Critical Evaluation of Teamwork, Leadership, and Delegation in Nursing Practice

Introduction

The purpose of this report is to discuss and analyse the concept of teamwork, leadership, and delegation skills in the context of current nursing practice, as well as the effects of poor practices on the safety of patients as well as the quality of care. It will start with a critical evaluation, using available literature and current healthcare occurrences, analysing leadership theories, relevant ideas, and insights for nursing. Subsequently, a discussion about the role experience of an individual during the placement reveals how delegation and its impact on patient care is carried out. The report will further elaborate on the skills attained during nursing education concerning the healthcare setting with the view of emphasizing how it enhances patients care delivery and supports contemporary cross-disciplinary teamwork. It comprises two parts: an essay critically evaluating the approach to a current event as well as a personal experience of delegation during the placement. The topics are important as they encompass the principles of nursing practice, which determine the safety of the patients, the quality of the care delivered and the health outcome of the population. Knowledge and use of these competencies are crucial in ensuring nursing professionals respond appropriately to current and emerging realities in healthcare organisations to provide quality patient-centred care.

PART 1: Commentary

1.Context

Leadership is the process by which a manager directs and encourages subordinates and others to accomplish organizational objectives and maintain high-quality patient care. Management is the process of organizing, controlling, directing and coordinating people and other forms of resources in an organization to meet healthcare goals and objectives (Ellis, 2022). Teamworking involves the utilisation of collective efforts by members of the healthcare staff to provide a complete package of care that harnesses the specialty of each individual (Ellis, 2022). A delegation primarily refers to the distribution of tasks to different team members (Cummings et al., 2021). A particular task is given to a particular person who is assumed to possess the right skills and knowledge on the issue at hand. Leadership and management play crucial roles in nursing and healthcare since they are likely to shape patient results and care outcomes. Organisational leadership maintains and enhances positive organizational culture, encourages professional growth as well as pushes for improved performing standards (Hult et al., 2023). It ensures that resources are well utilized, and proper strategies are implemented in the delivery of care. In the context of the UK, the concepts of leadership and management in the nursing field have gradually gained significance, with numerous studies focusing on their appreciable relevance to improving patient outcomes, promoting staff satisfaction and reducing burnout among nurses (Cummings et al., 2021; Hult et al., 2023).

The concepts have been further supporting the distributed leadership model, which involves the distribution of leadership roles and responsibilities across all the staff as practised in most of the NHS institutions to enhance shared accountability and practice development. Amidst the prevailing health reforms that emphasize the critical role of a team of professionals in psychiatric care, this shift is of pivotal importance to mental health nursing. Such activities include the application of digital health solutions; improvement of mental health learning programs; and ensuring that patient-centric care delivery is supported by best practices (Aydogdu, 2023). In mental health nursing education, such developments are designed to meet the requirements of the mental nurses practice, which includes individual patient care plans and focus on interpersonally based therapeutic models (Aydogdu, 2023). As much as the NHS aims at developing operational models, standards, and commitments, it implements mechanisms of genuine collaborative leadership and state-of-the-art management with the ultimate goal of enhancing patient and client outcomes and guaranteeing patient and service user involvement and directedness in mental health care services (Elkomy et al., 2020).

2.Discussion

2.1.Importance of Leadership

One of the most high-profile cases evidenced by the UKs National Health System relates to a nurse, Lucy Letby, who was convicted of murdering several infants in her care and superior failure in leadership and governance. This case has also led to a push for leadership as one of the top priorities to foster safety and responsibility within a hospital. Likewise, the Ockenden report on maternity services at Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust reported that leadership and management were lacking in many ways which caused the deaths and harm that were preventable; this shows the importance of strong leadership to help create a culture to train, learn and improve (NHS Culture, 2022; Cauldwell et al., 2023).

