Journal Headship

Leadership Journal Template

Name:

Weeks Covering:

Preceptor/Mentor:

Clinical/Practicum Site:

Hours Worked (past 2 weeks):_4 hours on Tuesdays and Thursdays

Total Hours: __16__/150 total of all hours worked up to this point

 

Practicum Activities Reflection:

Over the past two weeks, my preceptor suggested that we focus on more insight into the appropriate implementation of the pre-brief sheet to help inform RNFAs regarding the assigned case. We continued working on time card corrections, planning for upcoming cases, annual appraisal, rounding on the units, and staffing for upcoming cases. During this period, all staff members were busy attending to different patients, leaving little time to rest. Only a few nurses were left to offer assistance during emergencies, which was quite overwhelming. However, my preceptor managed to ensure that all the staff members were able to sit together and come up with a timetable based on their convenience regarding the roles that align with their area of professionalism and the shift they will cover, in addition to their personal goals. He then used this timetable to come up with the final duty roster, which covers the rounding units, upcoming cases, and adequate staffing to promote positive outcomes. My preceptor then helped me utilize the pre-brief sheet to communicate to the staff members regarding the upcoming schedule. Through the way my preceptor handled this situation, I was able to appreciate a leadership style that requires the leader to serve as an example and promote teamwork in decision making to ensure that all staff members are satisfied with the final decision (Cincotta et al., 2021). Additionally, the leader must exhibit a high level of professionalism to promote critical thinking, regarding the allocation of duties and the kind of information required to be included in the pre-brief sheet, to avoid confusion.

Application of Leadership:

            As a servant leader, my preceptor reinforced continuous improvement of the quality of care provided to promote positive patient outcomes. High-quality care, as described by the  Institute of Medicine OM is based on 6 main factors such as safety, effectiveness, reliability, patient-centered, equity, and efficiency (Bastemeijer et al., 2019). To make sure that all these factors are achieved, my preceptor utilized the servant leadership style by motivating staff members to promote critical thinking and innovation in making sure that they exhibit their optimal potential in promoting quality and safe care services. All the staff members were allowed to outline their personal goals directed toward several quality measures proposed by my preceptor. Such quality measures were focused on measuring patient outcome and satisfaction including, the mortality level of the medical-surgical unit, patient length of stay, medication error, healthcare-associated infection, and patient fall rate. On the other hand, my preceptor also focused on quality measures that promote the welfare of the nursing staff members such as job satisfaction, staffing mix, and improving nursing skills level through training. Most of these quality measures were used also in the appraisal of nursing staff. All the staff members were quite satisfied by my preceptor’s leadership style, as they always felt motivated. With improved patient outcomes and satisfaction, in addition to job satisfaction among the staff members, the organization’s goals will be achieved, with improved workflow and profit margin.

Practicum Project Preparation:

With the implementation of the pre-brief sheet to convey information regarding the upcoming cases, several challenges were encountered. For instance, the shortage of nurses made it quite difficult to decide on who should cover overtime shifts given that all nurses were exhausted complaining of burnout. Additionally, I also experienced poor communication and limited engagement among the staff members, especially across professional disciplines (Soemantri et al., 2019). This made it quite challenging to promote interprofessional collaboration which is very significant during surgical procedures. As such, I noticed that the most effective way to handle these challenges is by promoting teamwork among staff members so that they can discuss and agree on which shifts and duties to cover to avoid confusion. Consequently, shared decision-making is a crucial aspect of interprofessional collaboration which require effective communication among staff members from different health disciplines such as nurses and physicians. As a nurse leader, I will adopt high-level professionalism, critical thinking, and appropriate communication skills to be able to prevent such challenges from taking place in the future.

Leadership Video Reflection:

The “Servant Leadership – Issue of Headship” video educates nurses to adopt the servant leadership style which requires leaders to serve their followers rather than control them. For instance, the head of the team does get things done by telling the followers what to do but instead motivates them to work in a team and utilize critical thinking to exhibit their full potential in getting work done (Best, 2020). The nurse leader as the head must serve by example by observing all the clinical practice protocols and promoting the safety and quality of care. The second lesson from the video mainly points out the aspect of modern leadership where managers are seen as enablers rather than dictators. When the leader serves the team, he or she does not outline roles for the employees but instead encourages them to set their personal goals aligned with the organization’s goals and exhibit their full potential in promoting the safety and quality of care provided.

 

 

References

Bastemeijer, C. M., Boosman, H., van Ewijk, H., Verweij, L. M., Voogt, L., & Hazelzet, J. A. (2019). Patient experiences: a systematic review of quality improvement interventions in a hospital setting. Patient-Related Outcome Measures, 10, 157.  DOI: 

Best, C. (2020). Is there a place for servant leadership in nursing?. Practice Nursing, 31(3), 128-132.

Cincotta, D. R., Quinn, N., Grindlay, J., Sabato, S., Fauteux‐Lamarre, E., Beckerman, D., … & Long, E. (2021). Debriefing immediately after intubation in a children’s emergency department is feasible and contributes to measurable improvements in patient safety. Emergency Medicine Australasia, 33(5), 780-787.

Soemantri, D., Kambey, D. R., Yusra, R. Y., Timor, A. B., Khairani, C. D., Setyorini, D., & Findyartini, A. (2019). The supporting and inhibiting factors of interprofessional collaborative practice in a newly established teaching hospital. Journal of Interprofessional Education & Practice, 15, 149-156.