Director of Nursing custom essay
Several changes have been taking place in the sector of health worldwide following the current economic challenges in the world. The most developed countries have a various shift in
the demographics of their population, and the number of people living with long-term illness has been increasing in the current generation. According to (Cherry & Jacob, 2016), the occurrence of the unpredictable and dynamic environment demands the health care professionals to demonstrate effective leadership. Director of nursing who is working in various health care facilities have a piece of expert knowledge and complex decision-making skills.
The hospitals and clinics require positive and enthusiastic leaders who are dedicated to
constant improvement. The director of Nursing has the responsibility of overseeing the care of
all the patients within the healthcare facility. Hospitals need directors of nursing who
demonstrate strong leadership and managerial capabilities. Besides, the director of nursing has
skills in training, evaluating and recruiting staff as well as the administrative tasks. They have
the skills that enhance the improvement of patient care and help in overseeing clinical
operations.
The interview took place within the health facility after a long day stay and monitoring
the actions and various activities that the director of nursing was involved in doing. We had an
excellent time to talk, and I learnt a lot from almost everything the director of nursing was doing.
Throughout the shadowing hours, I kept asking questions and obtaining the answers to my
interview question with respect to the upcoming events throughout the day. Such that by the end
of the day I had collected almost all the answers, and I just had to clarify some few interview
Director of Nursing 3
question. Most of the learning was through observation and interviewing on every aspect and
activity that the director of nursing was involved in doing.
Director of nursing services in the health facility is involved in various roles and
responsibilities that surround patient care and job satisfaction of the nurses (Cherry & Jacob,
2016). She is involved in supervising and reviewing the nursing staff and identifying any needs
of the staff members that require to be acted upon, whenever conflicts among the nurses or
nurses with another Interprofessional team, the director of nursing is involved in solving and
settling the disputes within the hospital through the use of scientific approaches of problem-
solving. Besides, the director of nursing is engaged in assessment and evaluation of how the
patient data and medical records are being managed and secured from the reach of unnecessary
and inappropriate individuals.
Budgeting of the equipment and the tools necessary for offering patient care within the
hospital is very crucial. Director of nursing is involved in overseeing the budgets of every
department to ensure that the necessary and appropriate equipment and resources are available
and within reach of the nurses to provide quality care of the patients. Furthermore, the director of
nursing ensures that high standards of patient care are maintained for every patient that comes to
the hospital despite their conditions and the resources allocated.
Conflicts is a dynamic process that can be positive or negative, and it is one of the issues
that frequently occur within a hospital because of the continuous human interactions (Weiss,
Tappen & Grimley, 2019). Nurse play different roles in the hospital set up, which expose them to
several communication with different people running from patients, other health care providers
and the hospital managers. The most recent conflict that the health facility had, and the nursing
Director of Nursing 4
director had to intervene and settles the conflict, was the conflict between the physician and a
nurse. The physicians are always are considered to be the most dominating in the hospital set up.
The misunderstanding of roles between the nurses and the physician brought about the identity
conflicts between the nurse and the physician.
Unless the conflicts are managed appropriately by the hospital managers, conflicts can
lead to violence in the hospital set up (Cherry & Jacob, 2016). On the other hand, value-based
disagreements occur between the physicians and the nurses when one party tries to force their
own set of value to another party. The director of nurses acted as a mediator between the nurse
and the physician and helped them come to an agreement from their conflicts on role disparities.
Finally, the dispute was settled by handling the misunderstanding and miscommunication that
had occurred between the nurse and the physician, and they forgave each other as their daily
duties resumed.
According to (Weiss, Tappen & Grimley, 2019) Interprofessional teamwork and
collaboration improve patient outcome and access to health care services. The facility has
Interprofessional teams that are involved in collaborative teamwork. The communication among
the Interprofessional team members is enhanced by the technology that has improved the
communication of the health information about the patient. The Interprofessional team is made
up of physicians, nurses, laboratory technicians, surgeons, nutritionists and radiologists. The
excellent leadership among the various professions have played a key role in enhancing the
running of the Interprofessional teamwork.
The biggest challenges that the director of nursing faces in her daily duties is the issues of
staffing. The staffing issues such as trying to find qualified nurses who can be able to stay in the
Director of Nursing 5
most demanding areas of the hospital such as the surgery center, emergency and trauma
department and the critical care unit even within the seasons where there are high seasonal
fluctuations. Secondly, shifting to a more data-driven world is one of the challenges that the
director of nursing faced. Director of nursing focuses more on the collection, measuring and
reporting the patient care data and information and therefore it is challenging to shift from one
form of data collection method to a digital type of data collection and storage mode primarily for
her team of nurses.
Although health informatics requires a lot of resources to learn and to get some
experiences on how to use it, Joel, (2017) argues that health informatics and technology have
primarily improved communication among nurses and even between nurses and other health care
providers. Besides, patient’s health information such as past medical history and the current
health status, together with laboratory test results, can be obtained from the electronic health
records with ease.
