NURS6053 All Weeks Discussions (September 2019)

NURS 6053/NRSE6053 INTERPROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATIONAL AND SYSTEMS LEADERSHIP

Week 1 Discussion

Review of Current Healthcare Issues

If you were to ask 10 people what they believe to be the most significant issue facing healthcare today, you might get 10 different answers. Escalating costs? Regulation? Technology disruption?

These and many other topics are worthy of discussion. Not surprisingly, much has been said in the research, within the profession, and in the news about these topics. Whether they are issues of finance, quality, workload, or outcomes, there is no shortage of changes to be addressed.

In this Discussion, you examine a national healthcare issue and consider how that issue may impact your work setting. You also analyze how your organization has responded to this issue.

To Prepare:

Review the Resources and select one current national healthcare issue/stressor to focus on.

Reflect on the current national healthcare issue/stressor you selected and think about how this issue/stressor may be addressed in your work setting.

NURS 6053/NRSE6053 INTERPROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATIONAL AND SYSTEMS LEADERSHIP

Week 3 Discussion

Organizational Policies and Practices to Support Healthcare Issues

Quite often, nurse leaders are faced with ethical dilemmas, such as those associated with choices between competing needs and limited resources. Resources are finite, and competition for those resources occurs daily in all organizations.

For example, the use of 12-hour shifts has been a strategy to retain nurses. However, evidence suggests that as nurses work more hours in a shift, they commit more errors. How do effective leaders find a balance between the needs of the organization and the needs of ensuring quality, effective, and safe patient care?

In this Discussion, you will reflect on a national healthcare issue and examine how competing needs may impact the development of polices to address that issue.

To Prepare:

Review the Resources and think about the national healthcare issue/stressor you previously selected for study in Module 1.

Reflect on the competing needs in healthcare delivery as they pertain to the national healthcare issue/stressor you previously examined.

NURS 6053/NRSE6053 INTERPROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATIONAL AND SYSTEMS LEADERSHIP

Week 4 Discussion

Leadership Theories in Practice

A walk through the Business section of any bookstore or a quick Internet search on the topic will reveal a seemingly endless supply of writings on leadership. Formal research literature is also teeming with volumes on the subject.

However, your own observation and experiences may suggest these theories are not always so easily found in practice. Not that the potential isn’t there; current evidence suggests that leadership factors such as emotional intelligence and transformational leadership behaviors, for example, can be highly effective for leading nurses and organizations.

Yet, how well are these theories put to practice? In this Discussion, you will examine formal leadership theories. You will compare these theories to behaviors you have observed firsthand and discuss their effectiveness in impacting your organization.

To Prepare:

Review the Resources and examine the leadership theories and behaviors introduced.

Identify two to three scholarly resources, in addition to this Module’s readings, that evaluate the impact of leadership behaviors in creating healthy work environments.

Reflect on the leadership behaviors presented in the three resources that you selected for review.

NURS 6053/NRSE6053 INTERPROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATIONAL AND SYSTEMS LEADERSHIP

Week 5 Discussion

Your Leadership Profile

Do you believe you have the traits to be an effective leader? Perhaps you are already in a supervisory role, but as has been discussed previously, appointment does not guarantee leadership skills.

How can you evaluate your own leadership skills and behaviors? You can start by analyzing your performance in specific areas of leadership. In this Discussion, you will participate in a leadership assessment tool, reflect on the results, and examine how the results relate to your leadership traits.

To Prepare:

Complete the CliftonStrengths Assessment, provided in the Resources.

Reflect on the results of your Assessment, and consider how the results relate to your leadership traits.

NURS 6053/NRSE6053 INTERPROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATIONAL AND SYSTEMS LEADERSHIP

Week 7 Discussion

Workplace Environment Assessment

How healthy is your workplace?

You may think your current organization operates seamlessly, or you may feel it has many issues. You may experience or even observe things that give you pause. Yet, much as you wouldn’t try to determine the health of a patient through mere observation, you should not attempt to gauge the health of your work environment based on observation and opinion. Often, there are issues you perceive as problems that others do not; similarly, issues may run much deeper than leadership recognizes.

There are many factors and measures that may impact organizational health. Among these is civility. While an organization can institute policies designed to promote such things as civility, how can it be sure these are managed effectively? In this Discussion, you will examine the use of tools in measuring workplace civility.

To Prepare:

Review the Resources and examine the Clark Healthy Workplace Inventory, found on page 20 of Clark (2015).

Review and complete the Work Environment Assessment Template in the Resources.