“Effective leadership is putting first things first. Effective management is discipline, carrying it out” (Stephen Covey). Leadership style is a leader’s behavioral approach to influencing, motivating, and directing their followers. A leadership style determines how leaders implement plans and strategies to accomplish given objectives while accounting for stakeholder expectations and the well-being and soundness of their team. There are three major approaches of theories to the study of leadership: the traits or psychological approach, the behavioral approach, and the situational or contingency approach. Leadership is central to all aspects of the nursing role, from managing the delivery of high-quality care to acting as a role model for best practice. Moral forms of leadership, such as ethical, authentic, and servant leadership, have seen a surge in interest in the 21st century (Lemoine et al., 2019). The proliferation of morally based leadership approaches has resulted in theoretical confusion and empirical overlap that mirror substantive concerns with the more prominent leadership domain. The democratic leadership style is the most effective as it encourages everyone to participate in all processes, share their opinions, and know that one will hear them and it also encourages an employee to be engaged as they know one will hear their feedback. This essay will discuss the issue of the nursing shortage and nurse turnover, the approach of nurse shortage and nurse turnover by nurse leaders and managers, and identify the approach that best fits one’s professional nursing philosophy.
At the moment, there is a critical shortage of registered nurses being experienced. Nursing services are in high demand, which seems to exceed the supply, where significant challenges are accruing to hospital administrators as a result. The turnover in nursing has resulted in numerous negative influences on the nurses who have remained in the profession. This has resulted in decreased cohesiveness among the existing units, decreased work satisfaction, increased burden on existing employees, and reduced patient care quality. The nurse turnover rate brings additional costs to relevant facilities in terms of increased costs in hiring, placing, selecting, recruiting, and training new personnel (Yun & Yu, 2021). Various factors contribute to the overall nursing turnover, including scheduled flexibility, clinical staff competency, poor leadership and management skills, work-related stress, the need for recognition, and an aging workforce. The demand for healthcare services is targeted to rise even further due to the aging population. A high percentage of baby boomers are reaching retirement age, and their healthcare need is intensifying. If the shortage of nursing continues, this will deprive the population of quality care as a result. Need for nurse leaders and managers to develop solutions for the shortage and turnover issues is recommended.
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