NUR 514 APA Assignment: Leadership Style Reflective Essay

Sample Answer for NUR 514 APA Assignment: Leadership Style Reflective Essay Included After Question

Assessment Description

The purpose of this assignment is to assist learners in developing effective communication by emphasizing the proper application of APA style. APA style is required for the graduate program.

Refer to the resources in the Class Resources and Student Success Center for assistance with APA. Use the APA Style Guide resource, located in the Student Success Center, to complete this assignment.

For this assignment, complete the following:

Self-Assessment

Self-awareness is essential for developing leadership skills. Recognizing your own strengths, weaknesses, and values, and understanding emotional intelligence and learning styles can help you to be a more effective nurse leader.

For this assignment, you have the opportunity to take a variety of self-assessments to learn more about yourself and identify your assets and weaknesses as a leader. This will assist you in discovering how you can improve your own self-leadership skills. You will be asked to think critically about your results and submit a reflection as directed below.

Refer to the topic Resources. Select and complete three self-assessments. Be sure to document the results of each assessment to assist you in completing the reflection portion of the assignment below.

Self-Assessment Reflection

Becoming self-aware is an ongoing process requiring introspection. The more often people practice self-reflection, the more opportunities they have to understand their own behaviors and adapt their approaches to working with other people, which can improve both your own and other’s abilities to meet their professional goals.

In a 1,000-1,250-word reflective essay, address the following:

1. Provide a rationale and brief summary for selecting each self-assessment. Summarize the results you obtained on each assessment.
2. Identify the leadership style that closely aligns to your philosophy of care and explain what appeals to you about that style.
3. Reflect on how you might incorporate elements of that particular style as you exercise leadership in a practice or health care organization setting.
4. Discuss any particular areas for improvement the assessments helped you identify and some steps for improving your leadership capabilities.
5. Analyze the characteristics of an effective professional nurse leader, or individuals in nursing leadership. Discuss the characteristics and explain why they are effective for leadership in nursing.
6. Analyze different leadership theories and leadership styles. Select one theory and leadership style, different from your own, and explain how they each support a professional nurse leader or individual in nursing leadership. Consider how the theory shapes the nurse leader in such things as collaboration, conflict resolution, decision-making, and negotiation.

You are required to cite three to five sources to complete this assignment. Sources must be published within the last 5 years and appropriate for the assignment criteria and nursing content.

Complete the “APA Writing Checklist” to ensure that your paper adheres to APA style and formatting criteria and general guidelines for academic writing. Include the completed checklist as an appendix at the end of your paper.

Prepare this assignment according to the guidelines found in the APA Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center.

This assignment uses a rubric. Please review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the expectations for successful completion.

You are required to submit this assignment to LopesWrite. A link to the LopesWrite technical support articles is located in Class Resources if you need assistance.

A Sample Answer For the Assignment: NUR 514 APA Assignment: Leadership Style Reflective Essay

Title:  NUR 514 APA Assignment: Leadership Style Reflective Essay

The current nursing practice continues to evolve in multiple aspects in response to the complex patient needs. This evolution requires nursing professionals and leaders to understand their abilities and apply strengths appropriately. Self-assessments are highly effective for nurses to understand their behaviors for healthy relationships with others and professional excellence. Self-awareness also helps nurses to adjust appropriately and work on their weaknesses. The purpose of this paper is to discuss my self-assessment results and leadership application in nursing.

Summary of Self-Assessment Selections and Results

Various tests provide different information about individual behavior, strengths, and weaknesses. The first test selected for the self-assessment was the emotional intelligence test. Lambert (2021) described emotional intelligence as a critical success factor for effective nursing leadership and management characterized by the ability to understand one’s feelings and effectively respond to those of others. Hence, this test was chosen to evaluate my ability to deal with emotions. The other test was the learning styles assessment through the VARK (visual, aural, read/write, and kinesthetic) questionnaire. Since nurses should continually improve their knowledge and skills, understanding how they learn best is essential for professional growth and development. The third test was the cultural competence self-test. In health care delivery, cultural competence involves awareness of the influence of social and cultural factors on patients’ health choices (Kaihlanen et al., 2019). I selected this test to assess my ability to deal with culturally diverse individuals and groups.

Self-assessment results accurately reflect nurses’ strengths and critical improvement areas. The emotional intelligence test revealed my type as the empath. With a score of 80/100 (self-awareness) and 96/100 (empathy), I can easily understand and empathize with the emotional experiences of others (Appendix A). Concerning learning styles, I am multimodal: visual- 7, aural- 4, read/write- 2, kinesthetic- 7 (Appendix B). On cultural competence, I scored highly (50/54) in the evaluation areas, particularly communication (Appendix C). These scores will help me to maximize my strengths for effective patient care and leadership while addressing my underperformance areas.

