Nursing Management Case Study

Introduction Leadership is required in every position across all domains of nursing practice. Leadership and management skills co-exist as symbiotic set of skills. Exerting good management skills is part of being a good leader, and leadership skills are crucial for good management (CNA, 2008). Relatively, nursing management is an obvious function of nurse managers in nursing administration. The terms nurse administrator and nurse manager are used interchangeably. Both positions need basic skills such as organizational management and experience in areas, such as manpower, strategic planning, and scientific method of solving problems or making decisions. However, a nurse administrator is responsible for a group of units, while a nurse manager is responsible for one specific unit within a hospital. The nurse managers have responsibilities that are similar to nursing administrators, but on a smaller scope and scale (Greenwood, 2015). A nurse manager develops and manages a nursing department such as a critical care unit. Due to the availability of the nurse manager more than the availability of nurse administrators, the author of this paper decided to choose the nurse manager of his unit as the interviewee for this case study. This is a critical analysis paper of the interview conducted on 5th March 2014, with the nurse manager of an intensive care unit, who have experience in managing and leading sub-units of critical care areas, such as adult intensive care, pediatric intensive care, coronary care, and cardiac surgical intensive care, and hemodialysis unit. Moreover, several observations of the typical day of a nurse manager were done on the 8th and 9th of March 2015. This paper contained the informational interview with Mr. Arnold B. Buenafe, a Bachelor in Science in Nursing graduate and a Registered Nurse. He is currently the Deputy Head Nurse of the Intensive Care Unit at Sultan Qaboos University Hospital, Muscat, Oman. The interview revolved around his motivations as an administrator, leadership qualities, critical thinking and decision making skills, ways of handling conflicts, financial management skills, utilization of technology in decision making processes and involvement in policy making. The conduct of the interview were video recorded, and can be retrieved at http://youtu.be/MDOpQ5pi5UU. Furthermore, the verbatims of the interview were trancsribed and critically analyzed using the system prescribed by the facilitator in the N240 FMA Guide and supported by some reviews of related literature. Symbiosis of Teamwork and Motivation Motivation is an inner urge that moves or prompts an individual to positive action (Mosby, 2009). These are the factors that influence a person to do great things. As a nurse manager, Mr. Buenafe, reiterated that the presence of good and complete teamwork made him motivated to serve the hospital for several years. Relatively, one of the nurse managers of American Organization of Nurse Executives (AONE) in the United States of America have had the same sentiments of being motivated by her staff through their acomplishments, achievements and unified goals (Gehman, 2015). The interviewee also …show more content…
Buenafe’s consistency of emphasizing the value of open communication in the workplace was apparent in the interview. He also added the principles of justice and fairness when treating his subordinates. He considered open communication, and seconded by equality as the traits of being an effective leader. A communication that is clear was considered as the most important key to great leadership (Froschheiser, 2015). Communication was also considered as the important factor that ties up of all the six basic functions of management, such as planning, organizing, staffing, directing, coordinating and controlling. This is also supported by the idea of the Ken Blanchard Companies in 2006 wherein during their four separate studies conducted, 43% of the respondents identified communication skills as the most critical skill set in effective leadership. In contrary, the respondents identified inappropriate use of communication or listening as the number one biggest mistake of leaders when working with …show more content…
Buenafe embraced the benefits of technology and its application to nursing administration and nursing practice, provided that proper training should be conducted prior to its full operational implementation. The core leadership competencies such as communication, systems, and critical thinking are required of a nurse manager to openly accept technology and empower staff to use technology in patient care (Amendola, 2008). The said competencies are achieved through proper training and practical experience. This is analogous to the interviewee’s idea of the importance of skills