The leadership theory that would best describe my style of leadership is the connective leadership theory. This choice is informed by my life experiences that have shaped my personal and professional values. Growing up, I was usually attentive to the needs of other people. I felt an inner desire to offer a helping hand to those I believed were in need. While engaged in such caring interactions, my sense of being connected seemed reciprocal and provided personal rewards. When choosing my career path, my need to continue with the same spirit of being a concern and caring led me to choose a nursing career. These belief has further been strengthened by my professional interactions. It is important to have connection with staff nurses for better communication and to create a positive working environment. 

Connective leadership derives its label a similar interest to connect persons not only to their own tasks and ego drives but to the group and community that depend upon achievement of mutual goals (Lipman-Blumen, 2000). The leadership style emanating from this theory is the relationship-oriented style. A nursing leader whose leadership is hinged to the connective leadership theory is expected to create an excellent working environment and bravely advocating and supporting the staff nurses. The role of the nurse leaders also encompasses acting as a mentor and constructing social networks. Based on Lipman-Blumen’s argument, connective leadership breeds a shared governance model that brings staff nurses together to work on solving problems. Relationship oriented nurse leaders enhance member skills, staff-leader relationships, and identification with the team or unit, which leads to commitment Relationship-oriented nurse leaders are also crucial in integrating new staff into the workplace or mentoring interns. 

Plan

Having identified my leadership style, I must nurture the style. Lipman-Blumen (2000) advised young leaders to formulate a leadership growth plan. He compares a plan to a map that offers direction to new places faster and with fewer obstacles. The author identified several elements necessary for a plan, such as leadership growth goal, skills mastery, milestone, and timeline, as well as having a reason to lead. 

In this regard, my goal is to be a relationship-oriented nurse leader. Nurse leaders are at the core of connecting staff nurses. Having interacted and interviewed several CNOs, maintaining a healthy, competent, and robust nursing workforce stands out as the primary desire for most of them. I hold that build a connection between staff nurses should be a priority. The next step of the plan will be mastering the connective-leadership skills. Yan, Wu, and Zhang (2016) noted that connective leadership was grounded on the principles of collaboration, contribution, and vicariousness. In this regard, I will put much effort into increasing my level of engagement in the class as well as in my nursing practice. This will be aimed at developing accountability. Yan et al. (2016) noted that to build on the “connective leadership profile,” one must develop a goal-oriented behavior which they refer to as “Achieving styles.” To improve this behavior, I will opt to do tasks on my own and measure success against previous performances. Additionally, I will take charge of the task and compete to win. To bring the team element into my leadership, I will entrust other talented people to taking ownership of my goals and fulfill them. 

Since developing leadership styles takes the time, I set a time frame of one year. The milestones will be measured according to the number of initiatives I have led as well as the number of contacts I will have established. The last step entails having a reason for being wanting to lead. The main reason I opted for connective leadership is that the workplace today are increasingly being taken over by technologies distancing people from each other. For example, the adoption of electronic health records has been cited as eliciting a feeling of disconnectedness among patients. Lack of communication between staff has also been linked to poor patient outcomes and diminished staff morale. My vision is to bring communication back to the clinical setting. 

WE’VE HAD A GOOD SUCCESS RATE ON THIS ASSIGNMENT. PLACE THIS ORDER OR A SIMILAR ORDER WITH PapersSpot AND GET AN AMAZING DISCOUNT

Lifelong Learning

Leadership skills are flexible and change with time. It thus follows that leaders must adopt lifelong learning to enhance their leadership skills. In the book, “Leading Change” by Kotter, the author provides examples of many people who by sheer consistency in effort over prolonged time demonstrated phenomenal leadership abilities. I will incorporate the idea of lifelong learning into the leadership model by being more willing to learn. I will set goals and standards to be achieved every year and raising the bar whenever the goals are achieved. The idea behind this approach is informed by the power of compounded growth, as illustrated in Kotter’s book. Performing yearly reflections on leadership skills and consulting with my mentors will also be crucial. Kotter (2012) advises that leaders must be willing to keep an open mind, try new things, and reflect honestly on their successes and failures to achieve a lifelong impact on their leadership. Some of the habits that I will build on include openness to ideas, solicitation of ideas, careful listening, risk-taking, and humble self-reflection. I will also not shy away from taking on habits that produce short term pain. I believe that it is by surviving difficult relationships can one develop immunity to hardships.

