This Nurse Leader Interview Scholarly Paper aims to grasp better the leadership traits required to lead quality improvement in nursing and the nurse leader’s perspective on such growth. Nursing quality improvement refers to discovering, evaluating, and improving patient care, healthcare practices, and patient outcomes (Huynh, 2021). It comprises using evidence-based methods and tactics to improve the quality and security of healthcare delivery. Quality improvement is essential to nursing practice because it improves patient outcomes, ensures patient safety, and encourages high-quality care.
Leadership Skills Required to Lead Quality Improvement in Nursing
To lead quality improvement in nursing, nurse leaders must possess various leadership skills, including communication, collaboration, critical thinking, problem-solving, decision-making, and team-building.
Effective Communication
Effective communication ensures that all stakeholders know the quality improvement activities, goals, and expectations. Effective communication is a fundamental leadership skill that can improve nursing quality (Huynh, 2021). For good communication to occur, all stakeholders, including patients, families, healthcare professionals, and other healthcare team members, must be informed of the quality improvement activities, goals, and expectations. Active listening, concise verbal and written communication, and appropriate communication channels are all required for effective communication (Page et al., 2021). Relationships and trust must be established to encourage cooperation and teamwork in quality improvement efforts.
Effective communication, for example, can result in better patient outcomes by ensuring that patients are informed about their care, treatment options, and healthcare experts. Effective communication ensures that healthcare providers know the patient’s wants and preferences to provide tailored therapy for each patient (Capdarest-Arest & Gray, 2020). Ensuring that all healthcare team members are aware of the problem and working together to find a solution will help identify and resolve quality issues like prescription errors.
Collaboration and Teamwork
Collaboration and teamwork are essential to ensure that every team member is engaged and committed to the quality improvement process. Critical leadership abilities that support nursing quality improvement include collaboration and teamwork (Page et al., 2021). Nurse leaders can involve all team members, including frontline personnel, in quality improvement efforts through effective collaboration and teamwork (Huynh, 2021). Collaboration and teamwork also establish an environment at work that encourages creativity, innovation, and ongoing progress.
Promoting patient-centred care also heavily relies on collaboration and teamwork. Nurse leaders should make sure that patients’ needs and preferences are considered while formulating and implementing quality improvement initiatives by incorporating patients, families, and members of the interdisciplinary team in the care planning process (Capdarest-Arest & Gray, 2020). Successful quality improvement projects require effective collaboration and teamwork, encouraging accountability and shared responsibility among team members.
Critical Thinking
Critical thinking, problem-solving, and decision-making skills are essential for locating the source of quality problems, creating workable solutions, and making wise choices. In order to develop a productive and encouraging workplace that encourages cooperation, teamwork, and continual progress, team-building abilities are crucial (Capdarest-Arest & Gray, 2020). A crucial leadership trait that encourages nursing quality enhancement is critical thinking. Nurse leaders may recognize and assess quality issues, create workable solutions, and make wise decisions using critical thinking (Labrague, 2021). Critical thinking fosters ongoing learning and growth by encouraging nursing leaders to challenge presumptions, question current practices, and look for new and original quality improvement methods. In addition to maintaining patient safety and reducing medical errors, critical thinking is essential (Huynh, 2021). Nurse leaders can recognize and proactively address potential threats to patient safety by encouraging other healthcare professionals and patients to think critically about patient care, quality improvement programs, and organizational practices.
Other leadership traits, such as emotional intelligence, resilience, adaptability, flexibility, cultural competence, and change management abilities, are crucial for guiding quality improvement in nursing. Understanding and controlling emotions, establishing relationships, and effectively communicating with people requires emotional intelligence (Guibert‐Lacasa & Vázquez‐Calatayud, 2022). Resilience, adaptability, and flexibility are essential to overcome obstacles, adjusting to shifting situations, and reacting to unforeseen events. One must be culturally competent to deliver the culturally appropriate care and advance health equity (Huynh, 2021). Change management skills are crucial to effectively manage change, overcome change resistance, and guarantee that the quality improvement projects are sustainable.
Interview Summary with the Nurse Leader
The interviewed nurse leader has over ten years of experience in home health, rehabilitation, and case management. The interview lasted around thirty minutes. When providing proper support for the patient, the nurse leader underlined how important it is first to try to understand where the patient is coming from (Labrague, 2021). Order to ensure that the patient’s requirements and preferences are addressed entails having abilities in both effective communication and active listening. In addition, the nurse leader underlined the need to work together and as part of a team in quality improvement activities. She observed that the participation and engagement of all team members, especially those working directly with customers, is necessary for quality improvement programs to achieve their goals (Capdarest-Arest & Gray, 2020). In addition, the nurse leader emphasized the significance of ongoing education and professional development to maintain awareness of the most current evidence-based practices and advances in the nursing profession.
