Leading Nurses and Managing Politics at the Point of Care: An Evidence-Based Approach in the UK

Paper

Saturday, 22 July 2006

This presentation is part of : Creating an Evidence-Based Nursing Environment: Leadership Strategies

Mansour Olawale Jumaa, RN, DProf, CMgr, MBA, BA, FWACN, FRSH, FRSA, The Centre for Business and Social Progress (CBSP), L4T - Leadership For Today (UK) Ltd, Burgess Hill, United Kingdom

Learning Objective #1: 1.Recognize how the clinical nurse is able to lead nursing care while simultaneously managing politics in the care environment.
Learning Objective #2: 2.Understand political priorities in the clinical setting that impact on quality nursing activities

The current UK government has adopted a ‘leadership-for-all’ philosophy. Nurses within the clinical environment are taking full advantage of this situation for maximum impact on improved patient care and services This session is about how nurses, in England, are demonstrating the role of innovative management and leadership technology at the point of care to promote effective clinical nursing services.
A significant message from this session is that the KSFs (Key Success Factors) necessary for the successful delivery of nursing and health care reside with those who provide the services face-to-face with the patient. Therefore, clinical nurses need effective leadership and efficient management capability as well as the know-how to manage politics within the clinical environment
The application of the Clinical Nursing Leadership Learning and Action Process (CLINLAP) Model (Jasper and Jumaa (eds), 2005), within nursing has confirmed widely held views about stakeholder issues. We found that:

Stakeholders groups within the clinical environment are not usually homogenous, even amongst nurses. They tend to come in subgroups each with different interests, expectations and power;
Most stakeholder groups within the clinical environment have large numbers of individuals;
The nursing role and the individual currently occupying it need to be made explicit. Serious omissions in the care processes could occur if this issue of nursing role is ignored.

Examples from two case studies are presented from a surgical and learning disability clinical context. Using the CLINLAP Model, we explain how the clinical nurse is able to lead nursing care while simultaneously managing politics in the care environment. This is because the Model advocates the use of stakeholder mapping through its implementation. This assists the nurse to identify stakeholders’ expectations and power and therefore helping the nurse to understand political priorities that impact on quality nursing activities.
(295 words)

See more of Creating an Evidence-Based Nursing Environment: Leadership Strategies
See more of The 17th International Nursing Research Congress Focusing on Evidence-Based Practice (19-22 July 2006)