NUR 514 APA Assignment: Leadership Style Reflective Essay

Assessment Description

A Sample Answer For the Assignment: NUR 514 APA Assignment: Leadership Style Reflective Essay

Title: NUR 514 APA Assignment: Leadership Style Reflective Essay

A Sample Answer For the Assignment: NUR 514 APA Assignment: Leadership Style Reflective Essay

Title:  NUR 514 APA Assignment: Leadership Style Reflective Essay

Self-reflection influences one’s perspective on their leadership style and their actions towards other individuals, especially patients and colleagues. Self-reflection comprises of consideration and analysis of one’s beliefs and actions. Self-reflection is an essential indicator of a successful leaders as it offers an opportunity for one to understand how they can attain their goals and contribute positively to their roles (Adams, 2017). The purpose of this paper is to discuss various tools for self-assessment and the results that I got, the leadership style that aligns with my care philosophy and the incorporation of its elements as well as areas that need improvement.

Self-Assessment Tools

There are three self-assessment tools that I deployed in determining my emotional intelligence, personality and preferences in learning that may have direct influence on my leadership style and approaches. Emotional intelligence determines one’s level of emotional identification, expression and perception. Based on the test, my score was 74 which indicates that I have reasonable skills in identification of my emotions and those of others. The results show that I have room to improve. The second test was the personality test that showed I am 73% extraverted, 63% observant, 55% feeling and 67% assertive. The third test was the VARK Questionnaire which showed that I have a multimodal learning preference implying that I use and learn from a host of approaches and methods.

Leadership Style

The leadership style that I believe relates most and one that inspires me to adopt into my practice as a nurse practitioner is participative leadership style defines as shared influence and joint decision making that occur between leaders and their followers. Participative leadership is effective and attractive since it is essential in making a successful team (Kraft et al., 2018). Participative leaders value all opinions since individuals may have a different idea from leaders. Leaders can miss potential and better ideas when they do not permit input from followers. While participative leadership provides immense benefits, it is a leadership approach that is not always well received. Many leaders are not willing to relinquish control by opening up the concept of accepting diverse opinions (Adams, 2017). Individuals who adopt participative leadership should know that this style can improve relationship among the different players, especially the leaders and followers. Staff feel values and can make positive contributions when they participate in decision making and other critical opinions.

Incorporation Leadership Styles

The incorporation of participative leadership approach entails a comfortable transition. I will use the leadership approach to determine areas that I should improve. I will incorporate its elements by seeking opinions from others during meetings and delegating some responsibilities. Individuals have different work perspective and ethics. Encompassing and valuing that each individual is different and has different approach to issue enhances the level of trust and motivation among nurse practitioners in the unit. It is essential to make the staff feel that their contributions and ideas are valued which leads to increased appreciation.

Through such actions, the employees feel better and motivated. I would accept their opinions, determine their best interest in patient care and initiate changes to ensure effective transition (VonKnorring et al., 2020). While leaders offer their staff opportunities to express their opinions and thoughts, the ultimate decisions and directions come from them and determine the best interests of the organization. Through participative leadership model, the nurse practitioners under my supervision will feel part of the team as this style allows leaders to delegate where an individual has the best idea. However, nurses should understand that participative leaders have different ways of assessing the opinions and seeking ones that focus on the best interests of the team through team spirit.

Areas of Improvement

The three assessment tests that I took are critical in gauging different learning approaches and preferences, personality styles and emotional intelligence. For instance, the VARK assessment was critical in determining my learning preferences. Through the questionnaire, one can understand the best way of retaining information. The test was very accurate as it showed the real way that I learn. The personality assists in the identification of personality traits that an individual possesses. The assessment showed that I should improve in my approach to judgment.

The test shows that I should improve by focusing on positive aspects as opposed to the negative outlook. While the test showed that I am more extroverted, I realized that I am fast to judge than I anticipated.  The emotional intelligence test is essential for nurses as it determines one’s level of emotions and how they can deal with others, especially patients and their families. The test demonstrates that while I am emotionally intelligent, I can improve and be better by being more sensitive to people’s perspectives and reducing my judgmental attitude (VonKnorring et al., 2020). These assessments show that I should improve in communication and be more aware of the emotions that individuals may have as they access healthcare.

Conclusion

Effective leaders should be self-aware so that they know how to handle their subordinates and patients. they must demonstrate emotional intelligence and confidence and value staff’s participation through an appropriate leadership model. Self-awareness allows leaders to understand how to offer effective direction to their teams. Leaders should focus on improving their effectiveness through better approaches and use of personality tests where necessary for better improvement and care provision.

NUR 514 APA Assignment: Leadership Style Reflective Essay References

Adams, C. J. (2017). Towards a Philosophy of Care through Caregiving. Critical Inquiry,

43(4), 765

George Boak, & Sarah, C. (2019). Experiences that develop leadership capabilities. Leadership

& Organization Development Journal, 40(1): 97-106.

Kraft, A., Sparr, J. L., & Peus, C. (2018). Giving and Making Sense About Change: The Back

and Forth Between Leaders and Employees. Journal of Business and Psychology, 33(1), 71-87. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10869-016-9474-5

Psychology Today. (2019). Emotional Intelligence.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/tests/personality/emotional-intelligence-tes

VARK: A guide to learning preferences (2019). http://vark-learn.com/the-vark-questionnaire

VonKnorring, M., Griffiths, P., Ball, J., Runesdotter, S., Lindqvist, R. (2020). Patient experience

of communication consistency amongst staff is related to nurse-physician teamwork in hospitals. Nursing Open, 2(613).

