The Role of Personal Philosophy in Nursing, Essay Example

Introduction

Developing a personal philosophy for nursing leaders is important in order to determine their priorities and focus areas in their profession. While one’s personality trait would determine their main leadership approaches, ethical values and principles are founded on one’s professional personal philosophy. The below review will attempt to create a personal philosophy based on values and ethical standards in order to better understand myself, and implement my preferences and strengths within my nursing leadership career.

Personal Statement Development

I am an innovative and caring person above all. I am also a perfectionist, and focus on continuous improvement, while try to consider the impact of each action on patients and team members. This means that my personal value system is based on improving other people’s lives through innovation and continuous development, while making sure that my decisions are approved by all interested parties. This indicates that I would need to focus on collaboration, new approach development, and methods that improve the outcome of the unit’s activities for all stakeholders: patients, team members, the community, and the entire health care system. Based on the above analysis, and the results of the test completed on the Nursing Leadership website (n.d.) assessing my leadership style, my personal philosophy in nursing is as follows:

I am a health care leaders who believes that every step taken in the right direction within my unit creates benefits for all stakeholders. I involve my team members in decisions and tend to focus on the main goal that provides the most benefit for the largest number of people. I seek approval and commitment from team members, and work on continuous development that improves the quality of care, team collaboration, and patient outcomes at the same time.

Importance of Personal Statement in Nursing

Nursing is a profession that is related to several aspects of life, for example social competency, cultural awareness, knowledge of health care intervention methods, professionalism, planning, and team building/collaboration. The role of a nursing managers is complex, and one can easily lose focus. Pradebon et al. (2011) explain how complexity theory impacts the day-to-day activities of a nursing manager. The authors (Pradebon et al., 2011) explain the above described impact as one that is influenced by internal and external dynamics. Nursing, and health care in general, can be affected by new regulations, targets, safety standards, of which the leader does not have influence on. On the other hand, increased demand for the services calls for innovative solutions to maintain service levels and provide the best possible service for patients, using existing resources.

This means that without a clear vision about leadership and management approaches, the effectiveness of the nursing leader can be severely reduced. The complexity paradigm indicates that nursing leaders need to find innovative methods to influence the different variables (internal and external) that impact their daily work. Without a clear focus and principles, a clear vision cannot be communicated and implemented in the leadership of the unit (Hood, 2013, p. 67).

Four Concepts of the Personal Statement

Based on my leadership analysis completed on the Nursing Leadership website (n.d.), my main leadership style is transformational. The main concepts of my personal philosophy, based on the analysis are:

• shared decision-making and problem solving
• focusing on growth of individuals to improve effectiveness of the unit through mentoring
• knowledge development of self and team members for improvement
• goal-orientation and clear vision communication.

Shared decision-making is extremely important in my practice, as I rely on the hands-on experience and knowledge of team members. I understand that their experiences can help me identify development areas, and sharing decision-making creates trust within the unit.

Mentoring and coaching has always been in the focus of my work, as I believe that by empowering individual team members, I can increase the knowledge base of the entire unit, improve employee commitment and retention.  This has an immediate positive impact on processes within the organization, and reduces the cost of training and recruiting new employees.

Knowledge development through training and sharing information is beneficial for the entire team. Without sharing experiences and knowledge, competencies of individuals could not be successfully improved, therefore, the effectiveness of the team would be negatively impacted.

I believe that creating a shared vision within the team increases compliance and commitment within the unit. Therefore, through meetings and discussions, I often communicate the goals of the team, and ask for personal commitment, input, and suggestions. This way, employees can feel like they are a part of a process, and their contribution counts.

Hypothetical Relational Statements Regarding Nursing Philosophy

In my practice, I have always focused on being a leader, instead of a manager. I tend to use influence through communicating the vision, instead of control. My transformational leadership trait enables me to engage team members in both decisions and processes, as described by Hayati, Charkhabi & Naami (2014). Using Curtis, de Vries & Sheerin’s (2011, p. 307) list of distinctions, I try to innovate instead of administering, develop processes, instead of maintaining them, inspiring people instead of controlling them, having a vision, instead of setting short term goals, communicating the main goals and visions behind every action asked from employees, and being the originator of change, instead of following the trends. My hypothetical statements regarding my personal philosophy concepts are as follows:

• Innovation through collaboration is the best way of improving processes
• Focusing on large goals, such as improving patient outcomes provides teams with a clear direction and improves the effectiveness of units (Stanley, 2006, p. 110)
• Inspiring people through effective communication and shared decision-making improves commitment
• Having a shared vision within the health care unit increases the effectiveness of change management
• Developing knowledge of individuals in the team increases the overall competency of the unit, and results in increased performance, higher level of job satisfaction, and greater commitment of employees

Impact of Personal Philosophy on Nursing Practice

My personal philosophy has impacted my nursing practice, as well as my leadership approaches. Sharing knowledge and having a transformational leadership trait that is based on sharing decisions and responsibility, motivating people, and communicating a clear vision has a positive impact on overall performance. Since introducing personal mentoring and coaching within the unit, I have seen a great increase in employees’ commitment level, and job satisfaction.  The shared vision of the unit I have created and engaged team members in is “to provide the best possible outcomes for patients, treat them with respect, and improve our skills to achieve the above goals”. In my unit, all nurses are committed to making positive changes, through obtaining and sharing relevant knowledge. Employee retention rate is low, while I actively seek feedback from nurses regarding processes, their potential improvement, and innovative ideas. While shared decision-making is in the focus of my personal philosophy, I am not afraid of making decisions on my own. Further, I believe that team members are more committed to targets and tasks for the reason that they understand how they are related to the main goal and vision of the unit. I intend to treat all members with respect, and expect them to treat patients in a way that they can preserve their dignity. While I am a listener and encourage team members to share their knowledge, experiences, and worries with others, I act as a role model. The nurses within my team follow my example and share knowledge, even without me being present. This approach has a positive impact on professional relationships, and consequently the effectiveness of communication.

Conclusion

 I believe that through having a clear leadership philosophy and communicating values with team members, the overall effectiveness of health care units can be improved. My main belief of health care is that it impacts more than one aspect of patients’ lives, and involves several skills and knowledge areas that need to be continuously improved to face the challenges of the changing world.  My belief about people is that they are more committed to a goal if they understand the philosophy behind it, and the vision. I also agree with Pradebon et al. (2011)  that nursing is a complex role, and involves more than providing primary care for patients. Staying focused on my personal philosophy helps me see the challenges and goals ahead, determine priorities, instead of simply reacting to problems. I am continuously improving my knowledge and communication skills, in order to become a leader who can inspire others to acquire and share information.

References

Curtis, E. A., de Vries, J., & Sheerin, F. K. (2011). Developing leadership in nursing: exploring core factors. British Journal of Nursing, 20(5), 306.

Hayati, D., Charkhabi, M., & Naami, A. (2014). The relationship between transformational leadership and work engagement in governmental hospitals nurses: a survey      study. SpringerPlus, 3(1), 25.

Hood, L. (2013). Leddy & Pepper’s conceptual bases of professional nursing. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.

Nursing Leadership (n.d.)  Career development. Test one results. Retrieved from <http://www.nursingleadership.org.uk/

Pradebon, V. M., Erdmann, A. L., Leite, J. L., Lima, S. B. S. D., & Prochnow, A. G. (2011). Complexity theory in the daily experience of the nurse manager. Acta Paulista de Enfermagem, 24(1), 13-22.

Stanley, D. (2006). Recognizing and defining clinical nurse leaders. British Journal of  Nursing, 15(2), 108-118. Source: http://www.nursingleadership.org.uk/