Leadership and Management

Question

In this assignment, you are expected to demonstrate the higher-level academic skills of analysis synthesis and evaluation of the resident literature associated with the topic. Therefore, in your assignment, you need to give careful consideration of the following guidance.  – introduce the assignment outline the areas that you address.  – within the body of the assignment, you may wish to define key concepts relevant to the topic such as, entrepreneur.  – nursing entrepreneurship, innovation, and scope of entrepreneurship.  – within the body of the assignment, you need to explore the concept of nursing entrepreneurship and the need for its application within health care.  – discuss the characteristic of an effective nursing entrepreneur and their effects on health care.  – analyze the challenges nursing entrepreneurs face when leading change in health care.  – evaluate strategies that support the advancement of nursing entrepreneurship in the transformation of health care.  – in your conclusion, carefully draw together the key points if your assignment, making a judgment on the evidence discussed to support the needed foe effective entrepreneur in nursing within a changing and challenging environment.

Answer

Name of Student

Name of Professor

Nursing paper

6 February 2016.

Leadership and Management

            The nursing industry is a crucial sector whose main aims are the promotion of health; care for the sick; prevention of suffering among the sick, disabled, and old; and maintenance of the high quality of life. Leadership and management are necessary skills in nursing and even though the two are sometimes used to mean the same thing, leadership and management are two separate skills. Leadership involves innovation, creativity, visualization, and motivation. In contrast, management involves administration based on a set guidelines and the implementation of systems and strategies. In most sectors today, management and leadership are complementary and should go together (Sullivan 58). They are of equal importance, such that success depends on the ability to create a balance between the two.

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            In nursing entrepreneurship and innovation, leadership and management entails developing ideas, developing skills, and acquiring the necessary resources to effect the idea. The first step is to understand the meaning of entrepreneurship and innovation in relation to nursing. Secondly, it is important to identify the need for nursing entrepreneurship by first identifying nursing challenges and solutions required. It is equally important for nurse entrepreneurs to develop effective skills and characteristics exhibited by general entrepreneurs and to understand the main challenges that are specific to their entrepreneurial efforts. Finally, an analysis of strategies to support the growth of nursing entrepreneurship can create a clearer platform for health sector transformation.

            The global entrepreneurship wave has focused on and favored other sectors such as technology and finance. In this light, nursing entrepreneurship is not well understood. For the longest time, the nursing sector has been neglected, disrespected, and ignored. Most people definitely appreciate the great role nurses play by maintaining quality of life and providing comfort to the sick and elderly (Marquis 20). However, many of them, including some in the nursing profession, rarely visualize nursing in an entrepreneurial light. This is quite ironical considering the level of skill nurses have to offer in the health sector. The health care industry is in need of many reforms, most of which will depend on entrepreneurship as opposed to bureaucracies to effect change. There are numerous opportunities for nurse entrepreneurs: nurse education, specialization education, leadership and management education, medical computer systems, health products, and medical equipment.

            As a matter of fact, nursing entrepreneurship should incorporate a balance between business skills, financial skills, communication skills, and nursing skills. Nursing is essentially a very traditional practice and as a result, it continues to implement traditional guidelines to date. All the same, the profession has greatly evolved from a home-based practice, dominated by women and necessitated by religion and wars, to a more sophisticated health facility-based practice that promotes gender equality and specializes on a wide range of health sectors (Kelly 110).

            Nevertheless, the health sector is in need of drastic reforms if it is to progress. Amidst all the technological and knowledge development taking the world by storm, the medical sector remains mostly unchanged. Despite the strengthened medical research, no substantial progress can be identified with the sector. These reforms can only be effected by entrepreneurship. For example, nursing home packages are experiencing growing demand that still remains largely unexploited. Many people now prefer home recuperation to extended hospital confinement. At the same time, medical and admission expenses are extremely expensive with a possibility of accumulating massive bills for a short stay in hospital. For these reasons, people will get treatment in hospital then proceed home to recuperate on prescribed medication and under the supervision of a hired nurse (Sullivan 58). Research has even suggested that patients attain good health faster in more comfortable conditions such as at home as opposed to the hospital (Sullivan 58). This is because of the comfort and honest care they receive from family members. However, family members may not be available all the time and even when they are, they may not have all the medical skills required even at a basic level. For this reason, nurses are hired monitor the patients and supervise the family members’ mode of handling them.  