NUR 514 APA Assignment: Leadership Style Reflective Essay

Description:

The purpose of this assignment is to assist learners in developing effective communication by emphasizing the proper application of APA style. APA style is required for the graduate program.

Refer to the resources in the course materials and Student Success Center for assistance with APA. Use the APA Style Guide resource, located in the Student Success Center, to complete this assignment.

For this assignment, complete the following:

Click here to ORDER NOW FOR AN ORIGINAL PAPER ASSIGNMENT on NUR 514 APA Assignment: Leadership Style Reflective Essay

Self-Assessment

Self-awareness is essential for developing leadership skills. Recognizing your own strengths, weaknesses, and values, and understanding emotional intelligence and learning styles can help you to be a more effective nurse leader.

For this assignment, you have the opportunity to take a variety of self-assessments to learn more about yourself and identify your assets and weaknesses as a leader. This will assist you in discovering how you can improve your own self-leadership skills. You will be asked to think critically about your results and submit a reflection as directed below.

Refer to the study materials. Select and complete three self-assessments. Be sure to document the results of each assessment to assist you in completing the reflection portion of the assignment below.

Self-Assessment Reflection

Becoming self-aware is an ongoing process requiring introspection. The more often people practice self-reflection, the more opportunities they have to understand their own behaviors and adapt their approaches to working with other people, which can improve both your own and other’s abilities to meet their professional goals.

In a 1,000-1,250 word reflective essay, address the following:

• Provide a rationale and brief summary for selecting each self-assessment. Summarize the results you obtained on each assessment.
• Identify the leadership style that closely aligns to your philosophy of care and explain what appeals to you about that style.
• Reflect on how you might incorporate elements of that particular style as you exercise leadership in a practice or health care organization setting.
• Discuss any particular areas for improvement the assessments helped you identify and some steps for improving your leadership capabilities.
• Analyze the characteristics of an effective professional nurse leader, or individuals in nursing leadership. Discuss the characteristics and explain why they are effective for leadership in nursing.
• Analyze different leadership theories and leadership styles. Select one theory and leadership style, different from your own, and explain how they each support a professional nurse leader or individual in nursing leadership. Consider how the theory shapes the nurse leader in such things as collaboration, conflict resolution, decision making, and negotiation.

You are required to cite three to five sources to complete this assignment. Sources must be published within the last 5 years and appropriate for the assignment criteria and nursing content.

Complete the “APA Writing Checklist” to ensure that your paper adheres to APA style and formatting criteria and general guidelines for academic writing. Include the completed checklist as an appendix at the end of your paper.

Prepare this assignment according to the guidelines found in the APA Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center.

This assignment uses a rubric. Please review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the expectations for successful completion.

You are required to submit this assignment to LopesWrite. A link to the LopesWrite technical support articles is located in Course Materials if you need assistance.

A Sample Answer 3 For the Assignment: NUR 514 APA Assignment: Leadership Style Reflective Essay

Title:  NUR 514 APA Assignment: Leadership Style Reflective Essay

Introduction

The success of many healthcare organizations globally depends on their nurse leadership. Effective nurse leadership guarantees positive results while poor nursing leadership styles result in organizational failure. Therefore, as a leader, one must assess his or her qualities and determine whether they align with the organizational needs, especially in the current globalized world. The purpose of this leadership assessment exercise is to discover one’s strengths, weaknesses, and areas of improvement in leadership practice.

Self-Assessment Summary

Building and sustaining relationships is important for social interactions as well as in professional practices and depends on the psychological skills. It is for these reasons that I selected the psychological assessment. From the assessment that I conducted, my emotional identification, perception and expression score was 64. Also, I was impressed with the score in emotional management scale (74). The assessment results indicated that I have basic skills in identification, perception, and expression of the emotions in other people as well as mine. On the other hand, there are areas that I need to improve on and they mainly fall within the abilities to interact and communicate with others. In as much as identifying people’s moods and emotions is essential, it will be more reputable if I develop the interaction skills so that I can be able to help them out of the emotional distress and frustrations in case that is what they feel. Further, leaders who manage their emotions accordingly are able to handle difficult and technical issues emerging in the course of their leadership practices accordingly (Hao & Yazdanifard, 2015).

The second assessment that I undertook was the personality assessment, which focused on various aspects including energy, nature, mind, tactic and identity. As such, it was important for stress management in nursing leadership practice and thus worth exploring in this self-assessment. The highest score was recorded under nature and this meant that I effectively manage situations, make decisions and cope with emotions. Also, I tend to be observant and critically think about issues at hand before making the decision. In terms of mind, the assessment results indicated that I am 54% introverted and 44% extroverted, which I think truly represent my personality. On the other hand, I was surprised to learn that I am judgmental. The score under this aspect was 68%, which I feel could not be true. However, building on the results from the assessment, I am able to work on my weaknesses and develop competent leadership qualities.

