Good Nursing Practice Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Good Nursing Practice - Essay Example skills or tasks; rather, it is an attitude that informs behaviour.† In nursing, leadership is portrayed through the ability of nurses to progressively improve the health care through influencing others; whether patients or the fellow workmates. Leaders should possess the capability of helping people plan, lead, organize and control employees’ activities. According to Wheeler, (2012), the prominent challenge facing the nursing profession is the development of future nurse leaders. All nurses require leadership skills at all hierarchical levels. Some of the crucial roles of a nurse leader include acting as a role model to their colleagues, ensuring optimal care through collaboration and provision of support and information. Additionally, they defend the rights of the patients and provision of care based on a theoretical and research background. Nurse leaders should also have management knowledge, team work and communication competence. Some of the personal characteristics necessary for a nurse include courage, collaboration, creativity and confidence. They should enact changes depending on the changes in technology and working environment (Wong?and Cummings,?2007:508-521). The heath care environments are constantly changing and producing new changes to the nurse leaders that limit their performance if they do not device the efficient strategies for handling them. Leadership skills entail the art of making people produce extra ordinary impacts while experiencing challenges and other barriers. Direct, hierarchical approach to leadership is an impediment to task completion and performance. Nursing leadership should adopt the style of listening, encouraging and facilitating role play. Tregunno, D. et al. (2009:337) defines leadership, â€Å"the ability to create new systems... This report stresses that student nurses operate in hospitals, nursing homes or doctor’s offices. Their effectiveness is a product of the application of both professional and personal skills. The four main skills that a student nurse should possess for efficient delivery of services include leadership, communication, and team work and organization skills. The standards outlined in the NMC code of conduct offers the guidelines required in the implementation of the four skills. Leadership skills are exhibited through the ability of nurses to progressively improve the health care through influencing others; whether patients or the fellow workmates. Ineffective communication causes misunderstanding leading to the prevalence of misdiagnosis or medication errors. This paper makes a conclusion that team work skills are mandatory for any student nurse as nursing is a collective profession. Organizational skills helps a nurse stay focused on the correct tasks, assist in setting priorities, and offer confidence that a person is following the correct footpath towards achievement of goals. Application of the stated skills enables the student nurses to deliver essential health care for all, safeguard the public well-being as well as be accountable for safe, patient-centred and evidence-based practice. The nurses will also be able to exhibit professionalism and integrity within the concept of ethical and legal practice.