Master’s Prepared Nurse and Leading Change Essay

Introduction

Advanced practice nurses are believed to play a crucial part in the current process of healthcare system transformation. At present, medical organizations tend to invest in improving patient care and developing the culture of nursing practice. To improve the quality of medical services, nurses should advocate for evidence-based and patient-centered health care. They are expected to collaborate with interprofessional teams and practice their leadership skills to achieve a higher quality of health care, as well as its cost-effectiveness and safety. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate how a master’s prepared nurse can impact the process of changes as a change agent.Master’s Prepared Nurse and Leading Change Essay

Essential Qualities of an Effective Change Agent

It is a general opinion that one of the main qualities of advanced nursing practitioners is the ability to utilize their leadership skills to trigger changes in the current healthcare environment. Many initiatives proposed to improve the organizational structure in the medical system are unsuccessful because change agents fail to understand the individual’s behavior and their engagement in the complex modern environment. Thus, it is also important for a change agent to gain a contemporary way of thinking and understanding of organizational systems and various environments that trigger demands for changes. Some researchers state that “although nurse leaders and the public describe a variable level of influence ascribed to the nurse leader, the literature supports that an influential nurse leader can create a positive environment” (Ducharme, Bernhardt, Padula, & Adams, 2017, p. 369). It proves the suggestion that leadership skills help a master’s prepared nurse leader to establish a collegial relationship and provide a high level of collaboration and coordination of healthcare specialists, which assists in evaluating changes required in the hospital at the organizational level.Master’s Prepared Nurse and Leading Change Essay

Importance of a Leadership Role

Nurses play an important role in the healthcare system because they provide services that influence the safety and satisfaction of patients. Therefore, without a nursing standpoint, changes in healthcare would be less effective and fail to meet the demands of people. It is stated that crucial nurse practitioners should use their leadership skills to achieve better patient, population, and community outcomes (Peltzer et al., 2015).Master’s Prepared Nurse and Leading Change Essay

Leadership is regarded to be one of the components required for an advanced nurse practitioner. There are also such roles as education, research, and clinical practice. Still, the leadership role is the most essential one as it might be used to propose useful changes. Leadership capacity is usually dependent on strategy and support levels in the selected organization, which significantly influences possible changes. Some researchers emphasize that “in many countries, the advanced practitioner is considered a key leadership position of influence for innovation, improving clinical practice, healthcare delivery and advancing the nursing/midwifery professions” (Elliott, Begley, Sheaf, & Higgins, 2016, p. 28). It is generally recognized that nursing leaders significantly impact patient and organizational outcomes. In the healthcare system, transformational leadership is recognized to be most effective to accomplish the goals of transforming values and behaviors according to the requirements of healthcare reform.Master’s Prepared Nurse and Leading Change Essay

Changes Required in the Healthcare System

In the United States, improvement of healthcare quality is a part of the federal policy to secure encouragement of healthy behavior and equal opportunities in receiving medical care. Some researchers note that “a fundamental goal of the U.S. health care system is to achieve optimum health outcomes among individuals, families, communities, and populations” (Peltzer et al., 2015, p. 118). Therefore, nurses are expected to lead changes that might improve healthcare service delivery to the various social classes of the population. They should participate in community coalitions and interprofessional initiatives to eliminate health disparities. Providing equal health care to all the social classes in the hospital is one of the current issues that require some organizational changes. The current medical system should be thoroughly revised to implement the needed change while reducing costs, negative outcomes, and medical errors.Master’s Prepared Nurse and Leading Change Essay

Leadership Theory

The contemporary leadership model that can be applied to the selected healthcare delivery situation includes such elements as trust and transformational leadership. It is noted that standards of Magnet hospitals are based on the transformational leadership of master prepared nurses who foster a healthy professional practice environment (Ducharme et al., 2017). Thus, nurse leaders are expected to build a positive relationship with colleagues to encourage the best performance possible and empower collaboration and teamwork to meet the goals of the organization. Trust is defined as the basic element of transformational leadership and results in improving organizational effectiveness, less resistance to changes, and increasing information sharing and job satisfaction.Master’s Prepared Nurse and Leading Change Essay

Successful leadership is based on professionalism, business skills, inspirational motivation, and interpersonal relationships (DeNisco & Barker, 2016). A professional nurse leader is self-aware while applying one’s experience, skills, knowledge, and values. Such a leader utilizes such factors as listening, intellectual stimulation, and an inspirational approach to achieve the required goals (Ducharme et al., 2017). They engage with groups and individuals to secure honest communication and open collaboration. Competent leader assists in achieving the best healthcare practices by applying the skills and competence of one’s colleagues.Master’s Prepared Nurse and Leading Change Essay

Change Model

According to the selected healthcare delivery situation, a certain change model can be applied. Usually, this model consists of several steps. Primarily, the nurse leader tries to develop personal acceptance and understanding of a practice change and to evaluate the potential benefits of its implementation (DeNisco & Barker, 2016). After understanding the nature of the problem, a nurse leader formulates why this specific change is necessary to implement. The second step involves collaborating with the interprofessional change team which is formed to implement the suggested change. Some researchers note that teamwork is based on the importance of all the members who develop a shared vision of the results of a change (Elliott et al., 2016). The next step is to detect and analyze the forces that resist and facilitate the discussed change. After that, a work plan is developed to implement the change.Master’s Prepared Nurse and Leading Change Essay