. 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