Leadership Assessment: Considering the Manager of Mammoth Hospital

The Health Care System

Mammoth Hospital is a non-government, not-for-profit organization fully accredited to provide various critical care services. Its services include medical, behavioral, dental, general surgery, nutrition, women's, and other primary health care services. It is located along the Sierra Park Road in Mono County, California. It is a 17-bed inpatient facility with 2 ICU beds for critical patients. The organization has 12 outpatient clinics with highly qualified personnel to deliver quality patient services. It operates under a hierarchical structure with an established chain of command and relationships. The mission is "to promote well-being and improve the health of residents and guests." Also, their vision is "to provide a premier experience in health, wellness, and integrated care for the communities of the Eastern Sierra and beyond" (Mammoth Hospital, n.d.) The organization is focused on promoting health and wellness through collaboration with various stakeholders, thus improving access and delivery of services. Also, it is focused on supporting system improvements and change management to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of care. It emphasizes improving the quality of care and promoting patient safety.

Nursing Administrative Position

The nursing personnel interviewed worked as chief nursing officers at Mammoth Hospital. The professional is responsible for setting standards for patient care and designing processes and protocols to achieve the standards. Additionally, she performs tasks such as directing, supervising, and monitoring the work performed by nurses in various departments. She oversees transcription and medical records and facilitates training opportunities to enhance employee performance. Moreover, as the Chief Nursing Officer (CNO), she works with other healthcare professionals and organizations to ensure the achievement of patient outcomes and organizational goals. She liaises between nurses and administrators and advocates for nurses' rights. She is responsible for coordinating various activities within the organization and ensuring compliance with multiple standards.

Further, CNOs develop performance appraisal guidelines to evaluate nurses' performance in assigned stations. She hires and trains the nursing workforce. Other core competencies for the position involve relationship management, planning, critical thinking, communication, decision-making, and organization skills. She is responsible for establishing compensation wages, managing nursing budgets, and setting the required medical equipment prices. She reports to the organization's Chief Executive Officer. She supervises 300 staff members, whereby 150 RNS provide direct patient services.

Additionally, she supervises 110 LPNs and 30 NUAs to ensure they adequately assist doctors in their respective departments. She supervises ten nurse managers who manage other nurses in the clinical setting. The organization's workforce is highly diverse and balanced regarding ethnic group, sexual orientation, and physical ability. Additionally, they have promoted a culture of accommodating different perspectives in making inclusive decisions.

 The credentials required for the position include having a bachelor's or master's degree in nursing, being a certified registered nurse with at least five years of experience as an RN, and working in managerial positions. The CNO being interviewed has a Bachelor's and Master's degree in Nursing and has worked for nine years as an RN. She previously worked as a manager of the medical, surgical, and ICU departments of Mammoth Hospital before being promoted to the CNO position.

Nursing Care Delivery Models

The organization utilizes a team nursing model to ensure quality care delivery to its patients. The CNO appoints charge nurses in every department to lead the team members performing various tasks. Teamwork ensures patient outcomes by performing specific roles and collectively designing care plans to address patient needs. Team nursing reduces adverse patient events and enhances quality, patient satisfaction, and safety (Mitchell et al., 2019). Collaboration has enhanced positive relationships and effective team communication to deliver patient-centered care.

The mammoth hospital is enhancing its effectiveness in service delivery through technology. For instance, it has a 3D Tomosynthesis machine to ensure efficiency in breast cancer screening. It is the latest advancement with greater accuracy in detecting abnormalities that would lead to breast cancer, thus early intervention. Additionally, the organization partnered with Cerner Corp and implemented an Electronic Health Record in 2017. The digital system captures and stores patient information, thus reducing paperwork. This technology has been effective for the organization in promoting coordinated care and streamlining the flow of information, reducing possibilities for medical errors. It has enhanced the convenience of billing and fulfilling prescriptions for their clients. Moreover, they have set up patient portals to improve communication between clients and providers.

