Self -Evaluation of Leadership, Collaboration and Ethical Experiences
Section 1: leadership and Collaboration Experience
I had never served in any leadership position until 2017, when I started working for Baptist Health Clinic – a Christian based primary care clinic in Miami, Florida. The clinic had approximately one hundred employees consisting of physicians, nurses and support team. Despite serving more than ten thousand clients annually, the clinic struggled to retain employees. Employee turnover was high, thus diminishing the productivity of the clinic. Furthermore, recruiting and training new staff was costly. It was essential to determine the cause of high employee turnover to address the situation. After successfully serving in the position of nurse director for three months, the clinic’s management appointed me to lead a diverse team of seven senior employees/ mostly managers from different departments to investigate the reasons for the exit of employees at a high rate and to come up with viable solutions to the problem. The team consisted of physician representatives, nurse director, help desk representative, administration, a representative of support staff, and two employees. The objective of the group was to address high employee turnover.
One of the critical elements of effective leadership is to inspire a shared vision (Kitch, 2017). The team’s shared vision was to listen to employees while allowing them to express their concerns. Through listening to employees, the team could be able to drive the project successfully. The shared vision was critical in providing orientation and engaging the team and the organization at large.
The team prioritized going through the organization’s mission and culture to determine if weaknesses were leading to the exit of employees. There was a need to decide if the organization’s goals supported employees. I adopted a transformational leadership style to lead the team for the success of the project. The transformational leadership style is at the center of employee satisfaction and organization culture (Weberg, 2010); thus, it was suitable for the project I was leading. The style fosters intellectual thinking, inspirational and individual attention (Weber, 2010)
The effectiveness of my leadership style enabled me to inspire the team to work towards our shared vision. Transformational style enabled interpersonal yet professional relationship with the team and employees at large. Additionally, the transformational leadership style helped me to individualize support to each team member. Transformational style promotes trust and interpersonal relationships, making it easy for me to table my objective and vision of the project to the team with little insurgency.
There is a relationship between a leadership style and the decision-making approach (Abood and Thabet, 2017). In my situation, the decision-making process was comprehensive and involved weighing alternatives before making the final decision. The team consulted widely and coordinated different resources of decision-making. By the end of the year, employee’s turnover was at 8% from 40%. One of the best decisions we made was to initiate a robust training and education program aimed at teaching supervisors and the organization’s top leaders the need to motivate, reward, and appreciate employee efforts. However, I realized that the community we serve did not have a representative in the project to give insights on the community’s norms, general preferences, and their likes. It was essential to involve the community in the project.
Effective communication is vital in conveying shared vision, decision-making, and overall success of a project within the healthcare setting (Vermeir et al. 2015). As the team leader, my first role was to communicate the project’s objectives and vision to the team. I was clear and assertive in my communications. Clarity eliminated misunderstanding of information. I also used multiple forms and channels of communication to ensure that the team fully understands the project’s vision.
One of my responsibility as a team leader was to encourage and foster professional collaboration among team members. To create a cohesive team, I created a compelling cause that inspired team members to be part of the project and the organization’s vision. I also encouraged open and effective communication, as well as interpersonal relations. I encouraged brainstorming and questioning in an open and non-judgemental environment. I also kept my promises and honored requests. This ensured that the team stayed motivated and positive throughout the exercise.
Section 2 Ethics Experience
As a nurse, I have faced numerous situations requiring me to call on nursing ethics and to reconcile my values with the nursing profession’s obligation to make decisions. One of such difficult situation occurred in my tenth year of nursing practice. I was working at a large geriatric facility supervising the care of 40 patients by aides. Being the supervisor, I was responsible for dispensing all medications as well as all treatment procedures.
One day the facility admitted a 98-year-old man suffering from leukemia. He was in great pain. He developed severe chest pains and on the monitor, pt. Showed frequent PVC’s and block ectopic. Three days later, his heart stopped. Over the next twenty-four hours, the team defibrillated the pt. almost ten times. The team administered respiratory and cardiac drugs. He continued to live for another three days, and we placed him on a ventilator. I hated seeing this man writhe in pain, and so was his aide and doctor. One morning he greeted his doctor on rounds with ‘‘let’s get this show on the road’’. The doctors requested me to dispense them a dose Dilaudid in large amount enough to kill the patient. Although I signed out the dose, I did not chart it as given. They drew the dose and injected it themselves. I wondered if it was right to sign out and handle the medication. On the other hand, the patient was in great pain; only death could resolve his problems, and therefore administering the dose was the right thing to do.
According to the nursing code of ethics, a nurse should respect the patient’s moral and legal rights, including the rights to live. The nurse is also obligated to support the patient’s safety and psychological comfort and well-being (American Nurse Association, 2001). The ANA’s code of ethics also requires me as a nurse to act on the patient’s best interest, including supporting decisions such as the decision to die. However, my professional responsibility is to save lives at all costs. Based on my professional code of ethics, my actions were justified.
The four principles of healthcare ethics include justice, nonmaleficence, autonomy, and beneficence (Epstein, 2015). Nonmaleficence relates to ‘‘doing no harm’’ or avoiding actions that may harm the patient. Beneficence, on the other hand, encourages activities that benefit the patient. Autonomy encourages consent and involvement of the patient in decisions and actions on them. Justice encourages fair treatment. An ethical dilemma in healthcare occurs when any of the ethical principles conflict with each other (Purtilo, 2005). My professional responsibility is to support and ensure the patient’s safety and well-being. However, nonmaleficence requires me to do what is in the best interest of the patient.
References
Kitch, T. (2017). A Leadership Perspective on a Shared Vision for Healthcare. Nursing leadership (Toronto, Ont.), 30(1), 30-32.
Weberg, D. (2010). Transformational leadership and staff retention: an evidence review with implications for healthcare systems. Nursing administration quarterly, 34(3), 246-258.
Abood, S., & Thabet, M. (2017). Impact of Leadership Styles on Decision Making Styles among Nurses’ Managerial Levels. Journal of Nursing and Health Science, 6(5), 71-78.
American Nurses Association. (2001). Code of ethics for nurses with interpretive statements. Nursesbooks. org.
Vermeir, P., Vandijck, D., Degroote, S., Peleman, R., Verhaeghe, R., Mortier, E. … & Vogelaers, D. (2015). Communication in healthcare: a narrative review of the literature and practical recommendations. International journal of clinical practice, 69(11), 1257-1267.
Epstein, B., & Turner, M. (2015). The nursing code of ethics: Its value, its history. OJIN: The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, 20(2), 1-10.
Purtilo, R. (2005). Ethical dimensions in the health professions. 4th ed. Philadelphia: Elsevier Saunders.