Leadership and Nursing in Light of Comfort Theory Term Paper

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Leadership and Its Core Values

My belief is that a leader ought to be committed, resilient, adaptable, trustworthy, confident, and fair. Scholars have recognized that what is required of leaders change with their position in the organization. The reason for this is pretty apparent: the nature of the job varies from position to position. There are differences in scope of responsibility, functional activity, complexity, and time horizon for the various jobs in an organization. Mumford, Campion and Morgeson (2007) recommended the Leadership Skills Strataplex of Leadership development. As per the model, higher level jobs require all the skills required by the lower level jobs. Nonetheless, as one moves up in the ladder, some skills are needed more, and grow in importance. Mumford et al. (2007) broadly categorized leadership skills into cognitive, strategic, business, and interpersonal categories (Meuse, Dai & Wu, 2011).

Value-Based Leadership: The values of honesty, integrity and loyalty are certainly expected of most leaders today. It is also expected that most organizations list these values as the values they expect of their employees. While the exact words may not be used, the phrases and words used to discuss such values often describe these values. Core values guide employees as they do their job. They provide the employees with the "how," just as the vision communicates the "why." Values are concerned with the daily behavior of employees, and help them make ethical decisions when they are faced with competing choices. Making the right choice when presented with an ethical dilemma is easier when the values of the organization are clear and well communicated. Not sticking to these values can lead to disastrous results as has been witnessed in corporate collapses in the past (Oedekoven, 2009).

Good leaders want to be perceived as people that stick to the organization's values. They desire their employees to know, comprehend and follow these values. They appreciate the importance of values in any organization and how they drive behavior and conduct. When such values are followed, good products are produced and customers are better served. It leads to effectiveness and efficiency (Oedekoven, 2009).

Comfort Theory

To aid better understanding of comfort theory, the description given shall be divided into three parts. Part 1 says that nurses consider the holistic (environmental, sociocultural, psychospiritual, and physical) patient's comfort needs in all situations. Further, nurses implement a number of interventions so as to accurately measure and meet the needs of patients' comfort levels both before and after the intervention. This part also describes negative and positive variables over which there is very little control, but that can greatly impact the interventions. Part 2 of the theory states that enhanced comfort strengthens the patients to subconsciously or consciously behave in a manner that moves them forward toward good health. Such behaviors are referred to as health-seeking behaviors. They provide a rationale for the implementation of comfort interventions. Such behaviors are associated to Part 3's institutional integrity. The definition applied to institutional integrity is the state or quality of health care organizations as far as being ethical, professional, upright, sound, and complete is concerned (Wilson & Kolcaba, 2004).

Fair

Being fair is one of the traits of leadership expected of nurses. All patients coming to a health facility should be treated fairly. There should be no prejudice whatsoever (Shahriari, Mohammadi, Abbaszadeh & Bahrami, 2013).

Confident

Being confident and being able to make independent decisions is one of the nursing ethical values. Nurses have viewed this as having the right direction in the making of decisions in the areas of administering and suggesting treatments, care or interventions. Being able to make these decisions is a show of confidence and helps the patients feel safer (Shahriari, Mohammadi, Abbaszadeh & Bahrami, 2013).

Trustworthy

Trust is also one of the ethical values in nursing, and is characterized by such traits as honesty in both action and words. Nurses should be able to earn the trust of all people involved during the patient's treatment. The earning of trust, as per the definition given here, arises when the parties involved view the nurse as an honest individual. His or her honesty allows them to view the nurse as someone they can trust to do the job well and who they can rely on for advice (Shahriari, Mohmmadi, Abbaszadeh & Bahrami, 2013).

Adaptable

Several countries of the world have altruism as one of the nursing values. The traits considered in these circumstances are self devotion, selflessness, and providing utmost care to the society, the client and their family (Shahriari, Mohammadi, Abbaszadeh & Bahrami, 2013).