Patient advocacy will also be tied to my leadership style. Patient advocacy entails recognizing and paying attention to patients’ needs and conditions. Becoming aware of these needs facilitates a proper response from nurses. To build on my patient advocacy skills, I will have to strengthen my concern for others. This includes continuously engaging with patients and allowing them to share their worries and fears. Additionally, I will resolve to be responsible. This will extend to conscience and commitment to be professional and respect patient rights. For example, when a patient needs medication, and she does not have it, I have to bear responsibility and call the necessary. Some patients may also feel ashamed raising issues on the food portion or needing assistance with toileting. Creating an environment where they can express themselves is crucial to achieving patient advocacy. I will also ask fellow nurses to be open to correction rather than perceiving nurse advocates meddling on their roles. Culture creation will thus require I practice daily habits that ignite advocacy through cohesiveness and camaraderie.  

Transforming bedside nursing

Bedside nursing is the most basic patient care, where nurse impact is fully felt. The care given at the bedside impacts the length and quality of the patient experience. However, there has been a massive exodus of nurses from the bedside, a factor attributed to nurse burnout from long shifts and long hours, understaffing, lack of appreciation, and lack of advocacy. There is a need to revert the trend in declining bedside nursing. Using the relationship-oriented style of leadership, I will transform bedside nursing in several ways. That is through the use of evidence-based practices (EBP) and bedside shift reporting.  

Using evidence at the bedside has the potential to alter the way bedside care is delivered. Involving guideline create a standard way of providing care which might save on time. Shaffer et al. (2013) noted that the EBP process might take longer than anticipated. However, the study indicated that involving staff nurses of about 5 to 8 individuals could improve on the time taken. In this regard, I will opt to create EBP teams that support bedside nurses in integrating evidence into their care. An EBP mentor will head the teams. EBP mentors are characterized as having in-depth knowledge and skills in EBP and the change process (Mergers, 2014).

Another element that I will introduce to bedside care is shift reporting. Bedside shift reporting involves exchanging information about the patients under care between the incoming and outgoing nurses (Malfait et al., 2014). Poor shift reporting can potentially jeopardize patient safety, including wrong diagnosis, wrong medication, and incomplete evaluation that can lead to increased length of stay and unnecessary lab tests (Malfait et al., 2014). Nurses will be taken through a brief training on how they can communicate during shift reporting. This will help build a connection between the nurses involved in the shift exchange. 

Communication

Connective leadership style is based on cooperation and coordination of teams, failure to which lack of communication may happen, leading to stresses. Effective communication leads to the creation of a bond between different teams. Communication is aimed at creating a relationship between nurses and physicians, nurses and nurses and nurses, and patients. 

For nurses and physicians to communicate, connectedness must be created to ensure mutual trust between them. Both must respect the opinion of each other as well as a hierarchy. The nurse and physicians must adopt a neutral feeling tone of rapport in their exchange of information. The shared values and role between nurses allow them to bond much better. Their bond should be directed to teamwork. In the patient-nurse relationship, the nurse should adopt a patient-centered approach so that patients may not feel isolated or ignored. 

Goals for the future

I hope that in the future, I will take an active role in shaping the nursing policies and nurse workforces. Creating a climate of connectedness among nurses and physicians is critical if patient outcomes are to be improved. Another evident factor that emerges in nursing practice is the issue that nursing leaders do not have control over. For example, through nursing shortage and poor compensation have been identified as responsible for declining bedside nursing, nurse leaders cannot correct them. It thus follows that efforts to rectify these issues must be taken a notch higher to include advocacy. In the future, I will push for changes that seek to improve nursing practice as a whole. This will require I leverage on my relationship-based leadership style to lobby politicians and petition legislators to bring changes. Establishing networks with stakeholders will also be important in creating a united force to push for nursing issues.

References

Kotter, J. P. (2012). Leading Change,. Brighton, MA: Harvard Business Press.

Lipman-Blumen, J. (2000). Connective Leadership: Managing in a Changing World. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

Magers, T. L. (2014). An EBP Mentor and Unit-Based EBP Team: A Strategy for Successful Implementation of a Practice Change to Reduce Catheter-Associated Urinary Tract Infections. Worldviews on Evidence-Based Nursing, 11(5), 341-343. doi:10.1111/wvn.12056

Malfait, S., Van Hecke, A., Van Biesen, W., & Eeckloo, K. (2018). Do Bedside Handovers Reduce Handover Duration? An Observational Study With Implications for Evidence‐Based Practice. Worldviews on Evidence-Based Nursing, 15(6), 432-439. doi:10.1111/wvn.12330

Shaffer, S. T., Zarnowsky, C. D., Green, R. C., Chen Lim, M., Holtzer, B. M., & Ely, E. A. (2013). Strategies from Bedside Nurse Perspectives in Conducting Evidence-based Practice Projects to Improve Care. Nursing Clinics of North America, 48(2), 353-361. doi:10.1016/j.cnur.2013.01.004

Yan, S., Wu, S., & Zhang, G. (2016). Impact of connective leadership on employees’ goal commitment during M & A integration. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 37(6), 789-801. doi:10.1108/lodj-10-2014-0206