The third assessment was on the learning styles assessment; this was important because it determines an individual’s ability to discern the prevailing situations and provide timely solutions as a leader. The assessment mainly focused on visual, aural, reading, writing and kinesthetic skills. The highest score was in the visual category (6) while the least score was in the kinesthetic. The VARK profile analysis basically focused on the learning styles where some people prefer the practical approach to learning while others do theories. As a leader, working with other experienced leaders has positively influenced my leadership skills development (Hao & Yazdanifard, 2015).

Leadership Style

            My philosophy of care is premised on having the ability to help other people using my influence in a positive manner. One of the leadership styles that closely aligns with that philosophy is the transformational leadership. Transformational leadership style is based on the ability of the leaders to empower their subjects and work jointly with them to realize the set goals and objectives. As a nurse leader, transformational leadership is appealing since it enables me to transform the manner in which the team under me works (Reid & Dold, 2017). One of the ways that this occurs is through influencing them to adopt my personal philosophy of care for the betterment of patient health.

Incorporating Elements

            Transformational leadership has several elements that might become incorporated into my practice. Through my nursing leadership practice, I would encourage individualized consideration for team members in order to allow them to transform not only their philosophies but make them align to mine. In addition, I would ensure that I offer inspirational motivation to all team members to transform patient experiences at the facility (Khoshhal & Guraya, 2016). Lastly, via transformational leadership, my team members will be allowed to intellectually examine aspects of care to elicit positive experiences from patients.

Areas for Improvement

On the other hand, despite having admirable leadership skills as per the assessment results, there are few areas that need improvement. First, the assessment results indicated that I am judgmental and I believe this is not recommended for a leader. Therefore, I will have to learn to appreciate people’s values and embrace diversity. Transforming my attitudes towards diversity will help me overcome the issue of being judgmental and equip me to be a better leader (Hiller, Novelli, & Ponnapalli 2016; Hassanzadeh, Silong, Asmuni & Wahat, 2015). Also, I will work with other leaders to learn from them in terms of how they handle stressing and most challenging experiences; this will help me address the issue of emotional influence on the decision-making process which also identified as a significant drawback from the assessment outcomes. Thirdly, I will work to improve my interpersonal and socialization skills; through this, I will emerge as a courageous leader who is able to interact with other people without fear. Leadership is all about working with others and this requires a lot of courage and socialization skills.

Conclusion

The leadership assessment results confirmed that I am a good leader with quality skills. It revealed that I am observant and think critically into issues before making decisions. Additionally, I tend to learn other people’s emotions easily and this means I can easily handle people based on their presentations. On the other hand, I tend to be judgmental, and introvert and these are the major weaknesses that I need to address to become a better leader.

References

Hao, M. J., & Yazdanifard, R. (2015). How effective leadership can facilitate change in organizations through improvement and innovation. Global Journal of Management And Business Research.

Hassanzadeh, M., Silong, A. D., Asmuni, A., & Wahat, N. W. A. (2015). Global leadership competencies. Journal of Educational and Social Research, 5(2), 137.

Hiller, N., Novelli, S. Ö., & Ponnapalli, A. R. (2016). Leadership competency builder.

Khoshhal, K. I., & Guraya, S. Y. (2016). Leaders produce leaders and managers produce followers: a systematic review of the desired competencies and standard settings for physicians’ leadership. Saudi medical journal, 37(10), 1061.

Reid, W. M., & Dold, C. J. (2017). Leadership training and the problems of competency development. Journal of Public Health Management and Practice, 23(1), 73-80.

A Sample Answer 4 For the Assignment: NUR 514 APA Assignment: Leadership Style Reflective Essay

Title:  NUR 514 APA Assignment: Leadership Style Reflective Essay

Reflective practice is an important part of the nursing profession and leadership as it allows nurses and their leaders to acquire leadership attributes and understand their style of leadership. Reflection enables nurse leaders and practitioners to learn from their experiences and know weak areas and the need for future improvement (Porter-O’Grady et al., 2019). Reflective practice shows one’s strengths and initiatives that one can take to improve so that one succeeds in their assigned roles, duties, and responsibilities (Barker, 2021). The purpose of this paper is to offer a reflective account of myself based on three different assessment tools that I have taken. The paper also identifies a leadership style that aligns with my care philosophy and highlights elements of the leadership model that I should incorporate as well as areas of improvement. The paper also analyzes the features of an effective professional nurse leader and different leadership theories and styles.

Rationale and Brief Summary of Self-Assessment

Nurse leaders must be self-aware to improve overall care provision as they deal with patients in different areas. consequently, I took three tests that include a personality test, an emotional intelligence test, and a learning style assessment. The rationale for the personality test allows one to ascertain the effect of their personality on the perception of nursing situations and the environment. I wanted to know if my personality has an impact on the decisions that I make in care provision. The personality test revealed that I have a significant percentage of extraversion at about 68% and introversion at 32%. The personality test also showed that my energy is 57% observant and 43% intuitive. The test also showed that I rely on feelings at 68% compared to 32% prospection. The test also showed that my identity is 62% assertive and 38% turbulent.

The emotional intelligence test is critical as it allows nurses and nurse leaders to understand their ability to deal with a host of situations. I wanted to gain insight into my ability to respond to critical moments that require the use of critical thinking and problem-solving abilities. Emotionally intelligent nurse leaders and nurses are effective in their work as they understand the implementation of better interventions to attain quality outcomes and accomplish their tasks. The emotional intelligence test showed that I had 69% implying that I am soundly skilled in the identification, perception, and expression of emotions in others and even myself.

