How Nurse Leaders Can Lead Through Change In Today World

How Nurse Leaders Can Lead Through Change In Today’s World. A write-up everyone ought to know.

Despite technological advancements, healthcare in the United States encounters different challenges. We require nurse leaders to assume management responsibilities.

Even though more than 70% of our country’s nursing workforce reports satisfaction, RNs still suffer from burnout and anxiety.

Introduction to How Nurse Leaders Can Lead Through Change In Today’s World

Some experts have conducted studies that show how the pandemic has worsened the condition of nurses and their patients alike.

The emergence of COVID-19 also rekindled the need to digitize health and help folks access high-quality caregiving through online portals. We don’t have to explore how many changes have occurred in the healthcare industry. How can nurse leaders guide us through these constant changes?

The Importance Of Nurse Leaders In Today’s Health Sector

The healthcare industry has witnessed several changes ever since the beginning of this century. So, from trackers and wearables to robotics and 3D printing, these trends have made medical facilities in the USA more reliable and effective! We expect nurse leaders to serve as “leaders” during these transformations while leveraging their managerial capabilities to navigate subordinates through the ensuing changes.

It enables them to promote health in society, prevent diseases, and diminish medication errors/mistakes.

Moreover, nurse leaders can contribute to the betterment of the healthcare institution holistically while combating on nurses’ behalf as policymakers. That’s why we should produce more nurse leaders today.

So, how do RNs acquire the required abilities to serve as future leaders? Distance learning opportunities can help nurses become effective managers and advance the well-being of diverse populations.

Now, they can acquire digital courses to improve their leadership capabilities. Thus, we suggest pursuing an online nursing master’s to integrate knowledge from diverse sciences to serve as leaders in the health sector.

Many RNs today are willing to bolster their education and undertake managerial positions in healthcare. Here, we’ll discuss how earning this degree helps you guide the health sector through today’s changing medical dimensions. Thus, these are some services nurse leaders must do in the post-pandemic world:

Remaining proactive leaders:

The medical workforce expects nurse leaders to serve as outspoken managers and create proactive solutions to the healthcare industry’s problems. The industry has transitioned to value-based care in the 21st century, increasing coordination among different services and departments. However these changes are accompanied by financial obstacles nurse leaders are expected to resolve.

Thus, taking proactive actions will enable them to create better methods for maximizing their workforce’s hidden potential.

Leaders should realize that they’re in the business of promoting wellness and maintaining societal health. So, they must take proper measures to help RNs survive in this changing universe.

Boosting mental health:

The pandemic hasn’t just accelerated the worldwide adoption of telehealth facilities. Still, it has caused a rise in burnout among nurses as well! Depression endangers an RN’s domestic lifestyle and performance, thereby reducing the quality of caregiving at clinics/hospitals. Statistics reveal that over 30% of quitting nurses did leave because of burnout in 2018.

Leaders must prevent burnout by listening to their workforce and helping them manage their schedules effectively.

Ascertain that RNs aren’t overworking, have created work-life balance, and receive proper treatment options when required. Promoting stress-management methods may also help them endure the pandemic.

Decreasing medical errors:

Medical mistakes aren’t uncommon in the American healthcare system. Studies show that over 80% of RNs have committed these mistakes.

At the same time, one-third of them are “on the verge” of these errors. Unfortunately, almost 250,000 patients annually succumb to medication mistakes. So, nurse leaders can make healthcare more effective and trustworthy by diminishing these mistakes.

They can teach their workforce to display caution and remain vigilant while administering drugs to patients. These practices will ensure that fewer errors take place.

Moreover, further protocols they can implement include decluttering hospitals, verifying every order, and using barcodes to maintain transparency.

Ensuring everyone’s safety:

Nurse leaders should advocate on their workforce’s behalf and ensure that nurses aren’t victims of neglect in the health sector.

In May, the WHO announced that some 115,000 health workers have died from COVID-19 complications. Unfortunately, an NNU survey found that 81% of nurses reused PPEs a year after the pandemic. So, leaders can contribute to policymaking that encourages institutions to invest in proper PPE for RNs.

Last year, these leaders even organized a march to the White House protesting insufficient personal protective equipment. As we’re entering an age of tech now, nurse leaders effectively empower health workers by helping them survive in this field.

Empowering the workforce:

Nurses need to be empowered to survive in this transformative healthcare industry. Studies show that your undervalued workforce observes a decline in performance.

Therefore, nurse leaders must impact decisions and influence changes that effectively enable RNs to adapt to the digitized healthcare industry.

When nurses have their peers’ support and managers’ backing, they can perform better than before and contribute to more effective medical decisions. So, involving nurses in the decision-making process will empower them.

Leaders should also offer constructive feedback and provide leadership development opportunities to their subordinates to create more leaders for the future.

Reducing patient mortality:

One of nurse leaders’ responsibilities involves patient outcomes, increasing patient satisfaction, and probably the most important point reducing patient mortality.

We’ve already talked about many medication mistakes. We’ll also learn that 99,000 patients die of HIAs (hospital-acquired infections) every year as well! So, nurse leaders should implement policies that focus on proper disinfection of clinics/hospitals.

While several factors contribute to patient deaths, leaders can stop these fatalities by regulating the workforce and promoting continuing education programs. It seems like the proper method to make sure that patients receive the optimal caregiving they do deserve.

Adopting disruptive strategies:

Finally, health leaders must consider “healthcare disruption” and its effects on their workforce. So, what do we mean by healthcare disruption? In business, it involves creating products to attract more customers.

In health, it means bringing medical facilities into office settings and even inside a patient’s house. For instance, telehealth and telemedicine are disruptive technologies that enable people to access quality healthcare without leaving their dwellings.

These technologies – or what we call “disruption” – have transformed the shape of the health sector in the United States. Now, it’s up to nurse leaders to help our nurses adjust to this disruption and perform better with automation.

Conclusion

Among the different responsibilities nurse leaders are burdened with, the most crucial one deals with normalizing the digitization of the healthcare industry.

With the emergence of nanotechnology and virtual reality, nurse leaders are responsible for helping their workforce adjust to these changes and preventing performance downfall.

So, nurse leaders should impact decisions and implement policies to decrease medical mistakes, provide PPE for nurses, and improve RNs’ mental health.

Empowering the workforce will enable them to provide better caregiving facilities to patients. That’s why nurse leaders can serve as effective managers by leading through the transformative health sector changes today.

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