Research conducted by the parliamentary group Public Accounts Committee (PAC) (2019) showed that mental health issues in children and young people were a severe unmet need and that leadership was urgently needed to address service deficiencies and provide timely and suitable care (House of Commons, 2018). This report wanted the leaders to provide leadership in mental health, enhance health resource management, and introduce reforms that would address the increasing need. The Care Quality Commissions (2018) Opening the Door to Change report also highlighted the need for a leadership-led safety culture transformation in NHS and underlined the need to provide healthcare organizations with strong leaders that can and would, manage to create positive change throughout the organisation (NHS Culture, 2022).

Managing a unit in mental health nursing presents several challenges due to the social misconception concerning people with mental issues or disorders and the special attentiveness of these patients. Such inquiries as the Mazars review (2015) on Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust's ability to deal with mortality imply the relevance of accountability, and good governance together with sound leadership to protect patients rights and guarantee the quality of service delivered (NHS England, 2015). The Francis report provides essential findings concerning the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust and leadership failings, and it remains a powerful statement calling for fundamental change and the importance of reframing patient-centred care, openness and the underlying responsibility of leaders in NHS for providing good practice (UK Parliament, 2013).

2.2.Leadership and Management Theories in Nursing Practice

Transformational: Transformational leadership emphasizes organizational change and development to achieve goals by persuading employees to go beyond their capacity. Studies have found that transformational leaders can do four things, including the ability to illustrate a clear vision, persuade the subordinates towards that vision, stimulate intelligence and encourage subordinates to consider others needs (Alanazi et al., 2022; Sulosaari et al., 2022; Aydogdu, 2023b). This leadership style is valuable within the context of nursing, specifically mental health nursing, which requires ideas for change and other reasons to enhance patient care (Aydogdu, 2023b). Such leaders are known to work towards making the people in the team adopt a critical thinking perspective as well as constantly developing new ideas to improve the system. This approach is also compatible with the functioning of most MDTs, which rely on a collection of professionals to integrate expertise and come up with holistic strategies for addressing the needs of the patient (Sulosaari et al., 2022).

Servant: Servant leadership involves a focus on how the leader can provide service to other members of the team by meeting their needs and assisting them in achieving their potential. Servant leaders demonstrate respect for the people they lead, and they have traits such as listening, building trust, and others, ensuring that the employees within that organisation feel valued and encouraged (Chang et al., 2023). For instance, in mental care services, where compassion and unity play a paramount role, the adoption of the servant leadership approach can help improve the health, as well as stability, of the nursing workforce and patient population. This leadership style promotes trustful patient-physician relationships, then makes it possible for the MDTs to approach the patients with comprehensive treatment plans that not only focus on the physical aspect of illness but also include the emotional and social aspects as well (Pezaro et al., 2024).

Transformational leadership has a strong focus on change and performance, while Servant Leadership is based on the betterment of personnel. Although these two leadership styles are contrasting, they can be used cohesively in nursing practice to have a balance of both systems. For instance, when a mental health nurse leader decides to adopt transformational leadership to encourage the generation of new ideas on treatment, he or she may decide to adopt servant leadership to make the subordinates feel empowered. Such leadership styles when used synergistically in a manner within the multidisciplinary teams will lead to better team dynamics and vice versa leading to improved patient outcomes. The combination of the aspects of transformational leadership, particularly the aspects that involve vision and innovativeness, combined with the more human aspects of servant leadership provide a coherent and viable theoretical approach to leadership in mental health nursing.

2.3.Role of leadership for practice improvement

Leadership is pledged to oversee and facilitate the translation of excellence into practice, support and pursue patient safety, and champion the established culture for ongoing innovation (Mrayyan et al., 2023). Strategic interventions like adopting fibre optics health, telemedicine, or other digital health technologies, the development of enhanced training curricula that will allow patient care teams to better recognise preventable errors or adverse occurrences and then prevent them also enhance safety (Kok et al., 2022). It maintains the quality of care given by adopting standardized processes and treatment care plans or pathways. Another advantage of strong leadership is in the maximisation of coordinated and systematic working of the practitioners within the different organized multi-disciplinary teams as this enhances identification of how best to deploy every multi-professional team member to guarantee all-round, complete and integrated clients care (Mrayyan et al., 2023).

