The Nurse Manager’s Role in a Pediatric Intensive Care Unit

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Table of Contents

Analysis of Leadership
Observation in Relation to Conflict Management
Reflections
Professional Development
References

Analysis of Leadership

The leader who was shadowed is Kevin Anderson, the lead registered nurse at Mayo hospital’s pediatric intensive care unit. On the basis of the observation of Anderson’s skills, behaviors, and strategies that this leader exhibits, it is possible to say that he may be regarded as an efficient leader and nurse manager who obtains all necessary professional and leadership skills, knowledge, competencies, and experience. In particular, he combines his administrative duties, including scheduling, monitoring employees’ attendance and performance, recruiting, dismissing, educating, and the implementation of hospital policies, with a leader’s responsibilities. He aims to articulate the facility’s goals, regulations, and guidelines in the case of their update, organize teamwork, motivate subordinates by awarding their productivity, and handle conflicts in an appropriate manner. His obvious strengths that make them a competent leader are creativity, excellent communication skills, flexibility, rationality, and critical thinking.

Observation in Relation to Conflict Management

Two conflicts that were observed related to the same situation. First of all, the family of one patient came with a complaint related to negligence that led to a slight deterioration of a child’s well-being. Kevin Anderson took immediate action – he organized a meeting with this family, apologized for the mistake of a nurse who had been responsible for health care delivery, and ensured that the patient’s health would be provided with constant monitoring and all necessary assistance. Moreover, the family was allowed to visit their child at a comfortable time even if visitation hours finished. All in all, it is possible to say that Anderson addressed this conflict efficiently as it was resolved, and the family remained highly satisfied. Later, the nurse manager had a conflict with the nurse who made a mistake in providing health care to the aforementioned patient. In an aggressive manner, she required explanations from him why she had not been provided with incentives at the end of the month. In a rigorous tone, Anderson answered that her performance had impacted his decision, and it would remain unchanged.

On the basis of observations, it is possible to conclude that Anderson applied situational leadership style, and through the example of these conflicts, its application may be traced. In general, according to Oyelude and Fadun (2018), “situational leadership is considered to be better than other leadership styles in managing conflict in the sense that situational leadership incorporates many different techniques” (p. 45). In other words, a leader chooses the most appropriate way of conflict resolution depending on the situation. In general, conflict management has several styles, including collaborating, competing, avoiding, accommodation, and compromising (Benoliel, 2017). In the first case, as a patient-oriented health care provider, Anderson understood that the satisfaction of clients is more important for a facility’s reputation. Thus, he applied the accommodating style that presupposes “an element of self-sacrifice (…) to satisfy the other person” (Benoliel, 2017, para. 8). However, in the second case, the leader applied the competing style ignoring the interests of his opponent on the basis of obvious reasons.

Reflections

It goes without saying that the shadowing of Kevin Anderson substantially impacted my perception of a nurse manager’s role. Before this experience, I believed that a leader’s role concentrates on relationships with others and implies the ability to motivate and inspire employees – in other words, I differentiated leadership and management. In my practice, I was going to apply transformational leadership, defined as “a set of transformative actions promoted by the leader over his followers, in order to raise awareness about the importance of the activities performed and the well done work, acting in defense of the institution’s mission and the reach of its goals” (Ferreira et al., 2020, p. 2). I believed that for effective performance, I should consider employees’ strengths, such as talents, skills, knowledge, competencies, and experience, and help them fulfill their potential.

Moreover, I expected that employees’ emotional comfort was the most essential aspect that determined a facility’s performance as it improved the working environment and contributed to people’s commitment, motivation, and job satisfaction. Thus, as a leader, I was determined to consider employees; emotions, feelings, and needs. Moreover, I made certain that my assumptions were correct when I noticed how Anderson became emotional when dealing with floor nurses who failed to behave as per the set standards communicating in a respectful and friendly manner with other leaders at the same time. At this time, I thought that Anderson lacked emotional intelligence as his subordinates deserved an understanding.

After the period of shadowing the nurse manager, I have slightly changed my opinion. In general, I still believe that emotional intelligence is highly important as it allows one to assess others’ feelings and control a leader’s emotions. However, I realized that the transformational leadership style is not suitable for all situations. In particular, when quick and efficient decision-making is required, more authoritative leadership is necessary. Moreover, the focus on the coordination of staff members’ actions so that they could align with the core goals of the hospital and its mission and vision will be required as well. In this case, the situational leadership is more applicable due to the emphasis on flexibility that allows a nurse manager to perform more efficiently according to the situation. Although transformational leadership, with its focus on employees’ capabilities, is also beneficial for a medical facility, I am planning to pay particular attention to the situational approach as well.

Professional Development

After reflection on the results of my observation, I may say that I like the position of a nurse manager. Although it is associated with multiple responsibilities, it allows a person to fulfill his potential as a competent leader and manager. At the same time, the combination of leadership and management skills makes this position challenging to obtain. This means that if I want to become a nurse manager, I should develop professionally and personally in several areas.

In particular, I should focus on strategic thinking, decision-making and problem-solving skills, and planning ability as a successful manager. It goes without saying that leadership presupposes the articulation of a facility’s vision, inspiring and motivating employees, ad serving as a role model, however, a nurse manager should consider multiple everyday tasks related to the organization of work processes. In addition, a nurse manager should obtain analytical skills to elaborate on the most appropriate strategies for information management and the distribution of responsibilities. However, he remains a leader with leadership responsibilities as the absence of motivation, support, conflict resolutions, and attention to employees negatively impact overall productivity. Thus, the position of a nurse manager presupposes the obtainment of excellent communicational skills, creativity, flexibility, openness, rationality, basic knowledge of psychology, and emotional intelligence as well.

References

Benoliel, B. (2017). What’s your conflict management style? Walden University.

Ferreira, V. B., Amestoy, S. C., Silva, G. T. R. D., Trindade, L. D. L., Santos, I. A. R. D., & Varanda, P. A. G. (2020). Transformational leadership in nursing practice: Challenges and strategies.Revista Brasileira de Enfermagem, 73(6), 1-7.

Oyelude, O. O., & Fadun, T. A. (2018). Situational leadership style in managing conflicts in an organization: A case of Nigerian Eagle Flour Mill. International Journal of Social Sciences and Management Research, 4(1), 44-50.

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The Nurse Manager’s Role in a Pediatric Intensive Care Unit

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