Essay on Leadership and Communication in a Health Facility: Care for Individuals Living With Dementia

Introduction

Research indicates that leadership plays a crucial role in the realization of an ideal health care system. However, nurses are seldom perceived as bearing the capability of morphing into leaders especially during the nascent phase of their career. Pundits sensitize on the need of caregivers serving as full partners where they employ their proficiencies in collaboration with other health care professionals. Additionally, high-quality care may be achieved through personal accountability and the continued application of research findings into the practice of medicine so as to attain evidence-based practices that are to be adopted through policy alterations in the health sector. As illustrated in the Liz poster of communication strategies, interaction with people living with dementia encompasses a double edged sword where one has to consider the underlying characters of both the patient and the caregiver. Aspects such as the recognition of the self-identity of a patient are important in meeting the exceptional needs people with dementia which is integral in the natural flow of information. Moreover, the physical environment may be adapted in such a way that the abilities of residents are optimized allowing them to lead a self-fulfilling life. Accordingly, this essay focuses on highlighting the essence of leadership and communication in a health facility that specializes in providing care for individuals living with dementia.

Developing a Dementia Friendly Environment

Research indicates that environments may be manipulated and customized to optimize the comfort of accommodate professional development and patient safety. In regards to people living with dementia, their physical environment may be attuned to enable them to maximize their potential thus averting needless disabilities. Nonetheless, the benefits that may be derived from an ideal physical environment may be dented if there are no proper frameworks within an organization including the synchronization of both the social and immediate surroundings designed to support the exceptional needs of individuals with dementia and their caregivers (Ervin, Cross & Koschel, 2013, 70). Arguments have presented suggesting that residential care is perceived as a passive way of administering care but the introduction of person-centered mechanisms of care, have given a complete paradigm shift. Without a doubt, the definition of the environment may denote diverse meanings depending on an individual, but the customization of our living based on the preferred design helps in warranting the health and well-being of a patient (Keady et al., 2012, 155). Accordingly, the development of a dementia friendly environment would necessitate the need to focus the interventions on augmenting the quality of life.

Suggestions to Management of Care in Different Environments

One of the barriers towards achieving a socially-inclined model of care may be attributed to the institutional contexts that that propose the medical classical as the preferred approach (Crampton, Dean & Eley, 2013, 4). The medical model sensitizes that the genesis of the functional impairments and emotional distress is as a result of brain damage while the social world in which a patient resides is utterly disregarded. Such occurrences culminate in events where the experiences of people with dementia are undermined as they are determined to be incapacitated regarding expressing emotions and making life decisions (Taylor et al., 2015, 13). More importantly, people with dementia are characterized by tendencies of altered cognitive processes that may deviate from the norm and as such, they ought to be placed in an environment that facilitates an opportunity to discover their experiences. The implication would be that nurses ought to shift their ideologies to integrate experiences of patients leading the conventional creation of an environment where a patient can lead a normal life rather than being seemingly unresponsive to care. In essence, a dementia friendly environment may be defined as the integrated system that acknowledges the experiences of individuals living with dementia and employing the support mechanisms geared towards ensuring that the patients lead a meaningful life (Lin & Lewis, 2015, 240). As such the conception of living experiences assists health professionals to move beyond merely regulating and diminishing behavioral complications and refocus on comprehending how environments may lead to the enablement of satisfactory and pleasurable behavioral patterns.

Distinction between Nursing Leadership and Management

In conventional terms, a nurse leader does not have a delegated authority as his executive autonomy rests with the stipulations of group members. Moreover, the primary responsibility of a leader is empowering, inspiring and motivating other team members. The other aspects would include excellent communication and interpersonal skills as leaders are required to be enigmatic and energetic (Negussie & Demissie, 2013, 52). On the other hand, a manager has a formal role which has been assigned most commonly by a higher authority. Under normal circumstances, a manager is expected to execute specific duties, and his responsibilities are defined. Besides, a manager is in charge of overseeing the decision-making processes and the general operations of daily activities (Dignam et al., 2012, 2). Accomplished nurse managers have the proficiency of coordinating resource including the personnel and finances which are aimed at achieving the defined objectives. Reward and punishment mechanism are also used to great effect alongside employing control measures as an active element. Nonetheless, the above definitions tend to overlap as there exists the inevitable quagmire of differentiating between what may be considered as being moral from what may not. Critical thinking skills, coping skills, and listening skills may also be employed in the contemporary nursing workforce (Langabeer II & Helton, 2015, 5).