The learning style test was essential as it allows one to understand their ability to learn in a host of environments. Studies show the need for nurses to embrace lifelong learning to transform the healthcare industry by adopting best practices from research and clinical experience as well as patient preferences (Porter-O’Grady et al., 2019). The assessment of my learning style revealed that I had ten in kinesthetic, two in reading and writing, five in aural, and one in zero. The implication is that I learn mainly through observation.

Leadership Style Aligning with my Care Philosophy

Through intense analysis and self-reflection, I have realized that the servant leadership and transformation leadership models are the ones that align with my philosophy of care. Servant leadership means seeking the good of others at the expense of self. Servant leaders focus on improving the welfare of their followers and serving them. Transformational leaders focus on changing the status quo and improving care delivery (Barker, 2021). Therefore, these styles are essential for nurse leaders to impact their subordinates and inspire them to offer quality care.

My philosophy of care entails serving others using the best possible interventions to meet their preferences and conditions. servant and transformational leaders have a strong sense to serve and change their followers while ensuring the best interactions and relationships among members of their teams. These leaders listen, empathize, and uphold integrity as well as values and ethics to attain better patient outcomes. Therefore, these styles are essential in ensuring that I attain the expected patient care outcomes.

Incorporation of Elements of the Leadership Style

One needs to understand their strengths and weaknesses to make an effective leader. The use of these assessments allowed me to understand that I lacked self-reflection, and emotional intelligence and was not aware of my actions and decisions. As an effective leader, the lack of these aspects impairs my ability to offer remedies and solutions to issues in the practice environment and among the team members (Kibbe & Chen, 2019). Therefore, enhancing listening, building communities and effective learning from all members and other stakeholders would be critical in improving my leadership attributes and hence effective delivery of quality care to patients.

Areas of Self-Improvement and Steps to Enhance Leadership Capabilities

Self-awareness requires one to have a better understanding of leadership abilities and capacities. The assessment helped identify certain areas that need improvement. These include communication, the development of the relationship with team members and all stakeholders, as well as being empathetic to situations. The assessments also showed the need to incorporate emotional intelligence in situations that patients and other providers can face in care provision and delivery (Thomas, 2018). The assessment also showed the need for me to improve my personality by developing a more assertive identity through confidence-building, particularly when making decisions that support a patient’s life. I should also improve on how I handle colleagues and avoid being judgmental. More specifically, I should avoid using intuition when making a judgment in health situations. Situations require contingent approaches as opposed to being rigid in decision-making.

Characteristics of Effect Professional Nurse Leader

An effective nurse leader assists in the development of a common or convergent approach to care provision through the use of systems and employees. The nurse coordinates, integrates, and facilitates different services and applications to help patients. Individuals seek meaning in their lives and purpose at work. Effective nurse leader has to constantly reflect on their character and quality of work (Kibbe & Chen, 2019). The sustainability and success of an organization arise from individual and collective responsibility and the performance of all people. The leader must demonstrate openness and transparency to be a valued leader. The leader must be a role model to inspire and motivate their team to perform and be productive. They must show their commitment and engagement with their employees, be transformative, and be observant to avoid any situations that may affect the overall care delivery among the nursing staff members (Barker, 2021). An effective leader should also be reflective, serve the followers, and be transformative to improve the quality of care offered to patients. More importantly, an effective leader must bear the vision and mission of their organization and strategize while advancing the meaning and purpose as well as better welfare of the employees.

Application of Leadership Theory and Style

Different leadership models continue to emerge since the 1930s. However, the transformational leadership style is the most appropriate in modern health settings. The style is the most effective in a health care setting since it is founded on teamwork and focuses on the attainment of a common goal irrespective of individual concepts that may arise. The leadership model embeds honest, open, and effective communication to build positive interpersonal relationships among team members. The style entails team leaders communicating the team vision in a manner to motivate and empower the followers or subordinates (Gandolfi & Stone, 2018). The team leader inspires better loyalty and confidence resulting in increased levels of engagement, achievement, and performance.

The theory shapes the nurse leader to develop a collaborative approach to care delivery and seek consensus when a conflict arises to attain a resolution. It also helps nurse leaders develop better ways to decide on engagement and involvement. The model ensures that leaders can negotiate by inspiring and motivating the team members to be effective and perform better to deliver quality care.

Conclusion

Understanding one’s attributes based on their strengths and weak areas is essential for nurses and nurse leaders. The paper shows that personal assessments based on three different tests are essential for one to develop better leadership attributes and improve on areas that have weaknesses. The implication is that these tests ensure that one can adopt a leadership style and attributes to be better nurses and nurse leaders to offer quality care to patients.

NUR 514 APA Assignment: Leadership Style Reflective Essay References

Barker, A. M. (2021). Influencing and leading change in the complex healthcare environment:

The role of the advanced practice nurse. In S. M. Denisco (Ed.), Advanced practice

nursing: Essential knowledge for the profession (4th ed., pp. 149–163). Jones & Bartlett

Learning

Gandolfi, F., & Stone, S. (2018). Leadership, Leadership Styles, and Servant Leadership.

