Preparation for clinical leadership roles Nursing Leadership Essay

Preparation for clinical leadership roles Nursing Leadership Essay

There is also a concern that many health professionals may not be well prepared to understand the nature of leadership, or take on leadership roles because of the lack of content on leadership in undergraduate course curricula.50 These deficiencies have been recognized by professional organizations and health service providers, especially in light of wide-ranging inquiries into the quality of health services in a number of countries.6,7,8 As a result, there have been efforts made to overcome these deficiencies in the preparation of health professionals. As Gagliano et al comment, there is some evidence that health service provider groups are attempting to address issues pertaining to leadership issues through design and implementation of leadership development programs.51

In the UK, a Medical Leadership Competency Framework (MLCF) has been developed and embraced by professional medical bodies, regulatory authorities, and educational providers.31 Similarly, a Clinical Leadership Competency Framework has been developed from the MLCF for use across all regulated nonmedical clinical professions, with the aim to include competencies into undergraduate, postgraduate, and continuing professional education.52 Ellis et al note that even with the establishment of these frameworks and an acceptance of them as the “gold standard for developmental activities”53 for clinical leadership, other programs in the UK in the literature report an apprentice-style program targeting doctors in training and providing them with experiential learning opportunities with senior medical officers.54 Also,Leeson and Millar describe a leadership program for allied health professionals and nurses working in community and hospital settings in the UK that aims to build individual leadership capacity.55 Such programs running alongside a national approach in some ways epitomizes the complexity of clinical leadership in health care.Nursing Leadership Essay

Other countries have developed education and professional development programs in clinical leadership for doctors, nurses, and allied health professionals working in their respective health systems. Some of these programs have similar features to UK NHS leadership frameworks and associated strategies. For example, in New Zealand medical schools are working to provide leadership training in their undergraduate medical curriculum.56 In Australia, training programs are available to hospital medical registrars in teaching hospitals.57 Opportunities for allied health professionals to engage in clinical leadership development programs offer similar opportunities for capacity building in leadership, especially in postgraduate training.58,59 Nursing Leadership Essay

Globally, the International Council of Nurses identifies leadership as one of the major considerations underpinning their activities and has established a Global Nursing Leadership Institute as a vehicle for these activities.60 In addition to this global approach, local initiatives to enhance clinical leadership have been developed and implemented in a number of countries. Interestingly, while many countries have taken a relatively widespread approach to clinical leadership development, in Australia, New South Wales Health’s response to the Garling report has been the “Take the Lead,” a program developed specifically for NUMs to enhance their clinical leadership skills through professional development activities.61 However, it must be noted that while effective clinical leadership is identified as a key issue to be addressed, and despite a number of strategies designed to enhance clinical leadership, to date there are a lack of studies that show improvements in patient outcomes or outcomes for the health workforce as a result of these strategies. And, as Moscrop comments, “questions persist about what leadership means in medicine”.62 Nursing Leadership Essay