The director of nursing stated that she loves working closely with people, interacting with
fellow nurses to ensure the betterment of patient care. She loves seeing people come back to their
health and wellbeing after a short period. Therefore, she works around the globe every day to
ensure that patients are allocated the required resources fairly and that they receive quality
nursing care. Besides, her job allows her to show humanity and charity to the sick. Having the
leadership position gives her a chance of ensuring that every patient receives the health care
services that are required to curb the needs of the patients with easy access and under affordable
cost. She chooses the job because she believed that she is a leader by nature and that she has
developed leadership skills that can help the hospital to achieve its goals.
Immediately after her undergraduate graduation, she got enrolled and worked as a
Director of Nursing 6
registered nurse in a critical care unit. After working for two years, she was given the
responsibility to be critical care unit manager. After that, she went back to university and
specialized in the nursing management and administration. After which she came back and
retained her position as the critical care unit manager. Three months later, she was given the
responsibility of being a director of nursing up to date, which is now two years in these services.
The company’s culture is a whole rounded culture that covers moral, legal and ethical issues.
The hospital focuses more on ensuring that all the patients receive quality and appropriate care
and at the same time, ensure that the staff members are treated equally. It is their culture to have
a good communication system and better communication among the staff members.
She plays a crucial role in admission and in making decisions among the staff. Before
making any decision, she first inquires from the staff members concerning the changes that are
yet to happen and listens to their input. The choice is then made with the involvement of every
member of the team, thus avoiding resistance to the changes made in the organization. She
described her leadership style to be a transformational one. She said that she works towards the
achievement of goals and objectives by motivating the nurses under her to provide quality care to
the patients. She always allows free communication to happen between the nurses and the
leaders and even among the nurses themselves without any restriction. She is empathetic and
takes time to listen to her followers. Furthermore, she always tries her best to be an excellent
example to other nurses, primarily in ensuring quality patient care and job satisfaction for the
nurses.
Director of Nursing 7
References
Cherry, B., & Jacob, S. R. (2016). Contemporary nursing: Issues, trends, & management.
Elsevier Health Sciences.
Joel, L. A. (2017). Advanced practice nursing: Essentials for role development. FA Davis.
Weiss, S. A., Tappen, R. M., & Grimley, K. (2019). Essentials of Nursing Leadership &
Management. FA Davis.
Several changes have been taking place in the sector of health worldwide following the
current economic challenges in the world. The most developed countries have a various shift in
the demographics of their population, and the number of people living with long-term illness has
been increasing in the current generation. According to (Cherry & Jacob, 2016), the occurrence
of the unpredictable and dynamic environment demands the health care professionals to
demonstrate effective leadership. Director of nursing who is working in various health care
facilities have a piece of expert knowledge and complex decision-making skills
The hospitals and clinics require positive and enthusiastic leaders who are dedicated to
constant improvement. The director of Nursing has the responsibility of overseeing the care of
all the patients within the healthcare facility. Hospitals need directors of nursing who
demonstrate strong leadership and managerial capabilities. Besides, the director of nursing has
skills in training, evaluating and recruiting staff as well as the administrative tasks. They have
the skills that enhance the improvement of patient care and help in overseeing clinical
operations.
The interview took place within the health facility after a long day stay and monitoring
the actions and various activities that the director of nursing was involved in doing. We had an
excellent time to talk, and I learnt a lot from almost everything the director of nursing was doing.
Throughout the shadowing hours, I kept asking questions and obtaining the answers to my
interview question with respect to the upcoming events throughout the day. Such that by the end
of the day I had collected almost all the answers, and I just had to clarify some few interview
Director of Nursing 3
question. Most of the learning was through observation and interviewing on every aspect and
activity that the director of nursing was involved in doing.
Director of nursing services in the health facility is involved in various roles and
responsibilities that surround patient care and job satisfaction of the nurses (Cherry & Jacob,
2016). She is involved in supervising and reviewing the nursing staff and identifying any needs
of the staff members that require to be acted upon, whenever conflicts among the nurses or
nurses with another Interprofessional team, the director of nursing is involved in solving and
settling the disputes within the hospital through the use of scientific approaches of problem-
solving. Besides, the director of nursing is engaged in assessment and evaluation of how the
patient data and medical records are being managed and secured from the reach of unnecessary
and inappropriate individuals.
Budgeting of the equipment and the tools necessary for offering patient care within the
hospital is very crucial. Director of nursing is involved in overseeing the budgets of every
department to ensure that the necessary and appropriate equipment and resources are available
and within reach of the nurses to provide quality care of the patients. Furthermore, the director of
nursing ensures that high standards of patient care are maintained for every patient that comes to
the hospital despite their conditions and the resources allocated.