            Similarly, the elderly are in need of nurses to care for them with a view to improve quality of life. Most families now prefer to have their elderly family members stay with them at home as opposed to residency in elderly homes. The elderly population enjoys time spent with family members in a home setting a lot. In most cases, they have extra health needs and require a helping hand to move around, accomplish tasks, and take medication. Nurses are also hired at home to take care of them while still keeping them close to family members. For the elderly who also prefer to live in elderly homes or are forced by circumstances, nurses are also deployed to work full-time in such institutions. A look at these needs should push a vibrant nurse entrepreneur to capitalize on the resulting opportunities and create home-based nurse provision services. Home care nurses are in great demand, and there is an expected increase in demand for specialized home care nursing skills.

            Another need for nurse entrepreneurship is to solve the skill and information gaps which significantly affect the nursing sector today. A keen entrepreneur can instantly spot this opportunity and exploit it. The general health standards today appear lower than they were half a century ago. This is despite the emergence of numerous healthy dieting and exercise campaigns. Many people continue to suffer ailments or die from dietary and lifestyle diseases. Nurses therefore need to be trained on new and emerging areas such as these as well as other specialty areas from the perspective of entrepreneurship.

One way to develop one’s entrepreneurial abilities is to think in terms of nursing specialization areas which include pediatric nursing, oncology nursing, occupational health nursing, obstetric nursing, psychiatric nursing, holistic nursing, genetic nursing, forensic nursing, and management nursing. Even with all these specialization areas, it is rudely shocking to realize that the number of nurses whose professional and entrepreneurial abilities match these specialties is very low (Finkler 60). This need should be acted upon by nurse entrepreneurs, for example by providing nurse training and specialization courses. The information sector is vibrant across all sectors and learning new skills has become extremely important to ensure relevance. The greatest advantage for nurse entrepreneurs pursuing these opportunities is the ease of information development and dissemination. This means that a nurse specialization course can easily reach a large group of people separated by time and geographical barriers all at the same time.     

            In addition to this, nursing management education is essential during this period of transition to entrepreneurship. Nursing managers should be taught about effective administration and the need to ensure that tasks are accomplished in a systematic manner. At the same time, nurse leaders need exposure to skills on how to influence employees to a point where they understand the company’s vision and are motivated to fulfill their professional responsibilities. Leadership and management insufficiency is perhaps the most crucial underlying issue that hinders development in the health sector (Kelly 73). More important is the need to coordinate leadership and management for optimal results in nursing entrepreneurship.    

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As an illustration, nurse entrepreneurship can be applied in all the aforementioned specialization areas. To begin with, pediatric nursing involves working with young infants and perhaps growing with them as well as with their parents. Oncology nurses deal with cancer patients and their families in both treatment and health education. Occupational health nurses work with organizations that assess risks to come up with plans to neutralize health risks and deal with them when it arise. On the other hand, holistic nursing which combines modern treatments with alternative forms of healing is increasingly gaining global recognition. These illustrations demonstrate the diversity of the nursing industry, and by extension the multiplicity of nursing entrepreneurial opportunities (Marquis 60).

            One area where nurse entrepreneurship can thrive is medical equipment purchasing and supply. Many nurses spent a lot of their time making contact medical equipment. Thus, they understand their effectiveness or ineffectiveness. They offer a great opportunity for nurses who may want to start their own medical equipment businesses as suppliers of health facilities. At the same time, management services in healthcare are in great demand today due to the need for faster, technologically sophisticated management systems. Just like regular entrepreneurs across other fields, nurse entrepreneurs also need to possess and develop certain skills if their goal is to prosper in their field. Nurse entrepreneurs have to be leaders and managers, they have to acquire great interpersonal skills, communication skills, creativity, analysis, critical thinking, learning speed, patience, flexibility and very futuristic.  

In this regard, it is worthwhile to point out that interpersonal and communication skills go hand in hand. The high level of daily interaction with different patients greatly enhances nurses’ communicative abilities. Most successful entrepreneurs appreciate the importance of this skill to the point where they regard it as a critical success factor. Communicative abilities create opportunities through sharing opportunities with other stakeholders in the profession (Kelly 67).  Negotiation which is inescapable in entrepreneurship relies on communication confidence and hacks. Successful entrepreneurs tend to focus strongly on the need for them to support their ideas fervently. In most such occasions, the greatest and most confident communicators emerges victorious. Interpersonal and social skills are important in efforts to maintain relevance in all entrepreneurial aspects of nursing. Thus, it is important to understand different personalities and ways of getting along with them.

