Authority and Power at the Workplace.
In my nursing profession and practice in the healthcare setup, I have always felt the real authority and power accorded to me. I believe I have the positional authority being the nurse manager and the shift coordinator in my unit. With this positional authority, I have always s displayed working through my team and staff. This has occurred through creating a conducive environment that permits my team to work efficiently by ensuring all the equipment needed for patient care are available.
Moreover, being the holder of the positional authority, I have always shared this power with my staff and delegating to them other duties so that they can also feel being part of the authority being exercised (Grohar-Murray, DiCroce & Langan, 2016). I did this sine the authority is not centralized but working together with other and leading through them since the authority was passed to us by Jesus himself. In Mathew28:18-19, Jesus said to his disciples, “I have been given the authority in heaven and on earth. Go then to all people and make them my disciples.” It is therefore evident that the authority is not only meant for the leader but can be passed to other persons and this is what has always guided my practice of sharing and delegating tasks to other members.
In many instances, I have always been available for the patients and attending to their needs besides what they receive from the primary nurses. At one moment I would assist a patient feed while at one point I would be educating the patients concerning their conditions and their management as well as their role in achieving better care. Besides, addressing concerns of relatives and visitors seeking information about the care we provide has always been my priority role.
In the above instances, I assumed servant leadership where the achievement of success in the unit is directed and assessed from the service we give and the service users. This is different with the secular view of authority which is more earthly and materialistic. The secular view of power is that of passing orders and ensuring they bar executed with no consideration of how the service out is all about (McIntosh, 2013).
In the same unit that I manage, I have always been a coach and mentor to my staff and mentor to the training nursing st6udents. All have always been to offer better services as a unit to both the nurses, patient and any other person getting served from the unit. I have been teaching the students on various procedures and assisting them to achieve their study objectives. This would then be followed by guidance from my staff to even perfect in this from the other staff members. Being a holder of a degree in nursing and a senior nurse, I have always been as team leader available for any consultation of care from other nurses of the lower cadre.
With my authority, I advocated for, and we embraced an open culture where care of patients in my unit is discussed among the nursing staff as well as other healthcare professionals. This has seen improved quality of nursing care as well as reduction of the medical error from the healthcare team(Weiss & Tappen,2014). As a leader with power in my workplace, a conducive environment has been created which has always enabled my staff to provide the best care and give the best work output which is an indicator of servant leadership that was advocated for by Jesus.
References:
Grohar-Murray, M. E., DiCroce, H. R., & Langan, J. C. (2016). Leadership and management in
nursing. Pearson.
McIntosh, K. (2013). Sacred and Secular Leadership Discourses: Interpreting Leadership in an
Educational Framework. EdD thesis, University of London.
Weiss, S. A., & Tappen, R. M. (2014). Essentials of nursing leadership and management. FA
Davis.