Journal of Management Research, 18(4), 261-269. https://search-ebscohost-com.lopes.idm.oclc.org/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=132968632&site=eds-live&scope=site

Kibbe, M. R., & Chen, H. (Eds.). (2019). Leadership in surgery. Springer International

Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-19854-1

Mansel, B., & Einion, A. (2019). ‘It’s the relationship you develop with them’: emotional

intelligence in nurse leadership. A qualitative study. British Journal of Nursing.

https://doi.org/10.12968/bjon.2019.28.21.1400

Thomas, J.S. (2018). Applying servant leadership in practice. Nursing Leadership and

Management: Leading and Serving. 1, Ch. 3. https://lc.gcumedia.com/nrs451vn/nursing-leadership-and-mangement-leading-and-serving/v1.1/#/chapter/3

Porter-O’Grady, T., Weberg, D. R., Mangold, K. & Malloch, K. (2019). Leadership in Nursing

Practice: Changing the landscape of health care. Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett.

PsychTests AIM Inc. (2022a). Big five personality test [Measurement instrument].

https://testyourself.psychtests.com/testid/4059

PsychTests AIM Inc. (2022b). Emotional intelligence test [Measurement instrument].

https://testyourself.psychtests.com/testid/3979

A Sample Answer 5 For the Assignment: NUR 514 APA Assignment: Leadership Style Reflective Essay

Title:  NUR 514 APA Assignment: Leadership Style Reflective Essay

I have an example of a manager who is not a leader. For the last two years I was one of 3 clinical managers, working under this manager, our director of patient care services. She has been with the company since it started, and has worn many hats. She is a good manager, knows the business of hospice, the day to day running of the clinical side of the company. However, what I have learned in working directly under her is that she is not a leader. (She has not furthered her education, has an RN only). She practices an autocratic management style, decisions are made from the top and things are done “the way they have always been done”. This style worked fine for the other two managers, as they managed their teams the same way, told them where to go, what to do and how to do it. When I came onto the management team I had a lot of ideas that I had learned in the BSN program about leadership. I had a lot to learn, but what I did know is how I wanted to lead my team, using transformational leadership. I met with my team regularly, gave them the floor and listened to their ideas for change. I understood that they were the ones at the bedside, so change needed to start with hearing from them. We worked together. They came to understand that I would always hear what they had to say and they respected that I may not always agree and would tell them why. According to Chemers (2001), a leader must establish trust and credibility to enlist the support of followers, to build relationships that motivate them to take part in the team and share in the common goals (as cited in DeNisco & Barker, 2019). A good leader influences, where a manager controls (Northouse 2015, as cited in Porter-O’Grady et al., 2019).

In order to be a good leader, the advance practice nurse will need well-honed communication and mediation skills. She will need to establish trust and credibility with her followers that motivates them to contribute their energy and resources to the collective effort (DeNisco & Barker, 2019). Porter-O’Grady, et al. pointed out that a good leader doesn’t solve problems, she allows ownership of the problem to remain with the person who questions it, but works with that person or persons to help them solve it, leading to a further understanding and sustainable change, rather than dependence on the leader to solve the problems (2019

Promoting health and wellness and disease prevention has many benefits as opposed to treating illness retrospectively. Many chronic conditions have modifiable risk factors. Some major risk factors associated with chronic disease include smoking, obesity, physical inactivity, and poor nutrition. One benefit of promoting health and wellness is decreased healthcare costs. It is a slow cultural transition to disease prevention and health promotion for reasons including access to healthcare. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) provided an estimated 137 million Americans, including 28.5 million children, no cost coverage for preventative care (DeNisco, 2019). The ACA also ensures that the care is high quality including meaningful use of technology and implementing Accountable Care Organizations offering financial rewards if the patients’ healthcare spending is lowered and the quality of care delivered is improved (Weberg et al., 2018).

One measure the nurse leader can take as an advocate for patient care and addressing health care costs is promoting protocols for effective handoffs. Effective bedside reporting at shift change with both nurses from each shift in the presence of the patient has many benefits including decreased errors and increased communication. For example, if the patient is on a continuous intravenous drip, the nurses should be reviewing this at handoff, and catching potential errors that could lead to patient harm and increased cost. Another measure nurse leaders can advocate for addressing health care costs is promoting health and wellness starting with their team. Many organizations offer comprehensive workplace wellness programs reducing costs for employees and the organization. The nurse leader can share these resources the company offers with their team.

 Assignment: Leadership Style Reflective Essay 

Leadership in nursing is critical for team cohesion, promoting the correct values, and overall organizational success. However, nurse leaders can only exercise leadership competently with an in-depth understanding of individual strengths, values, and weaknesses. Self-awareness helps nurse leaders and emerging leaders to develop appropriate skills and utilize their strengths effectively to promote better outcomes in health care settings (Fitzpatrick & Alfes, 2022). Self-awareness also helps nurses to work on their weaknesses to become more competent and positively influential professionals. The purpose of this paper is to describe the self-assessment results, leadership style aligning with my care philosophy, improvement areas, characteristics of an effective nurse leader, and application of leadership styles and theories in nursing leadership. 