Leadership Characteristics

The manager under consideration adopts a transformational leadership style to ensure success in her role. She is a passionate, energetic, and enthusiastic leader focused on establishing a synergistic relationship with stakeholders and improving the organization's nurses' performance. A transformational leader is actively involved in the process of achieving excellence and assists team members in maximizing their potential. Leaders encourage creativity among their followers and challenge the status quo. She encourages nurses and other professionals in the organization to find new ways of doing things and ensure they engage in opportunities that enhance their learning experience. For instance, she has encouraged nurses to adopt a teamwork and collaboration culture so they can learn from each other. She collaborated with the nursing managers in different departments to develop a rotational plan that allows nurses to work in various departments to learn and develop new skills.

Moreover, transformational leaders encourage individual followers and foster supportive relationships (Collins et al., 2020). As a visionary leader, she communicates her vision to employees to keep them motivated and passionate about pursuing goals. Further, she is a role model for followers through her passionate actions to transform the nursing practice.

There are various sources of power that leaders use to lead followers. This includes legitimate, expert, coercive, and referent power. In Mammoth Hospital, the CNO utilizes expert power acquired through her education, knowledge, and experience in the nursing practice. Expert power is derived from individual experience, knowledge, and skills (Clark & Harrison, 2018). For instance, the CNO has worked as an RN for nine years and has a higher educational level. She also has managerial experience in the healthcare setting. Therefore, these channels have improved her expertise in appropriately leading people. Her leadership style and source of power have made her effective in navigating different situations toward success.

Communication Strategies

The CNO is a good communicator who utilizes an open communication strategy to interact with employees and other organizational stakeholders. She encourages one-on-one communication and the provision of regular feedback to employees. For example, she encourages people to approach her and share their concerns or issues. Also, she schedules social outings for employees to allow communication with one another and share ideas on various projects. Additionally, she encourages employees and stakeholders to provide feedback, thus enhancing interaction and positive relationships. Open communication focuses on sharing information among multiple groups transparent, honest, dependable, and consistent. It helps individuals assertively express their thoughts, emotions, and plans (Haddon, 2018). She possesses emotional intelligence skills, thus making her effective in relating with others. This has enhanced bonding and trust and fostered team spirit within the setting.

Decision-making, Problem-Solving, and Conflict Resolution Skills

The CNO collaborates with stakeholders to resolve conflicts and problems and make effective decisions. Upon identifying issues that require critical decisions or problems that need to be addressed, she schedules meetings to receive input from individuals. For example, collaboration helped address the patient's long wait times by working with nurses to develop a policy for the time a patient should spend with the provider. Additionally, implementing interprofessional teams has promoted patient outcomes by ensuring quality care and knowledge sharing. The collaboration strategy provides mutually beneficial solutions to the organization and stakeholders (Persaud, 2020).

Additionally, it promotes a sense of belonging and ownership of various workplace decisions. Employees' input ensures a solution or decision that includes people's perspectives, diversities, and interests. It fosters a sense of belonging and trust within the organization. Additionally, it helps effectively address problems. For instance, financial strains in the organization require labor cuts by laying off workers. Therefore, collaboration ensured that nurses were informed about the situation and the way forward.

Standards of Practice, innovations, and Projects

The CNO has effectively implemented standards of practice for nurses in the organization. She pioneered implementing a policy that registered nurses responsible for triage should collect all patient information before being transferred to other providers. Furthermore, she ensured pharmacists were involved in medication prescriptions to prevent errors. She ensured education programs for all chronic diseases were established in the organization with adequate resources to achieve program goals. Moreover, she was at the frontline to prevent nosocomial COVID-19 by ensuring hand-washing practices for employees and patients. Initially, the organization needed to be culturally competent and have adequate cultural competence and awareness training. Therefore, she ensured the organization provided cultural competence education to all workers twice a year. She has spearheaded virtual visitor programs to allow hospitalized patients to communicate with families during the pandemic. She has also championed the project on strategies to reduce infections in postoperative patients. This promoted evidence-based practice to manage postoperative patients using appropriate infection reduction strategies.

Conclusion

The nurse manager under consideration has contributed significantly to the nursing profession. She has ensured cultural awareness and sensitivity in delivering patient-centered care and emphasized the role of interprofessional teams in promoting patient outcomes in nursing practice. She is a member of the California Nurses Association and has won the Daisy Awards for being a compassionate nurse with exceptional skills in delivering care.