Clinical Leadership in Nursing and Healthcare

Values into Action

David Stanley, David Stanley

• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781119253723
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Medicine
• Subtopic: Nursing

Clinical leadership, along with values-based care and compassion, are critical in supporting the development of high quality healthcare service and delivery. Clinical Leadership in Nursing and Healthcare: Values into Action offers a range of tools and topics that support and foster clinically focused nurses and other healthcare professionals to develop their leadership potential.

The new edition has been updated in light of recent key changes in health service approaches to care and values. Divided into three parts, it offers information on the attributes of clinical leaders, as well as the tools healthcare students and staff can use to develop their leadership potential. It also outlines a number of principles, frameworks and topics that support nurses and healthcare professionals to develop and deliver effective clinical care as clinical leaders. Covering a wide spectrum of practical topics, Clinical Leadership in Nursing and Healthcare includes information on:

• Theories of leadership and management
• Organisational culture
• Gender
• Generational issues and leaders
• Project management
• Quality initiatives
• Working in teams
• Managing change
• Effective clinical decision making
• How to network and delegate
• How to deal with conflict
• Implementing evidence-based practice

Each chapter also has a range of reflective questions and self-assessments to help consolidate learning. Itis invaluable reading for all nursing and healthcare professionals, as well as students and those newly qualified.

Part I
Clinical Leaders: Role Models for Values into Action

Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood.

Marie Curie, Polish‐born French physicist and chemist, famous for her work on radioactivity, first recipient of two Nobel prizes, first female professor, University of Paris

Clinical Leadership in Nursing and Healthcare: Values into Action suggests that clinically focused leadership or clinical leadership and administration‐based or managerial leadership are not the same thing. The case for this view is set out in this first part of the book.

To support this statement, the book outlines a number of principles, frameworks, tools and topics describing how nurses and other health professionals can develop, lead and deliver effective clinical care – as clinical leaders, not as managers or as administrative leaders in the academic, political or managerial sphere. It also outlines a new theory of leadership, congruent leadership, which has been developed from a number of research studies exploring the nature and characteristics of clinical leadership from a wide range of different health professional disciplines, in the UK and Australia.

Congruent leadership theory suggests that leaders demonstrate a match (congruence) between the leader’s values and beliefs and their actions. As such, clinically focused nurses and a range of other health professionals have moved decisively and clearly in the direction of their values and beliefs and can be seen expressing congruent leadership. They may simply have stood by their values, working not because they wanted to change the world, but because they knew that what they were doing was the right thing to do and that their actions were making a difference, if only in the life of one person.

It is timely that clinical leadership is being re‐evaluated and frameworks developed that support it (Stanton, Lemer & Mountford 2010; Swanwick & McKimm 2011; Martin & Learmonth 2012; Mannix, Wilkes & Daly 2013; Storey & Holti 2013; Scully 2014; McLellan 2015; Rose 2015; West et al. 2015; Bender 2016), because it is clear that in attempting to climb the career ladder, many health professionals have faced the dilemma of having to move further away from the core reason they first became health professionals, resulting in role confusion and blurring of values (Stanley 2006c). Many have had to move into management or administrative positions or academic roles and leave their clinical roles further behind with each promotion. However, if leadership happens at all levels (Cook 2001; Stanley 2006a, b, 2008, 2011; Swanwick & McKimm 2011; Higgins et al. 2014), identifying who the clinical leaders are and attempting to gain an understanding of what clinical leadership means becomes vital.

The first part of this book comprises five chapters. Chapter 1 deals with an exploration of the concept of clinical leadership. It explores the attributes of effective clinical leaders and outlines the rationale behind these attributes, then discusses why an understanding of clinical leadership matters now. The chapter considers what clinical leadership is and who clinical leaders are. Could a therapy team leader, who is busy telephoning staffing agencies in order to find staff to fill vacancies for a busy clinic, be the clinical leader? Could it be a nurse consultant, paramedic lead or nurse practitioner who is in the process of initiating a reform of clinically based practice on a recent research project? Could a healthcare assistant or physiotherapy aid who, day in and day out, has cared for sick and frail medical patients on a busy orthopaedic rehabilitation ward be the clinical leader? Could the bright‐eyed, newly qualified occupational therapist who approaches work with enthusiasm and the hope that they are making a difference to people’s lives on a busy rehabilitation day‐case unit? Could it be the junior registered nurse who remains focused on essential bedside care and refuses to become drawn into the ward management issues? Or is the manager the clinical leader, as they keep staff focused on issues of quality, cleanliness and care?

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Reflection Point

There are ‘Reflection Points’ throughout this book. These are to encourage you to pause and reflect on the topic or issues being discussed.

Start the book by pausing to reflect on who you think the clinical leaders are in your clinical area or practice location. Imagine that a relative or friend is ill and requires care in the clinical area you work in. Who are the people you would point to as clinical leaders? Who would confidently care for and lead the care for your relative or friend? What are your thoughts? Could it be any or all of the people described earlier?

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Chapter 2 offers an introduction to the various definitions and styles of leadership. A spectrum of perspectives are presented to help health professionals get to grips with the concept of leadership. It is suggested that there are a wide range of views, beliefs and ideas about what leadership means, what types of leadership there are and how the types of leadership might be employed to build relationships, communicate more effectively, promote vision or values and bring about change or innovation.

Chapter 3 offers an insight into the important and often overlooked concept of followership. The concept of followership is defined, and followers’ responsibilities and the attributes of effective and not so effective followers are explored.

Chapter 4 offers an insight into congruent leadership theory (Stanley 2006a, b, 2008, 2011, 2014). This theory of leadership was developed specifically from research exploring clinically focused leadership as it relates to health professionals, which is outlined in this chapter. Congruent leadership is promoted in this book as a valuable way to gain an understanding of how clinical leaders lead and why clinical leaders are seen as leaders. Examples of clinical leadership applied to congruent leadership are offered, as is a discussion about the strengths and limitations of the theory. Moreover, the relationship of congruent leadership to change, innovation, power and quality is considered.

Chapter 5 offers a discussion of the difference between management and leadership, suggesting that managers and leaders are driven and governed by a different set of values and beliefs, goals and objectives. The differences between management and leadership outlined here make it clear that while a manager may be an effective leader and a leader may be an effective manager, their diverse drives, motivators and objectives may in fact make it very difficult for one professional to hold both sets of responsibilities successfully. Most significantly, the differences may be most evident in relation to the values that drive clinically focused health professionals, therefore attempting to combine these different roles may lead to internal conflict and ineffective care (Stanley 2006c, 2011).

So Part I aims to explore clinical leadership, leadership theory, followership, congruent leadership and the difference between leadership and management. It will outline the characteristics, qualities and attributes of clinically...