            Additionally, creativity is in fact the source of entrepreneurship. It is through creativity that nurse entrepreneurs who have identified challenges can then come up with practical solutions in the form of ingenious business models. Creativity arises from exposure and passion about one’s professional qualifications, talents, and skills. This means that creativity can be somewhat influenced and improved by nurses who endeavor to become entrepreneurs. Other qualities of analysis and critical thinking can complement these abilities. Entrepreneurship involves deep thinking and analysis especially during decision making. An entrepreneur therefore needs to have clarity, quick analysis of factors to make decisions that will be beneficial.

            At the same time, nursing entrepreneurs need to exhibit qualities of learning speed and flexibility. The world is going through an information revolution; the internet has boosted and propelled the informatics sector to a point of information overload. An entrepreneur should be able to discern relevant information and quickly learn about ways of providing services that are necessitated by its availability (Sullivan 40). Acquiring many different skills in a short time is crucial to be able to keep up with the fast transformation the world is experiencing. Flexibility to new influencing factors and people is perhaps the most invaluable skill at a time when everything is changing extremely fast.

            Financial and investing skills are also very important for entrepreneurship and business sustainability. A good nursing venture should be founded on a sound financial system with efficient financial professionals (Marquis 103).  At the same time, the nurse entrepreneur should have at least a basic financial knowledge base for quick and accurate decision making.

            The nursing sector experiences challenges which often translate into problematic areas for nursing entrepreneurs. Examples of these challenges include nurse shortage and high nurse turnover. However, the issue of nurse shortage is controversial considering arguments indicating the real problem is that of workforce surplus (Marquis 80). With both sides of the argument carrying considerable, it is difficult to get a clear idea about reality on the ground. Nevertheless, some views in this regard are worth stating. For instance, despite the large numbers of nursing graduates, most of them seem to remain unemployed because of lack of specialization. The result is a surplus in nurse graduates and a shortage in qualified and specialized nursing graduates. This inaccuracy may render nurse entrepreneurs unsure of the directions in their efforts to tap into the available workforce during entrepreneurial service delivery.

            Furthermore, lack of financial sustainability also poses a major problem in nursing entrepreneurship. In many situations, public health workers and nurses are paid average amounts even though nurses tend to be overworked. This situation poses two challenges. Firstly, nursing is undervalued and so is nursing entrepreneurship. Secondly, nurses rarely end up in a safe financial position to invest money and take financial risks through business ventures. Inadequate capital has over time become the biggest limitation to entrepreneurship. This situation is worsened by the fact that nursing is undervalued and not seen as an investment opportunity by many potential investors. Nursing entrepreneurs are then locked out of external investment and since their salaries cannot support both themselves and the enterprises they set up, and hence end up giving up (Finkler 78).

            As if financial challenges do not pose a big enough barrier, nurse entrepreneurs are also victims of sectoral neglect. While other sectors like technology receive massive support and incentives, the health system still lingers on old systems whose level of effectiveness is in question.  This means that potential nursing entrepreneurs end up opting to invest in other much popularized industries. The nursing sector is missing out on people who would have become great entrepreneurs but ended up turning to other sectors that offer better alternative business models.

Similarly, many entrepreneurship-oriented nurses are further discouraged by the risky work conditions such as exposure to pathogens and injuries. Nurses are visibly overworked and on call at any time. Lack of an effective business-organization framework to support this professional model has caused these situations which instantly scare people away from the profession and its immense business potential. For instance, poor relationships between nurses and doctors are caused by poor organization and management. This is disadvantageous to nursing entrepreneurship because many nurses are reluctant to rely on doctors in their ventures. There is no doubt that doctors have a wider scope of medical information nurses desperately need. If nurses were able to form a standing relationship with doctors, then the combine effort between doctors and nurses would produce even greater entrepreneurial outcomes (Kelly 67).