2.4.Theoretical Concepts in MDTs

Some of the theoretical perspectives that help in comprehending team working within multidisciplinary teams include cohesiveness and values, concerning communication and cooperation being vital characteristics of MDTs. One of the significant aspects that directly relates to the understanding of team dynamics is the identification of roles, interpersonal relationships and their interaction (Zumstein?Shaha & Grace, 2022). Hypothesised factors of values include patient autonomy, cooperation among staff as well as gain. The catalyst to cooperation includes flexibility, politeness, and respect among others (Zumstein?Shaha & Grace, 2022). Leadership needs to include role modelling as it creates and establishes expectations in the workplace and enhances workplace culture. Scholars often use networking skills to foster professional relationships, share information and get acquainted with various personalities and resources (Alanazi et al., 2022; Zumstein?Shaha & Grace, 2022). It influences patient safety and quality by ensuring that every involved team member gives and receives relevant information and takes appropriate responsibility for the safety of patients and their wellbeing as well as providing overall cross-disciplinary, safe and complete patient care.

2.5.Concept of Delegation in Nursing

It is a leadership and management technique that denotes proactively assigning work and orally assigning responsibilities to people within an organization or an MDT to increase the productivity of a team. Delegation is the assignment of work to other people, and it calls for effective coordination, communication, and belief in other people as well as an understanding of the talents/skills of other employees (Putri & Tri Afandi, 2023). Effective delegation affects patient safety and quality of care, staff well-being, making it possible for qualified persons to do a task and efficient distribution of workload. Some of the key things that should be considered in delegations include when delegating, one needs to be clear, take responsibility and continuously monitor the process, otherwise they are always likely to result in misunderstandings, resistance to change from some members, and possible protraction from putting too much of a burden on some individuals (Crevacore et al., 2022). Consistent with the NMC guidelines, the role of a nurse entails fair delegation as well as, assessing the delegated work to ensure it falls within the scope of the delegate (Putri & Tri Afandi, 2023). Through these, it is possible to protect the patient as well as ensure that the patient receives quality care and the nurse is competent in performing practice.

2.6.Digital Technology/IT in Healthcare

The modern use of digital technology and IT involves EHRs, telemedicine, HIEs, and CDSSs in the healthcare setting. These technologies enhance the accumulation, storage and transfer of digital data in healthcare facilities (Laukka et al., 2022; De Santis et al., 2023). IT leadership and new applications in the delivery of health services promote quality care and patient safety through proper and timely flow of information. Promisingly, the general application of IT can contribute to the operation of MDT by improving relations and cooperation among the healthcare staff (Laukka et al., 2022). Technologies such as real-time data analysis as well as tele-measuring enhance patients conditions and/or facilitate the managing of patients procedures thus strengthening the role of digital information exchange as a healthcare platform (De Santis et al., 2023).

2.7.Gap in Healthcare: Lack of support for newly joined/qualified nurses

Currently, there is a big problem in promoting newly qualified nurses in mental health areas, where stress is high and nurse turnover is frequent (Mammen et al., 2023). For my Year 3 innovation project, I will design an Organizational Mentorship Plan to try to fill this particular void.

Steps for Year 2:

• Placement: Examine existing support models, collect new nurses perceptions, and find out what is lacking.

• University: This research will focus on the following sources Research articles for mentorship models, Conduct leadership and mentorship workshops, and Consult with faculty members.