Self-Assessments Selection and Results 

Rationale and Brief Summary 

Self-assessments focus on different leadership traits. The first self-assessment selected for personal is the values profile. It is crucial to understand individual dominant values since attitudes toward work, interprofessional relationships, and behaviors are highly influenced by a nurse’s values (Masters, 2018). The self-assessment test categorizes values into dominant, influencing, and minor values. The second test is the learning styles assessment. Conducted through the Visual, Aural, Read/Write, and Kinesthetic (VARK) questionnaire, this test describes how a leader learns the best. Since nurse leaders are lifetime learners, understanding how a leader captures information comfortably is essential. The third self-assessment is the emotional intelligence test. In nursing, emotional intelligence helps nurse leaders be aware and sensitive to self and others’ feelings and psychological well-being (Lambert, 2021). Conducting this test helps nurse leaders to examine whether they can develop effective relationships with colleagues and other nursing staff. 

Results of Each Assessment 

The values profile involved completing 184 questions on different life essentials. The summarized results show that my dominant values are theoretical, social, and realistic (Appendix A). Influencing values include traditional, political, and aesthetic values. From a leadership perspective, dominant values are those a leader regards highly, while influencing values represent moderate importance. My VARK questionnaire’s results were visual- 9, aural – 5, read/write -7, and kinesthetic -6 (Appendix B). Visual learners prefer learning through information in visual formats such as graphs, charts, and diagrams (Masters, 2021). My emotional quotient from the emotional intelligence test (341 questions) was 124 (Appendix C). The implication is that I can understand and deal with emotions effectively. 

Leadership Style Aligning with My Philosophy of Care 

Health care professionals’ care philosophies are based on their worldviews and understanding of health, illness, and professional roles. Servant leadership aligns with my care philosophy. Maglione and Neville (2021) described servant leadership in nursing as placing others’ needs first and setting aside self-interests to ensure others’ needs and desires are addressed. I believe in care where the nurse is committed to addressing patient needs before personal interests. Such care is characterized by selflessness, empathy towards patients, and the application of interventions that enhance patient satisfaction. A servant approach ensures that patient needs are quickly addressed, and the motivation to engage in the nursing practice is to serve. The most appealing element of servant leadership is a commitment to improving others. Maglione and Neville (2021) further noted that servant leaders share knowledge and are continually committed to the betterment of their followers. As a result, they promote mutual growth among their followers to improve their working capacity. 

Incorporating Servant Leadership Elements in a Health Care Setting 

A servant approach can be used for employee development and patient care improvement in a health care setting. Best (2020) suggested that nurse servant leaders evaluate the staff needs continuously to ensure nurses get adequate support as their needs necessitate. The implication is that a health care professional using the servant approach is committed to addressing staff needs to ensure everyone is optimally healthy and ready to serve patients. According to Maglione and Neville (2021), health care servants perceive patients as a disadvantaged and vulnerable group. In response, they use their experience, knowledge, and skills to promote patient healing. Generally, selflessness and service to others (servitude/stewardship) are the core elements of servant leadership.  

Improvement Areas 

The self-assessment tests helped me to identify several areas of improvement. These areas include aural and kinesthetic learning, where I scored 5 and 6, respectively. I should also improve my emotional intelligence skills to better deal with colleagues and leaders. Practical steps for improving leadership capabilities include openness to other learning styles besides visual learning, practicing stress management, and working on my emotional reflection and regulation segments of emotional intelligence. As Jacobs et al. (2020) noted, leaders open to diverse views cultivate a culture of inclusion and engagement in health care organizations. A similar approach is needed to improve my relationship with professionals within and outside nursing. Stress management is vital for emotional regulation and general well-being (Li et al., 2021). It promotes healthy relationships and will be instrumental to my growth as a leader by minimizing possible conflicts with colleagues, followers, and patients. 

Characteristics of an Effective Professional Nurse Leader 

Nurse leaders manage staff and resources in health care settings. As a result, they should possess several crucial traits, such as emotional intelligence, problem-solving skills, and excellent communication skills. According to Lamber (2021), emotional intelligence helps nurse leaders understand and interpret people’s feelings correctly. Doing so prevents workplace conflicts and promotes job satisfaction. Problem-solving also demonstrates an effective nurse leader since nursing leadership entails addressing complex workplace and patient care problems routinely. Nurse leaders also communicate goals, roles, policies, and practice changes to other leaders and the nursing staff. Excellent communication is crucial to ensure that nurse leaders are adequately understood. 

Leadership Styles and Theories Supporting the Nurse Leader 

Leadership styles and theories demonstrate what leadership entails in different circumstances and for different people. An effective leadership style for a professional nurse leader is transformational leadership. According to Jiatong et al. (2022), the transformational leadership emphasizes leading people through inspiration and engagement. Embracing this style helps nurse leaders to address issues collaboratively since they value engagement and collaborative decision-making. The central tenet of the transformational leadership theory is developing a vision and inspiring followers to achieve it through idealized influence (Lai et al., 2020). Such an approach regards the contribution of employees’ individual strengths and motivation to achieve a common goal. Accordingly, nurse leaders using a transformational approach motivate and influence their followers positively hence minimal conflicts. Job satisfaction is also high due to shared decision-making and working together to achieve a common vision. 