            As entrepreneurs, nurses should thrive on identifying challenges and moving to the next logical step – solving them. There is an effective solution to each of the aforementioned challenges.  The biggest problem which encompasses leadership, management, and organization should be addressed from the basic level. Reforms have to be made from the law and governance level all the way to individual nurses. Legal and national financial institutions should re-evaluate compensation for these health workers. Moreover, public policy has to consciously work to improve the general image associated with nursing. A well-organized leadership is sure to be a starting point or change. At the health facilities, nurses need to take responsibility and have an ethical practice. Nurse leaders and managers should come forth and outline their roles and goals. In this way, an organized hierarchy will demonstrate a well-defined set of standards to identify with and live by.

            The government must also find strategies to entice investors by rebranding the nursing industry. It should lead the way in offering financial support to nursing entrepreneurs (Finkler 78). This can be done directly or by means of leadership and specialization training. On their part, individual nurses have to allocate time to self-study on leadership, management, and entrepreneurship. The most commonly known leadership styles in the field of nursing include authoritarian, transformational, democratic, and laissez-faire. The democratic style is widely preferred due to its high level of adaptability. It is characterized by an open-door policy where juniors are able to express themselves to the leaders so that the leaders are able to make decisions not only in their might but after careful analysis of the nurses’ thoughts while incorporating his or her on thoughts. This style is effective, promotes satisfaction and encourages participation for change and action.

            Equally important is the need for the adoption of soft skills among nurses who hope to become entrepreneurs in their fields at some point during their careers. Relationships between nurses themselves; nurses and patients; and nurses and doctors should all be handled distinctively. All nurses have to be accorded equality and respect and reflect these to their fellow nurses. A harmonious nursing network provides a sound support system which is a harbor for entrepreneurial advancement. Nursing unions are also important platforms for information dissemination. Nurses should seek to use them to acquire alternative opportunities in efforts to defend themselves against oppression by employers.  Nurse and patient relationships have to be strengthened up for ethical reasons. An ideal starting point is the nurturing of the nurse-doctor bond. For an unknown reason, there has always been an unspoken rivalry between doctors and nurses. Often, doctors feel superior to nurse and this causes extreme antagonism from the latter. The solution would instead be to merge their experiences and expertise and create health enterprises. Innovation is necessary for the creation of newer, more efficient structures, systems, and entrepreneurial marvels.

            Undoubtedly, these entrepreneurial marvels can become a reality at a time like now when the nursing sector is undergoing numerous changes. For example, the level of sectoral recognition today is higher than in the past. As entrepreneurship continues to be promoted the world over, nurses can take advantage of emerging entrepreneurial opportunities to establish footholds for their enterprises. With qualities such as excellent communication, persistence, adaptability, and decision making, these nurses should be able to succeed.

According to Marquis, there are many needs in the nursing industry that still remains unmet in terms of service delivery (Marquis 47). For nurse entrepreneurs, the perfect opportunity from spotting these needs, evaluating them, and determining the right business model through which services are to be provided. Nurse entrepreneurs thus have to identify factors specific to their location and develop solutions that work within those contexts.  A good example is that of a well-developed country which may have more options for specialization compared to a developing country where focus is on general health. Thus, the entrepreneurial opportunities that are available for a nursing entrepreneur in a third world country may differ significantly from those of his/her counterpart in a developed country.

            In conclusion, the solution in the development of nurses’ entrepreneurship abilities lies in their ability to enhance various professional and business skills. Once a mastery of the two elements has been accomplished, the field of nursing entrepreneurship can easily undergo tremendous improvement. Nurses offer vital services, and this reality translates into virtually endless entrepreneurial opportunities for these professionals. Thus, there are high prospects of future growth in nursing entrepreneurship. With hardworking nurses, a protective government, entrepreneurship-oriented laws, financial support, and favorable public policies, a complete turnaround can be experienced in the contemporary practice of nursing entrepreneurship.

Works Cited

Finkler, Steven A. Financial Manaement for Nurse Management. Philadelphia: Elsevier Health Sciences, 2012. Print.

Kelly, Patricia. Nursing Leadership and Manaement. New York: Delmar Cengage Learning, 2011. Print.

Marquis, Bessie L. Leadership Roles and Management Functions In Nursing. New York : Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2014. Print

Sullivan, Eleanor J. Effective Leadership and Management in Nursing. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2012. Print.