Exploring Leadership and Management in Nursing

Abstract

Leadership and management have remained overlapping concepts in the minds of many. Although managers may never act as leaders, there is no management without leadership. Nurses comprise the largest workforce in health care, and leadership and management roles are fundamental aspects of formal nursing practice. Clinical and specialist teaching and learning approaches for nursing may not provide a reflective orientation to the tasks, roles, or goals of leadership and management that any nurse could face in any clinical environment. Roles for clinical leaders and managers are ripe for analysis, especially concerning the content of their actions and interactions. Nurses practice in a range of communities, in the real aspect of health care right across the continuum of need, and in all kinds of scenarios, including homes, clinics, community health centers, and hospital wards. They offer support and advice during illness and help individuals be as independent and well as possible using community resources and health care. (Health Organization, 2022)(Smiley et al.2021)

Some nurses expand their clinical function and become clinical leaders and managers. Of late, there is evidence of a bias against managers and management. Clinical leaders are thought to be closer to patients, developing and providing care. This paper is aimed at providing nurses with the opportunity to explore the challenges faced by the leaders and managers of the health care sector, dissecting extensive literature inherent in what defines a leader and a manager, and a need to investigate the power and influence leaders may yield for reference in a situational context. The paper is also aimed at aiding leadership and management education, developing nurse attributes for leadership and managerial roles, and empowering and supporting the education reform agenda in the nursing profession for relevance. Moreover, it may be used by policy-making bodies to create strategic policies in health care practice. (Stanley et al., 2022)