In this assignment, you will be writing a 1,000-1,250 word paper describing the differing approaches of nursing leaders and managers to issues in practice. To complete this assignment, do the following:

Select an issue from the following list: bullying, unit closers and restructuring, floating, nurse turnover, nurse staffing ratios, use of contract employees (i.e., registry and travel nurses), or magnet designation.
Describe the selected issue. Discuss how it impacts quality of care and patient safety in the setting in which it occurs.
Discuss how professional standards of practice should be demonstrated in this situation to help rectify the issue or maintain professional conduct.
Explain the differing roles of nursing leaders and nursing managers in this instance and discuss the different approaches they take to address the selected issue and promote patient safety and quality care. Support your rationale by using the theories, principles, skills, and roles of the leader versus manager described in your readings.
Discuss what additional aspects mangers and leaders would need to initiate in order to ensure professionalism throughout diverse health care settings while addressing the selected issue.
Describe a leadership style that would best address the chosen issue. Explain why this style could be successful in this setting.
Use at least three peer-reviewed journal articles other than those presented in your text or provided in the course.

Prepare this assignment according to the guidelines found in the APA Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center. An abstract is not required.

This assignment uses a rubric. Please review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the expectations for successful completion.

You are required to submit this assignment to LopesWrite. Refer to the LopesWrite Technical Support articles for assistance.

This benchmark assignment assesses the following programmatic competencies:

RN to BSN

1.1: Exemplify professionalism in diverse health care settings.

1.3: Exercise professional nursing leadership and management roles in the promotion of patient safety and quality care.

3.4: Demonstrate professional standards of practice.

ANSWER

Effective Approaches in Leadership and Management

Selected Issue: Bullying in Nursing

 Introduction 

Like in many other workplaces, one of the major challenges in the nursing and hospital setting is bullying. Nurses either experience bullying in health care settings from each other, from their bosses or even from patients. This greatly demoralizes them and makes them not perform to their level best under such conditions. Bullying entails the act of intimidation, where one person hurts another one intentionally. As a result, this negatively impacts the emotional and mental well-being of the nurses and ultimately affects the patients’ health outcomes.

Professional Standards in Addressing Bullying in Nursing

 There is a need to observe nursing professional standards when dealing with such an issue. This is since its standards outline the expectations on the competent nursing care which patients should receive in the process of nursing. When addressing bullying in a health care setting, nurses need to follow the nursing Standard IV on collegiality, where all nurses are expected to interact with their peers and colleagues and maintain human and caring relationships with their managers and peers. Therefore, there would be a need for the leadership of such a health care organization to ensure that all nurses are civil and intervene through conflict resolution whenever there is an incident of bullying in the facility. There is also a need for the organization’s management to apply this standard by enacting policies that outlaws bullying. The management should prescribe several punishments for bullying, including suspension or termination of employment for any errant nurse.

The differing roles of nursing leaders and nursing managers in this instance

There is a difference between leaders and managers in the ways they act and make decisions. In bullying in a hospital setting, nursing leaders and managers may undertake varying approaches in addressing the challenging situation. First, it is manifest that leaders are unique in most of the decisions they make (Arruda, 2016). In the case of bullying incidence, the nursing leaders are willing to be themselves and approach the person involved in bullying, where they will have a unique approach that will see that either the behavior is stopped and that the consequences of such an act are special. A nursing manager will likely use a past approach that past managers have used. This may include expelling or suspending the bully based on what punishment other bullies have received. A manager will likely adopt a leadership style used in the past rather than designing an own approach.

In solving the bullying challenge, the nursing leaders will not fear taking risks. This could be by willing to try a new thing of curbing bullying in the facility. New risky things would be to try and talk with the bully, tell them about their bad behavior, and reprimand to ensure that bullying does not occur again at the institution. Managers, on the other hand, will work to minimize the risk (Arruda, 2016). This will be by seeking to avoid and control the problem before it gets out of hand rather than embracing the risk. They, for example, would immediately suspend the bullying nurse rather than establish the issue that led to the bullying and work towards ensuring that it will never occur again at the firm.

Another difference between how a nursing leader and manager would approach the challenge is the length of the decision. Nurse leaders would likely make long-term decisions as a way of resolving the issue. This would involve being strategic in the approach. They would probably ensure that all the nurses within the facility get enrolled in training and development programs to remind them about the need for work ethics and respect each other when working. On the other hand, managers will come up with short-term strategies to address the bullying situation. This is since, in many cases, managers tend to look for regular acknowledgements and accolades. They will hence be likely to target solving the issue immediately where they will get the recognition.

Additional aspects managers and leaders would need to initiate to ensure professionalism 

Nursing leaders and managers will need to ensure professionalism in approaching the bullying issues within a health facility. It is the reasonability of a leader or manager to identify such cases of bullying at the workplace and put a stop to it. This is by making leadership development a key priority. Solving the issue will be for the sake of the nurses’ happiness and productivity and in line with the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 (Tapintosafety, 2019). Some of the direct bullying that managers and leaders need to spot immediately include verbal attacks: physical violence, consistent critic, manipulation and intimidation, amongst many other unruly behaviors towards others. On the other hand, indirect bullying could include gossiping, refusing leave, undermining others, and setting impossible goals for the juniors. Such behaviors need to be stopped and addressed immediately for the efficiency and productivity of colleagues and to ensure that each well-being is taken care of.  Both managers and leaders at a facility need to reduce the bullying culture by offering leadership and focusing on each worker’s self-awareness (Tapintosafety, 2019). They need to be supportive, collaborative and have people-focused cultures in their leadership style to combat bullying behaviors in a health facility.

A leadership style that best addresses the issue

A leadership style that would be most suitable to address this issue would be the servant leadership style. A servant leader is a person who lives by a people-first mindset. He feels that when a team member feels personally and professionally fulfilled, he can be more effective and productive. A servant leader would emphasize ensuring that everyone is happy at work and is not at any given point bullied or gets to bully another colleague (Mitterer, 2017). Servant leadership style is an excellent approach for the facility since its main aim is to ensure that employee morale is built and people are helped to reengage with their work. With servant leadership, the cases of bullying would be minimized since the teams would be motivated more, have a leader who is an excellent communicator and gets encouraged to collaborate and engage more.

 Conclusion 

Bullying is one of the major challenges that can affect any institution or facility. It should be comprehensively addressed since it can result in low employee morale and a decline in productivity. A leader needs to have the right approach to ensure that both short term and long-term strategies are in place to deal with such a challenge and that sustainable solutions are established. One of the most suitable styles for approaching such an issue is by adopting the servant leadership style, which will focus on working as a team and encouraging better communication and engagement amongst the workers.

References

Arruda, W. (2016). 9 Differences Between Being A Leader And A Manager. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/williamarruda/2016/11/15/9-differences-between-being-a-leader-and-a-manager/?sh=406845b44609

Mitterer, D. M. (2017). Servant leadership and its effect on employee job satisfaction and turnover intent (Doctoral dissertation, Walden University).

Tapintosafety. (2019). Which Leadership Style Impacts Bullying? Retrieved from https://tapintosafety.com.au/which-leadership-style-impacts-bullying/