Leadership Styles: Reflective Essay Example

As a registered nurse that extends clinical care to patients that need medical attention, it is important to adopt a leadership style which will increase the experience that clients have once they interact with me. Dealing with patients requires a high level of patience as some of the individuals have received a diagnosis and find it hard to manage the news, and a nurse helps a person calm down and accept the news, which then contributes to positive living (Taylor-Haslip, 2010; Beam, O'brien, and Neal, 2010). A newly diagnosed diabetic patient has been advised that he needs to administer a dose of insulin. The patient is 24 years old and an accountant by profession. Helping the patient using the Gibbs reflective model will make it easy for the patient to cope with the diabetic condition, as well as maintain the discipline to administer insulin in their bodies at the stipulated time daily. The first step is having the patient describe what happened, that might have triggered him to seek medical attention. The patient may state that he had frequent urination and felt frequent headaches as well as a significant loss of weight. Giving the patient the chance to describe his feelings will make me understanding what crossed his mind the minute he received the news about being diabetic (Chang, 2015). The evaluation stage will enable the patient define the experience as either good or bad. For instance, the patient may think that being given the right diagnosis after facing the different medical symptoms was a good experience since it would help him understand what was wrong with his body. On the other hand, the bad experience would be receiving information about suffering from a chronic medical condition that he would have to manage for the rest of his life.

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The analysis stage will enable the patient to make sense of the situation, despite being on the receiving end (Cant and Cooper, 2011; Ekebergh, 2011). This stage enables the patient to easily transit to the action plan step that defines the strategies adopts both in the short-term and in the long-term. A nurse handling a patient that has just been diagnosed with diabetes needs to know what the patient plans to do in the event that he or she suffers from severe negative effects of managing diabetes. For instance, a patient may have run low of insulin medication and has no access to a health care facility. A patient need to know what he or she should do in such eventualities. A patient can make a sugar solution and consume it as an emergency precaution and seek immediate medical attention to have a professional practitioner administer drugs.

Embracing a democratic leadership style as a nurse makes it easy for me to lead by example as I reflect (Husebo, O'Regan, and Nestel, 2015; Bolden et al., 2011). This is because I take care of myself so that I can be in a position to extend the same or more attention to patients that are placed under my care. As a leader, one is expected to take personal responsibility, be accountable, and advocate for better standards. Therefore, as a nurse who handles patients daily, I ensure that I interact with people in the healthcare center professionally as I make regular reports to my immediate supervisor on a day's activities. Further, in case I find my supplies going down, I request for more so that patients can still receive quality services.

As a professional nurse that sometimes interacts with patients that have lost the willpower to fight for their lives because of the chronic pain they have, I am bound to encourage them to develop a positive outlook. Personal discipline has taught me to always maintain a positive attitude in everything that I do, by understanding that challenges do not last forever (Kaihlanen, Lakanmaa, and Salminen, 2013). Good communication skills have enabled me exchange information with patients and my supervisors. I have also found myself encouraging patients to state what they feel when in the hospital setup, as the information they give could help improve the standards in a healthcare facility. If patients fail to communicate about a quality they are unhappy about in the healthcare facility and they leave, the management of a hospital may not initiate change, which means more people will be unsatisfied in the future.

Conclusion

The democratic leadership style impacts teaching my colleagues on the need to administer good care to patients placed under our care since it has a direct effect on the recovery process that people experience (Johns, 2017; Quinton and Smallbone, 2010). Patients that have been physically and emotionally mistreated by patients are psychologically affected, which affects their recovery process, as they are often traumatized. They may fail to open up about their medical conditions, which may lead to a misdiagnosis. A misdiagnosis leads to administration of the wrong medication. On the other hand, patients that are well-received in a healthcare facility have a high probability of opening up about their medical issues, which enables doctors and nurses to give the right diagnosis. Such patients will develop a positive attitude despite the diagnosis they receive. In conclusion, handling patients in the healthcare facility requires a careful examination of a nurse's character. This is because health practitioners affect the perception and attitude that patients develop after being diagnosed.

References

Beam, R.J., O'brien, R.A. and Neal, M., 2010. Reflective practice enhances public health nurse implementation of nursefamily partnership. Public Health Nursing, 27(2), pp.131-139.

Bolden, L., Cuevas, N., Raia, L., Meredith, E. and Prince, T., 2011. The use of reflective practice in new graduate registered nurses residency program. Nursing administration quarterly, 35(2), pp.134-139.

Cant, R.P. and Cooper, S.J., 2011. The benefits of debriefing as formative feedback in nurse education. Australian Journal of Advanced Nursing, The, 29(1), p.37.

Chang, E., 2015. Transitions in nursing: Preparing for professional practice. Elsevier Health Sciences.

Ekebergh, M., 2011. A learning model for nursing students during clinical studies. Nurse education in practice, 11(6), pp.384-389.

Husebo, S.E., O'Regan, S. and Nestel, D., 2015. Reflective practice and its role in simulation. Clinical Simulation in Nursing, 11(8), pp.368-375.

Johns, C. ed., 2017. Becoming a reflective practitioner. John Wiley & Sons.

Kaihlanen, A.M., Lakanmaa, R.L. and Salminen, L., 2013. The transition from nursing student to registered nurse: The mentor's possibilities to act as a supporter. Nurse Education in Practice, 13(5), pp.418-422.

Quinton, S. and Smallbone, T., 2010. Feeding forward: using feedback to promote student reflection and learning-a teaching model. Innovations in Education and Teaching International, 47(1), pp.125-135.

Taylor-Haslip, V., 2010. Guided reflective journals depict a correlation to the academic success of nursing students. Teaching and Learning in Nursing, 5(2), pp.68-72.