Gerontological nursing is a specific field that must consider the age of the patients. Moreover, multiple factors have to be included when building the plan for caring for senior adults. This field is patient-based, but nurses can take into consideration family members as active participants. Furthermore, intentional learning can be applied in regards to learning about the specific strategies used when working with older patients.
For example, cultural aspects, therapeutic conversations, evidence-based models, and safety practices depend on each individual in particular. Nurses may work individually or as a team, but the preferences of the person in question must be considered in complex with safety practices widely applied in medicine. Quality gerontological care is a symbiosis of multiple different variables that have to be implemented for patient satisfaction and effective treatment and care.
Gerontological nursing has been analyzed in regards to effective leadership styles and methods of care that are most effective for this particular medical field. Researchers have different opinions about this topic, but there are similarities when it comes to the overall scope of the implementations. In terms of leadership, one of the most effective leadership styles in organizations and institutions is transformational leadership. Researchers refer to transformational leadership as effective in gerontological nursing due to the implications of team motivation and conflict mitigation (Fiset et al., 2017).
Nurses may experience burn-out and low morale if working for long hours or experiencing difficulties with particular patients. Transformational leaders tend to ameliorate such issues and create a positive work environment. Moreover, employees with high job satisfaction are more likely to provide patients with high-quality care. Other researchers suggest innovative leadership as a successful model in the field of care for older adults (Burggraf & Mueller, 2020). Such leaders use innovative tools, methods, and strategies when dealing with medical providers and patients. However, innovative leaders are not as prone to conflict mitigation and team motivation and, instead, focus on new techniques and models that may benefit the facility. Thus, transformational leadership appears to have more benefits.
Differences also occur in the methods of care. For example, the case method is the model in which the healthcare provider is responsible for all the nursing functions that a patient requires. Such individualized strategies have been positively received by patients who prefer this particular tactic (McDaniel et al., 2020). On the other hand, team nursing is rather functional during crises, which was illustrated during the COVID-19 pandemic when multiple nurses were responsible for many patients (Beckett et al., 2021). However, this model does not contribute to the patient-nurse connection that is valuable in gerontological nursing. Thus, the case method is more effective
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