Conflicts is a dynamic process that can be positive or negative, and it is one of the issues
that frequently occur within a hospital because of the continuous human interactions (Weiss,
Tappen & Grimley, 2019). Nurse play different roles in the hospital set up, which expose them to
several communication with different people running from patients, other health care providers
and the hospital managers. The most recent conflict that the health facility had, and the nursing
Director of Nursing 4
director had to intervene and settles the conflict, was the conflict between the physician and a
nurse. The physicians are always are considered to be the most dominating in the hospital set up.
The misunderstanding of roles between the nurses and the physician brought about the identity
conflicts between the nurse and the physician.
Unless the conflicts are managed appropriately by the hospital managers, conflicts can
lead to violence in the hospital set up (Cherry & Jacob, 2016). On the other hand, value-based
disagreements occur between the physicians and the nurses when one party tries to force their
own set of value to another party. The director of nurses acted as a mediator between the nurse
and the physician and helped them come to an agreement from their conflicts on role disparities.
Finally, the dispute was settled by handling the misunderstanding and miscommunication that
had occurred between the nurse and the physician, and they forgave each other as their daily
duties resumed.
According to (Weiss, Tappen & Grimley, 2019) Interprofessional teamwork and
collaboration improve patient outcome and access to health care services. The facility has
Interprofessional teams that are involved in collaborative teamwork. The communication among
the Interprofessional team members is enhanced by the technology that has improved the
communication of the health information about the patient. The Interprofessional team is made
up of physicians, nurses, laboratory technicians, surgeons, nutritionists and radiologists. The
excellent leadership among the various professions have played a key role in enhancing the
running of the Interprofessional teamwork.
The biggest challenges that the director of nursing faces in her daily duties is the issues of
staffing. The staffing issues such as trying to find qualified nurses who can be able to stay in the
Director of Nursing 5
most demanding areas of the hospital such as the surgery center, emergency and trauma
department and the critical care unit even within the seasons where there are high seasonal
fluctuations. Secondly, shifting to a more data-driven world is one of the challenges that the
director of nursing faced. Director of nursing focuses more on the collection, measuring and
reporting the patient care data and information and therefore it is challenging to shift from one
form of data collection method to a digital type of data collection and storage mode primarily for
her team of nurses.
Although health informatics requires a lot of resources to learn and to get some
experiences on how to use it, Joel, (2017) argues that health informatics and technology have
primarily improved communication among nurses and even between nurses and other health care
providers. Besides, patient’s health information such as past medical history and the current
health status, together with laboratory test results, can be obtained from the electronic health
records with ease.
The director of nursing stated that she loves working closely with people, interacting with
fellow nurses to ensure the betterment of patient care. She loves seeing people come back to their
health and wellbeing after a short period. Therefore, she works around the globe every day to
ensure that patients are allocated the required resources fairly and that they receive quality
nursing care. Besides, her job allows her to show humanity and charity to the sick. Having the
leadership position gives her a chance of ensuring that every patient receives the health care
services that are required to curb the needs of the patients with easy access and under affordable
cost. She chooses the job because she believed that she is a leader by nature and that she has
developed leadership skills that can help the hospital to achieve its goals.
Immediately after her undergraduate graduation, she got enrolled and worked as a
Director of Nursing 6
registered nurse in a critical care unit. After working for two years, she was given the
responsibility to be critical care unit manager. After that, she went back to university and
specialized in the nursing management and administration. After which she came back and
retained her position as the critical care unit manager. Three months later, she was given the
responsibility of being a director of nursing up to date, which is now two years in these services.
The company’s culture is a whole rounded culture that covers moral, legal and ethical issues.
The hospital focuses more on ensuring that all the patients receive quality and appropriate care
and at the same time, ensure that the staff members are treated equally. It is their culture to have
a good communication system and better communication among the staff members.
She plays a crucial role in admission and in making decisions among the staff. Before
making any decision, she first inquires from the staff members concerning the changes that are
yet to happen and listens to their input. The choice is then made with the involvement of every
member of the team, thus avoiding resistance to the changes made in the organization. She
described her leadership style to be a transformational one. She said that she works towards the
achievement of goals and objectives by motivating the nurses under her to provide quality care to
the patients. She always allows free communication to happen between the nurses and the
leaders and even among the nurses themselves without any restriction. She is empathetic and
takes time to listen to her followers. Furthermore, she always tries her best to be an excellent
example to other nurses, primarily in ensuring quality patient care and job satisfaction for the
nurses.
Director of Nursing 7
References
Cherry, B., & Jacob, S. R. (2016). Contemporary nursing: Issues, trends, & management.
Elsevier Health Sciences.
Joel, L. A. (2017). Advanced practice nursing: Essentials for role development. FA Davis.
Weiss, S. A., Tappen, R. M., & Grimley, K. (2019). Essentials of Nursing Leadership &
Management. FA Davis.
