Approaches Of Nursing Leaders And Managers To Continuous Quality Improvements And Patient Satisfaction

Differences in Approaches

Title: Approaches of Nursing Leaders and Managers to Continuous Quality Improvements and Patient Satisfaction

Numerous similarities exist in the roles of leaders and managers. Both managers and leaders have the main goal as achieving the goals set by an organization or any other venture (Antonakis and Day, 2017). The issue of ensuring continuous quality improvement and patient satisfaction is very important in the contemporary health care sector. Any organization or healthcare provider who does not ensure this, risks discouraging people requiring health care services from visiting their institutions. Although there are numerous similarities between leaders and managers, there also exists substantial differences. This paper will focus on the different approaches that would be employed by leaders and managers in the field of nursing to ensure that continuous quality improvement and patient satisfaction is achieved. Ensuring that the quality of services in healthcare institutions is continuously improving and that the patients are satisfied with the services plays a great role in achieving and maintaining high quality level of health care (Fairhurst  and  Connaughton, 2014). When it comes to this topic, nursing leaders and managers would use different approaches.

As indication in the previous section, there is a role that both managers and leaders share. This is the role of ensuring that the goals of an organization or a venture are met. For this paper, the focus is on the differences in approaches that both managers and leaders would use to ensure continuous quality improvement and patient satisfaction. Managers would use a system of rewarding and punishing to achieve the above-mentioned goal. This implies that they would focus on giving rewards to any employee who plays a role in ensuring that the quality of services is being improved and that the patients are being satisfied. The rewards offered may take the form of increases in wages/salaries, promotions etc. Punishment on the other hand may include reduction of wages or being laid off all together. Through employing this approach, managers believe that rewards behaviours are likely to be maintained and repeated in future. Punished behaviours on the other hand are likely to cease in future. Leaders would apply a different approach. The main interest of a leader would be influencing people to buy his vision. Therefore, a nursing leader would focus on influencing or encouraging the followers to ensure continuous quality improvement and customer satisfaction. The leader would ensure that they inform the followers why it is very important to ensure that it happens. In addition, the leader would offer the followers an example. It is often said that the best lesson a leader can give to their followers is their example. Therefore, the leader will surely do their part in ensuring that quality is being continuously improved and that patients are satisfied.

Personal/ Professional Leadership Philosophy

Managers in nursing will adopt a set of rules, regulations and policies geared toward ensuring continuous improvement of quality and patient satisfaction (Urden, Stacy and Lough, (2017). This will be communicated to all workers and adherence to the rules would be expected. For instance, quality improvement manuals may be printed for every worker. The set rules and regulations would also provide the consequences of failing to observe the rules. The consequences are usually in form of punishments. In addition, the manager will adopt a complex structure which ensures that every employee know their roles. Unlike the manager, the leader tends to leave the employees to work out of their own volition (Cullen, 2016). The main role of a leader is to come up with an elaborate vision (Northouse, 2018). The vision would clearly indicate what quality improvements are necessary. The nursing leader then allows the employees to identify innovative ways of achieving making the quality improvements a reality (Champy, 2018). For instance, a leader may indicate in their vision that one of the quality improvements needed is reduction of patient falls. A leader often communicates their vision to the followers and ensures that they are constantly headed to the right direction (Smith, 2015). A leader also employs certain aspects to equip the followers to have the ability to do their work effectively. For instance, organizing trainings and workshops for the employees.

Managers are usually interested in the end results of a process. The main aim of any business venture is to maximize on profits (Bolman and Deal, 2017). Managers seem to understand this well. To measure the success of the quality improvement and patient satisfaction, managers would use such outcomes as the sales and profits made. If the outcome is positive, managers conclude that the process was right. If it is negative, the impression is that something is going wrong. Leaders on the other hand constantly monitor both the process and the outcome to gauge success (Tannenbaum and Schmidt, 2017). It follows that although the leader will be concerned with outcomes such as profits, they will also be interested in making the employees satisfied. In other words, they would be interested in monitoring the circumstances that the employees go through to achieve the results.

The approaches that are employed by the leader match to my personal and professional leadership philosophy. It is important to appreciate that there are some advantages that are associated with the management approach. For instance, the manager is likely to achieve their goals faster as they use authority and coercion. Although there are advantages associated with management, I believe that the leadership approach has more advantages. As indicated above, the leader aims at making the followers buy their vision. After establishing an elaborate vision which has a timeline, a leader influences the employees/followers towards ensuring that the vision becomes a reality. A leader is interested in the welfare of the workers and does all they can to ensure that the workers are satisfied. Extensive evidence has shown that people work optimally when they are satisfied (Smith, Duell and Martin, 2014). The leader also ensures that working is a pleasurable rather than a detestable activity. Furthermore, the leader is also interested in ensuring that the vision benefits not only the organization but also the employees. For these reasons, I would prefer the leadership approaches to those of management.

I believe that the goal of achieving continuous quality improvement and patient satisfaction should be long term. This means that the employees should endeavour to achieve the goal every day that they are working. To achieve this, an organization should ensure that they adopt approaches that lead to long term success. Comparing the approaches of nursing leaders and managers, those of leaders seem best suited to ensure this. It follows that the leadership approach is best suited to ensure long term achievement of the goal. In the contemporary society, employee satisfaction is key. Any organization that does not care about the satisfaction of its workers risks losing them. It follows that the leadership approaches to nursing are not only the best but relevant in the contemporary health sector. The local non-governmental organizations would play a huge role in ensuring success of continuous quality improvement and patient success through funding and provision of appropriate equipment. For instance, they could donate equipment that would enhance quality improvement.

Conclusion

Continuous quality improvement and patient satisfaction are core requirements for the optimal functioning of the contemporary health care sector. Both nursing leaders and managers are important in controlling the circumstances under which the above-mentioned goal is achieved. Managers tend to use authority, coercion and set rules to ensure that their employees are achieving the goal. They also use a system of reward and punishment to ensure the goal is being achieved. Leaders on the other hand sell their vision to the employees and influence them to buy into the vision. The nursing leader also focuses on ensuring that the employees are satisfied. Of the two approaches, I would prefer that of a nursing leader.

References

Antonakis, J., & Day, D. V. (2017). The nature of leadership. Sage publications.

Bolman, L. G., & Deal, T. E. (2017). Reframing organizations: Artistry, choice, and leadership. John Wiley & Sons.

Champy, J. (2018). Reengineering Management the Mandate for new Leadership. Harper Collins.

Cullen, J. G. (2016). Nursing management, religion and spirituality: A bibliometric review, a research agenda and implications for practice. Journal of nursing management, 24(3), 291-299.

Fairhurst, G. T., & Connaughton, S. L. (2014). Leadership: A communicative perspective. Leadership, 10(1), 7-35.

Northouse, P. G. (2018). Leadership: Theory and practice. Sage publications.

Smith, C. (2015). Exemplary leadership: How style and culture predict organizational outcomes. Routledge.

Smith, S. F., Duell, D. J., & Martin, B. C. (2014). Clinical nursing skills. Pearson.

Tannenbaum, R., & Schmidt, W. H. (2017). How to choose a leadership pattern. In Leadership Perspectives (pp. 75-84). Routledge.

Urden, L. D., Stacy, K. M., & Lough, M. E. (2017). Critical Care Nursing-E-Book: Diagnosis and Management. Elsevier Health Sciences.