Nurse Leadership: Passion or Duty?

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March 2021
 Nurse Leadership: Passion or Duty?

Nursing Leadership refers to the concept of being able to inspire other people for the

purpose of improving the healthcare quality being rendered as well as to facilitate in drawing

directions in planning and execution within clinical care. That is why the fundamental factors of

leadership in nursing includes an environment that has concise and well-planned vision, wherein the

proponents are always motivated and empowered to treat and help patients. Management and

leadership of healthcare professionals is critical for strengthening quality and integration of care

(Sfantuo, 2017). Determining whether Nurse Leadership is a passion or duty is a driving force that

can have significant impact in influencing how a nurse commits within the profession.

Passion: An Added Value. The Role of Passion in the Healthy Workplace.

Values can be abstract and intangible and yet they hold high importance as to how people

live and work. The purpose of this article is to identify passion as an added value in the passionate

and healthy workplace, valuing people for who and what they are. It differentiates between the role

of harmonious and obsessive passion and draws attention to examples of passion thrillers and

passion killers. Leaders who engage in passion thrillers help to positively motivate themselves and

others. They create an environment in which passion is intrinsically drawn from the workforce

building on an organization that is a healthy place to work (Bowen, 2017).

It is a nurse’s ethical duty to help patients. However, such problems as insufficient PPE

and bed crises may lead to moral distress, not to mention physical exhaustion. Long working

hours, shift work, high workload, and other psychosocial hazards can lead to fatigue,

occupational burnout, increased psychological distress, or declining mental health, affecting both

health workers’ health and the quality and safety of care delivered (WHO, 2020). Because of this,

nurses’ moral courage and resilience are most invoked. Nevertheless, the worry remains, how
much longer can nurses stay resilient, and what role do nurse leaders play in ensuring such

resilience? (Zolkefli, 2020)

Conclusion

A nurse leader must ensure that everything is done to protect nurses’ safety and well-

being without compromising patient safety. A nurse leader has a moral duty to build a good

ethical practice climate —in other words, an environment where poor or unethical practices are

not cheered. For example, an overwhelmed staff member can err and potentially injure a patient.

In this instance, the nurse leader is responsible for ensuring fair work delegation to ensure

adequate rest for staff. It is equally crucial for the nurse leader to be open and welcome staff to

share any ethical concerns. So, they do not feel they are walking alone during this crisis. An

appropriate communication climate in the workplace is provided by ethical leaders who have

excellent communication with their followers (Brown & Trevino, 2006; Makaroff et al., 2014).

It is also important to ensure that nurses stay resilient and brave. How can that

commitment be realized? One way is for the nurse leader to model professional conduct and

promote ethical behaviour among nurses. Leaders need to do something to foster an ethical

environment (Makaroff et al., 2014) whose culture makes it clear to staff that ethics matters to

them. Furthermore, a positive environment can be compromised when there are conflicts

between staff members. As much as a win-win situation is the goal, there are times when this is

almost impossible. Ethical leaders must seek to model and foster ethical success (Storch et al.,

2013),

Ultimately, ethical leadership has a positive effect on the nurse leader and the workforce

in most instances. Given the current crisis, it is equally crucial for nurse leaders to take care of

themselves as well. It may always be emotionally and physically challenging to be viewed as a

role model and to behave with dignity. It is important to remember that nursing leaders

themselves are often fragile.

 REFERENCES

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Scott, M., & Bove, L. A. (2020). Nursing Leadership Role Development: Preparing to Lead

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Zolkefli, Y. (2020). ETHICAL LEADERSHIP IN NURSING DURING THE COVID-19

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