Comparison of Leadership Skills Verbalized During the Nurse Leader Interview
The nurse leader’s interview responses line up with the leadership skills described in the nursing literature. To drive quality improvement in nursing, the nurse leader, for instance, emphasized the importance of outstanding communication, cooperation, critical thinking, problem-solving, and team-building skills (Guibert‐Lacasa & Vázquez‐Calatayud, 2022). In addition, the nurse leader underlined the need for emotional intelligence, resilience, flexibility, and change management skills for dealing with issues, coping with change, and ensuring the longevity of quality improvement initiatives (Huynh, 2021). The nurse leader’s emphasis on continual professional development and lifetime learning is consistent with the nursing literature’s emphasis on the importance of these factors in fostering excellence in nursing practice.
The importance of nurses’ ongoing education and professional development is increasing as the nursing profession develops. The importance of lifelong learning and ongoing professional development in fostering excellence in nursing practice has recently received significant literature attention (Guibert‐Lacasa & Vázquez‐Calatayud, 2022). Since they have the power to promote a culture of continuous learning and improvement within their organizations, nurse leaders play a crucial role in encouraging and supporting continued professional development among their personnel (Capdarest-Arest & Gray, 2020). Nurse executives prioritizing continuing education and professional advancement will be better prepared to steer their organizations through the continuously evolving healthcare environment. Nurses must possess the knowledge and skills required to provide patients with safe, high-quality care in light of recent technological breakthroughs and changes in healthcare regulations (Huynh, 2021). Nurses can stay current on the industry’s most recent developments through ongoing learning and professional development, as well as pick up new abilities and information that can improve their practice.
Nursing leaders that place a high priority on ongoing professional development encourage a learning environment at work. By fostering innovation, creativity, and critical thinking, this culture motivates nurses to evaluate current practices, look for fresh approaches to care, and constantly improve their work (Huynh, 2021). This culture is essential for fostering nursing excellence and ensuring patients receive high-quality, secure, and efficient care (Capdarest-Arest & Gray, 2020). Together with improving nursing practice, ongoing professional development has many advantages for nurses. By enabling nurses to develop new knowledge and abilities, pursue new interests, and widen their professional networks, continual learning can increase job satisfaction and motivation (Guibert‐Lacasa & Vázquez‐Calatayud, 2022). By maintaining their skills and expertise, nurses who pursue continuing professional development increase their chances of being hired for positions with greater authority within their organizations.
Conclusion
In conclusion, nurse leadership abilities are essential for fostering nursing quality improvement. Some crucial leadership abilities needed to drive quality improvement in nursing are effective communication, teamwork, critical thinking, problem-solving, decision-making, and team-building. Nurse leaders must have emotional intelligence, resilience, adaptability, flexibility, and change management abilities to manage change effectively, promote health equity, and guarantee that quality improvement programs are sustainable. The nurse leader was interviewed, and it came out that her answers matched the leadership traits listed in the nursing literature. According to the nurse leader, leading quality improvement in nursing requires a variety of skills, including effective communication, collaboration, critical thinking, problem-solving, team-building, emotional intelligence, resilience, adaptability, change management, continuous learning, and professional development. Given the nursing profession’s ongoing evolution, ongoing learning and professional development are crucial to fostering excellence in nursing practice. The ability to promote patient-centred care, improve patient outcomes, and guarantee high-quality care in healthcare settings will ultimately be made possible by nurse leaders with these leadership characteristics.
References
Capdarest-Arest, N., & Gray, J. M. (2020). Health sciences library leadership skills in an interprofessional landscape: a review and textual analysis. Journal of the Medical Library Association: JMLA, 108(4), 547.
Guibert‐Lacasa, C., & Vázquez‐Calatayud, M. (2022). Nurses’ clinical leadership in the hospital setting: A systematic review. Journal of Nursing Management, 30(4), 913-925.
Huynh, N. (2021). Exploring the use of simulation to develop leadership skills in undergraduate nursing students: a scoping review protocol. JBI Evidence Synthesis, 19(11), 3080-3087.
Labrague, L. J. (2021). Use of simulation in teaching nursing leadership and management course: An integrative review. Sultan Qaboos University Medical Journal, 21(3), 344.
Page, A., Halcomb, E., & Sim, J. (2021). The impact of nurse leadership education on clinical practice: An integrative review. Journal of Nursing Management, 29(6), 1385-1397.
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