Leadership Roles & Management Function in Nursing

Nursing leadership and management often overlap in delivering patient care.

Any nurse positively influencing the immediate health care environment takes on a leadership role. A health care organization, such as a hospital, employs and defines the authority of a person, usually a nurse, for a management role.

Objectives

The role of nursing leadership involves the use of interpersonal skills, such as the ability to communicate effectively or be collaborative, to influence fellow members of the nursing staff to accomplish goals regarding patient care. The health care organization makes nursing management responsible and accountable for efficiently accomplishing the goals and objectives of the organization, according to Eleanor Sullivan and Phillip Decker in "Effective Leadership and Management in Nursing."

Professional Relationships

Nursing leadership fosters staff cohesion, or cooperation, through the ability to earn and hold the trust of other staff members. Nursing management allocates and coordinates resources and delegates duties to the staff. This is accomplished through personal skills which are "reinforced," or supported, by organizational authority, according to Sullivan and Decker.

Methods

Nursing leadership is adaptable and flexible in accomplishing goals, in that the steps taken are based on the situation at hand and may not follow established models and paradigms. Nursing management follows set behaviors and activities performed in a desired sequence to accomplish prescribed goals and outcomes, according to Patricia Yoder-Wise in "Leading and Managing in Nursing."

References

• "Effective Leadership and Management in Nursing"; Eleanor Sullivan, Phillip Decker; 2005
• "Leading and Managing in Nursing"; Patricia Yoder-Wise; 2003