Please reply to the following discussion with one or more references. Participate in the discussion by asking a question, providing a statement of clarification, providing a point of view with a rationale, challenging an aspect of the discussion, or indicating a relationship between two or more lines of reasoning in the discussion. Cite sources in your responses to other classmates.
A. Ritchie
Nurses account for almost 50% of the global healthcare workforce and their deficits pose the single biggest challenge for many healthcare systems (Pressley & Garside, 2023). Nursing workforce shortages have cumulative impacts on patient ratios, staff dissatisfaction, occupational stress and burnout and staff retention. This leaves the Chief Nursing Officer (CNO) with a continuing problem to fix, given the leadership position and the background of a nurse. The CNO is a senior level nursing professional within a health system that is a part of an executive leadership team that oversees the hospital system. This includes organizational, administrative and nursing leadership. Often times there’s a disconnect between administration and employees. Administration is looking at figures, systems and numbers while the employees are working on a daily basis with patients experiencing the changes implemented from administration. Employees at large often than not feel that their concerns aren’t heard and that creates discord between administration and employees. A collaborative team approach would benefit the team as a collective to start bridging the gap to achieve common goals. Leadership is a process that entails influence, occurs within a group setting and involves achieving goals that reflect a common vision.
A suggestion that will foster better relationships and increase employee retention is incorporating shared leadership. Shared leadership can be implemented amongst nursing staff and managerial staff. The managerial staff can then bring up problems with proposed solutions to the executive level to incorporate change. The components of shared leadership include shared purpose, social support, and voice, as well as mutual accountability, partnership, equity, and ownership (Riesch et al., 2023). It is important that everyone contributes to the goal of the healthcare system and everyone feels valued, trusts their team and has support. Clinical nurse satisfaction and retention are central responsibilities of nurse managers. Through this model, all staff can foster open communication and staff empowerment to better serve the patient population.
Nurse managers are essential for the success of organizational missions and objectives. Nurse managers are the glue between nursing staff and executive management. Nurse managers can utilize different leadership practices to foster better work environments and cooperation amongst the team thus increasing retnetion. Transformational leadership practices foster nurse manager empowerment and effectiveness in accomplishing organization goals (Cox, 2019). Transformational leadership can be utilized at the executive level to improve nurse manager job satisfaction and retention. Nurse managers may also learn transformational leadership techniques and apply the same approach with their staff. Transformational leadership techniques include active listening, collaboration, acting with integrity, building trust and providing constructive feedback. Relational leadership styles were related to an employee’s commitment, as the application of this leadership style increased the intent‐to‐stay (Hult et al., 2023). Various research suggests a leadership style that is collaborative whether it is relational or transformational, it is important to use different leadership styles to help reach the goal of increasing employee retention. Also, increasing salary and benefits can lead to employee retention. When an employee feels valued and are compensated appropriately, they are more willing to stay with the company and perform to their highest potential. Employee retention and satisfaction are significantly influenced by compensation. Offering competitive base salaries or hourly wages is an essential factor in retaining employees, as it demonstrates that the organization values their time and energy (Sorn et al., 2023). All in all, increasing wages, utilizing shared leadership and incorporating transformational leadership styles will yield great results of employee retention and better relationships.
References
Cox C. A. (2019). Nurse manager job satisfaction and retention: A home healthcare perspective. Nursing management, 50(7), 16–23.
Hult, M., Terkamo-Moisio, A., Kaakinen, P., Karki, S., Nurmeksela, A., Palonen, M., Peltonen, L. M., & Häggman-Laitila, A. (2023). Relationships between nursing leadership and organizational, staff and patient outcomes: A systematic review of reviews. Nursing open, 10(9), 5920–5936.
Pressley, C., & Garside, J. (2023). Safeguarding the retention of nurses: A systematic review on determinants of nurse’s intentions to stay. Nursing open, 10(5), 2842–2858.
Riesch, S., Chiappa, J., Floyd, N., & Ponce, M. (2023). The Chief Nursing Officer Shared Leadership Model. Nurse leader, 21(1), 31-37.
Sorn, M.K., Fienena, A.R.L., Ali, Y., Rafay, M. and Fu, G.H. (2023) The Effectiveness of Compensation in Maintaining Employee Retention. Open Access Library Journal, 10, 1-14.