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Resilient

Responsibility and resilience are also considered as nursing ethical values. The traits that define them are commitment, responsibility, and respecting the rights of patients to make decisions. Nurses ought to be responsible and give evidence-based care, apply valid and applicable research, and be accountable for the decisions they make and actions they take (Shahriari, Mohammadi, Abbaszadeh & Bahrami, 2013).

Committed

Nurses are required to be committed in human relationships and be able to show respect, be trustworthy, and be people that can be relied upon. Communication of commitment can be done both verbally and non-verbally. The nurse needs to communicate that they are honest in both practice and words, are able to empathize with the client, and that they are friendly and courteous. Accurate and precise care has been shown as a nursing practice that helps build trust between the nurse and the patient. The care here is multidimensional, appropriate, safe, and precise. This is also thoughtful, given the clinical skills as well as the knowledge required by nurses, so that they can fulfill all the needs of clients, promote good health, and also relieve pain (Shahriari, Mohammadi, Abbaszadeh & Bahrami, 2013).

Relevance to Nursing Practice

Comfort is a positive outcome associated with increased health seeking behaviors as well as positive institutional outcomes (Kolcaba & DiMarco, 2005). Nurses, without knowing it, are constantly making use of the three kinds of comfort mechanisms. They carry out assessments on their patients which cover the environmental, sociocultural, psychospiritual, and the physical needs of patients. They evaluate all that is lacking physiologically in the patient given their condition. A number of physical comfort needs can be effectively treated without resorting to medication. They include itching, shivering, vomiting, nausea, and pain. Nurses may make use of various interventions to assist in the alleviation of such problems, and so increase the satisfaction of patients (Alyssa M. Wolf, n.d.).

Psychospiritual needs include the teaching of motivation and confidence through discomfort. Comfort measures can be implemented by nurses through continued encouragement, caring touch, permitting visitation(s), and massage (Kolcaba & DiMarco, 2005). Sociocultural comfort needs are those needs for positive body language, and cultural sensitive reassurance. These needs can be provided by nurses through giving explanations on various procedures, giving encouragement, coaching, and camaraderie. The patient's environmental comfort needs are comprised of a comfortable and quiet environment. Nurses can assist in the achievement of this by dimming the lights, shutting the doors, and not interrupting the sleeping patient unnecessarily through loud noise or movements in surrounding patient rooms (Kolcaba & DiMarco, 2005).

Nurses make sure there is documentation of the state of the patient before and following the application of comfort measures, to verify whether or not there is improvement in the condition of the patient. Knowing the condition of the patient can give them comfort and so guard against negative outcomes. If the patient is fresh from surgery, the nurse might know of the probability of breakthrough pain. Being aware of this possibility, the nurse will be more attentive when the blood pressure, anxiety, or facial grimacing increases. The nurse may massage the patient to relieve the pain, or administer certain medication to alleviate the pain. It is very important that the nurse is able to determine the appropriate comfort measure to give when a patient is in pain (Wolf, n.d.).

Having patients more comfortable makes them more receptive to health-seeking behaviors. Diabetic patients are more inclined to engage in postoperative exercises, comply more, and engage in exercise regimes if the desired goal is palliative care (March & McComack, 2009, p.10). With the increase of health-seeking behavior, nurses become more satisfied and the quality of care improves; this improves the overall hospital experience, so more patients in the hospital benefit (Wolf, n.d.).

Diversity in healthcare as a leader

The world today requires diversity. However, diversity can take many shapes in the form of practice experiences, ideas, values, perspectives, viewpoints, human capacity, ability, talents, special attributes, religion, socio-economics, physical ability, age, gender, nationality, ethnicity, and race. The United States is very diverse right now and the diversity is increasing every day. This diversity should be captured in the nation's healthcare to some extent (AONE, 2007).

Unequal distribution of resources and power has characterized the American society for some time now. This is reflected in health care in the form of health disparities. The Institute of Medicine's Unequal Treatment confirms this reality. Data is being revealed of deep ethnic and racial….....

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