2.7.1.Action Plan

Part 2: Year 1 Reflection

Placement Experience

In the course of an assignment in a mental health clinic, I experienced a situation where a patient was provoked and developed an aggressive act of speaking with one of the members of the nursing staff and even dragged him to the ground. On perceiving the ravings of the unfortunate patient, the team immediately sprung to action; some of the nurses settled him down, while others shielded the rest of the patients and staff members from harm. In the same year, the team did well in the experience by maintaining order, speaking and working together as a team to contain the situation. One thing that was admirable about the situation was the immediacy and interprofessional cohesion displayed by the nurses. In their roles, the nurse and the physical therapist gave direct care to the patient and the patients wife; the social worker communicated the teams plan of care to the other team members; two security officers remained vigilant to the safety of the team and the patient. some areas may have lacked appropriate attention in this process and should have been given more emphasis to prevent the patients condition from declining to the stage where he started becoming agitated. What I gleaned from this specific encounter I had is the value of teamwork in health care especially during emergencies (Bearman et al., 2023). Hospitals, care units, and individual workers need to collectively adopt responsive and accountable approaches towards successful collaborative communication to ensure patient safety and quality healthcare delivery (Bearman et al., 2023). When I was a nursing student, I want to be able to say that despite the challenges encountered and the stress caused by the environment stated above, I am happy that I have learned that the nurse is indeed a superior being with intricate accountability in the continuum of the flow of care, patient advocacy, and protection of the safety of every client.

Reflection on Task Delegation

A situation I encountered during my Year 1 placement was being entrusted with the role of giving medication to a patient with the supervision of a registered nurse. Delegation was done in the sense that one had to understand the specific message from the nurse on the medication dosage, the route on how it will be administered and any details about the patient. To ensure that the patient was the right patient and that the medication administered corresponded to the name of the patient to avoid cases of harming the wrong patient, patient safety and medication administration policy was followed. An effective strategy employed in this case was the absence of ambiguous instructions from the registered nurse to me. The nurse was further pleasing in the manner in which they explained all the procedure details and availed herself to offer further clarifications in case I had any questions or issues to raise. Also, I received encouragement with regards to the role I was assigned and I believed that I could easily execute the work well. More specifically, I feel that in the course of the particular assignment, some specific questions could have been asked to gain more information about medication administration, including possible side effects or other conditions, under which the medication should not be administered.

Conclusion

Teamwork, leadership, and delegation play critical roles in managing care and achieving quality outcomes in a nursing practice setting. The theoretical background, as well as the consequences, of developing these skills have been described in detail in Part 1, while Part 2 considers a real-life example of delegation in practice. As evidenced by both parts, these competencies are important for maintaining patient safety and improving quality and safety in healthcare organizations.

Implement comprehensive training programs: Healthcare organizations should formulate and practise effective training strategies and methodologies that increase the aspects of teamwork, leadership and delegation amongst the nursing staff. These programs should combine didactic and applied theoretical concepts and correspondingly attach the necessary competencies to amazing potential obstacles in the structures of modern healthcare facilities to nurses.

Foster a culture of continuous learning: Garner support from their member nurses/nursing leaders to continue developing their education; participate in mentorship and get comments from their superiors. This is useful in creating a conducive atmosphere in which the nurse is allowed, encouraged and is indeed expected to advance as a professional and assist in providing excellent service delivery to patients.

Strengthen interdisciplinary collaboration: Enhance interprofessional relations, which encompass the cooperation of healthcare groups to guarantee effective communication and coordination and the consequent enhancement of patients experience. Promote the exchange of ideas through operational communications that allow team members to discuss their experiences, share information, and solve problems together. This increases coordination, reduces omissions and commissions, and promotes the implementation of a coherent and effective patient-centred model of care.

Are you struggling to keep up with the demands of your academic journey? Don't worry, we've got your back!
Exam Question Bank is your trusted partner in achieving academic excellence for all kind of technical and non-technical subjects. Our comprehensive range of academic services is designed to cater to students at every level. Whether you're a high school student, a college undergraduate, or pursuing advanced studies, we have the expertise and resources to support you.

To connect with expert and ask your query click here Exam Question Bank