Leadership Styles in Professional Nursing
Tami Olson
Chamberlain College of Nursing
NR351: Transitions in Professional Nursing
Summer B Session 2011

Leadership Styles in Professional Nursing
Introduction
“Managers with leadership styles that seek and value contributions from staff, promote a climate in which information is shared effectively, promote decision making at the staff nurse level, exert position power, and influence coordination of work to provide a milieu that maintains a stable cadre of nurses”, (Boyle, Bott, Hansen, Woods & Taunton, 2009). This statement describes the large impact a leadership style can make on the work environment, and the morale of the team. In nursing history, several theories and leadership
This not only gives a certain amount of importance and authority to the team members, but also makes them more responsible as the burden of executing the choices they have made rests on their own shoulders (VESTERINEN, ISOLA & PAASIVAARA, 2009). Involving more members in the decision-making process enables the team to reach to best solution possible. The variety of viewpoints allows the team to deal with every challenge after analyzing each perspective, and provide solutions in the same manner. By allowing everyone to be a part of the process, this leadership style permits creativity. Since everyone is given equal opportunity, a conflict of interest is less likely when this leadership style is implemented. While this type of leadership style values the input of the entire staff, there may not always be time to form a majority opinion when a patient's health, or life, depends on fast action.
Application of Clinical Example It is appropriate to use the authoritarian leadership style only when decisions have to be made quickly, when there's no need for input, when team agreement isn't necessary for a successful outcome, or when the job to be done is routine and unskilled. This leadership style could be implemented into practice in situations such as a code, when a patient is crashing, or if a disaster had taken place. This type of leadership