Application of Action Plan to Leadership and Management Theory

In most health sectors, nurses are predominantly views as being the executioners of predetermined policies rather than people who can take part in the active process of formulating strategies. Such an approach amounts to suppression of ideologies especially for front-line nurses who possess in-depth knowledge in areas such as the community, the patient, and their families. Research indicates that there is the need for a paradigm shift to guarantee that nurses are accorded an opportunity to impose their influence in critical departments concerned with the safety and care of patients. Barriers most notably those that prevent effective communication with top management need to be eradicated to articulate policy-making frameworks for nurses. Consequently, nurses ought to adopt a combination of leadership proficiencies including the fundamentals to support a leadership opportunity alongside having specific skills designed for a given time, place and context (Huber, 2013, 15). These set of competencies include the comprehension of the functionalities of teamwork, procedures in the care delivery system, understanding the various philosophies of innovation and the approaches geared towards providing ethical care for patients. In essence, the institutions such as the American Association of Colleges of Nursing offer baccalaureate educational programs where a connection is established between the theory that is taught in the classroom and how to implement this knowledge with efficacy in the modern world (McColl-Kennedy et al., 2012, 375). In essence, the achievement of being a full partner would ultimately mean that every private reserve the personal responsibility of rooting out medical errors and preventing the occurrence of adverse events that diminish the quality of care. Other disciplines may also be incorporated in this style of leadership which may include proficiencies in economics, financing policy and understanding the regulatory frameworks.

Ability to Self-manage and Develop Resilience in Career

Reports also demonstrate the need for the collaboration of diverse teams that may extend beyond the scope of the health services rendered. In this leadership measure, individuals are expected to partner with their counterparts in other professionals in an effort directed towards the elimination of barriers that may hinder problem-solving techniques within departments. Besides, scholars define the collaboration amongst health professionals as being essential in fostering innovation in problem-solving. Such an approach implies that bureaucracies that pervade institutional affiliations, ranks, and various disciplines do not arise during the decision making process. Equally important of not is the fact that coordination of care is deviant of high functioning teams which possess a designated leader with a detailed set of objectives (Wong, Cummings & Ducharme, 2013, 720). In general, a collaborative leadership approach presents a sense of dynamism in teamwork where individuals are autonomously expected to think outside the box as they conjure up solutions to diverse health challenges. Additionally, leadership att entry level has emerged as a necessary aspect in health care settings. Nurses need to understand that they reserve the duty to be leaders in their professional demands as it presents the surest way of achieving quality bedside care in an efficient manner. Nurses should also be leaders in bringing about ideal work processes, legislation of health policies and the integration of practice models all of which are concerned with meeting the needs of both the patients and that of the community (Abualru & Alghamd, 2012, 672). Further, nurses are regarded as leaders in care delivery, and as such, they play the instrumental role of acting as the link between the patient and the community especially in instances of acute care settings. In home care settings, a nurse guides other members of her team in regards to the customized needs of the patients and that of the subject family (VanVactor, 2012, 558). For instance, a neurologist may not be in a possible to offer advice to a caregiver on how to improve the memory of a dementia patient since it is a role that nurses are at a vantage point of assuming. In such a situation, nurses are expected to take a stern approach and be assertive in avocation for the needs of the patient and ensuring that they have been met adequately.

Optimization of Leadership and Management Techniques

The fundamental notion of loss of self is linked to the loss of memory that is associated with dementia. Pundits argue that the measured tied to self-identity infer that people with dementia develop a sense of awareness even during the advanced stages of the mental illness. Nevertheless, health professionals take no note of the prevalence of self-identity in people diagnosed with dementia as it could prove instrumental in the provision of quality care (Lancioni et al., 2012, 270). For example, a meta-analysis investigating the preservation of self in a nursing home setting, the relationship of a patient with others such as family and staff alongside social roles which comprised of belonging to a family or being cared for were all essential in the maintenance of self within such a setting. It also emerged that individuals with...