Conclusion 

Nurse leaders guide the nursing staff and lead change to optimize patient outcomes. Self-awareness is crucial for nurse leaders to ensure they utilize their strengths effectively and can work on their weaknesses. The three assessments helped me to understand my learning styles, personal values, and emotional intelligence levels. I will utilize my strengths appropriately to implement my care philosophy and work on my weaknesses to become a better leader and health care practitioner. 

 References 

Best, C. (2020). Is there a place for servant leadership in nursing? Practice Nursing, 31(3), 128-132. https://doi.org/10.12968/pnur.2020.31.3.128 

Fitzpatrick, J. J., & Alfes, C. M. (Eds.). (2022). Nurse leadership and management: Foundations for effective administration. Springer Publishing Company. 

Jacobs, B. S., Hatzigeorgiou, M. N., & McCamant, K. L. (2020). Cultivating a culture: Implementing methods to embrace diversity and inclusion. Nurse Leader, 18(5), 426–429. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mnl.2020.08.003 

Jiatong, W., Wang, Z., Alam, M., Murad, M., Gul, F., & Gill, S. A. (2022). The impact of transformational leadership on affective organizational commitment and job performance: The mediating role of employee engagement. Frontiers in Psychology, 13, 831060. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.831060 

Lai, F. Y., Tang, H. C., Lu, S. C., Lee, Y. C., & Lin, C. C. (2020). Transformational leadership and job performance: The mediating role of work engagement. Sage Open, 10(1), 2158244019899085. https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244019899085 

Lambert, S. (2021). Role of emotional intelligence in effective nurse leadership. Nurs Stand, 36(12), 45-49. doi: 10.7748/ns.2021.e11782 

Li, X., Chang, H., Zhang, Q., Yang, J., Liu, R., & Song, Y. (2021). Relationship between emotional intelligence and job well-being in Chinese clinical nurses: Multiple mediating effects of empathy and communication satisfaction. BMC Nursing, 20(1), 1-10. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12912-021-00658-4 

Maglione, J. L., & Neville, K. (2021). Servant leadership and spirituality among undergraduate and graduate nursing students. Journal of Religion and Health, 60(6), 4435–4450. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-021-01311-9 

Masters, K. (2018). Role development in professional nursing practice. Jones & Bartlett Learning. 

 Appendices 

Appendix A: Values Profile (https://testyourself.psychtests.com/bin/transfer) 

Appendix B: VARK Questionnaire (https://vark-learn.com/the-vark-questionnaire/?p=results) 

Appendix C: Emotional Intelligence Test (https://testyourself.psychtests.com/bin/report?req=MnwzOTc5fDExNjQ2NTg0fDB8MQ==) 

A Sample Answer 7 For the Assignment: NUR 514 APA Assignment: Leadership Style Reflective Essay

Title:  NUR 514 APA Assignment: Leadership Style Reflective Essay

Many people use leadership and management simultaneously when these terms  actually have two different meanings when we look at the effect leadership has on the recipient in relation to management. When advanced practice registered nurses provide management to others they are exercising a locus of control derived from their formal authority in the healthcare setting they work in (Weberg & Mangold, 2023). Management occurs because of the legitimized hierarchical positions within the healthcare system that allows the advanced practice registered nurse to have subordinates. Management focuses on the tactical aspects of leading others. Leadership can be utilized during any point in the management continuum, and when exercised appropriately can change the system as a whole regardless of where the leader may be located within the organizational hierarchy (Weberg & Mangold, 2023).

Leadership, on the other hand, is when an individual exhibits characteristics that  “influence others by virtue of their relationship skills and by advancing the effectiveness of their relationships in a way that supports the collective work of the stakeholders and the effectiveness of their outputs” (Weberg & Mangold, 2023). The concept of leadership focuses more on the interactions, behaviors, relationship building, and communications between others to build a mutual commitment that advances the values of all involved and enables those the leader is in contact with to achieve the purposeful ends of their work collectively (Weberg & Mangold, 2023).

When reflecting on my own personal experiences with nurse leadership, and being a nurse manager within my career, there are many strategies advanced practice registered nurses can employ to effectively lead and manage a clinical team. As a nurse leader, one strategy I used to effectively lead and manage others was open communication that facilitated collaboration between all members of the interdisciplinary team. Being transparent with the staff about what was going on within the clinic and how everyone’s actions affected metrics allowed all members of the staff to brainstorm on ways to improve metrics and patient care. This also helped establish trust between me and the staff, which helped strengthen my professional relationships with the individuals I managed. This allowed me to really get to know what was important to my staff on a professional level, and  to understand what they needed to grow on that level. Having the ability to effectively communicate allows me to build sound relationships with others, which in turn  initiated positive change within the clinic that had a direct positive effect on clinical outcomes and patient safety.

Weberg, D., & Mangold, K. (2023). Leadership in Nursing Practice: The Intersection of Innovation and Teamwork in Healthcare Systems (4th ed). Jones & Bartlett Learning.