Introduction
The notion of advanced clinical practice generally serves as an umbrella term for a variety of processes aimed at making healthcare more accessible and rewarding for both the professionals and the patients. Hence, to secure the development patterns in the field, healthcare professionals try to identify tangible frameworks that would encompass some of the fundamental requirements from modern practice. According to the researchers, some of the most crucial and widespread aspects in the context are the concepts of leadership and cooperation, as they serve as catalysts for the introduction of new working models and pooling one’s efforts for a better outcome (Altman et al., 2016). Hence, the primary aim of the following paper is to identify and appraise the notions of leadership and cooperation to outline their role and influence on the modern nursing professional practice.
Definition of Leadership
As far as the notion of leadership is concerned, it is necessary to outline that over the years of its implementation in the nursing practice, the peculiarities of leadership definition vary greatly in terms of the context and healthcare units. That is, while some professionals perceive leadership as one’s supervision aimed at achieving set targets, others see leadership as a full-scale guidance process that concerns quantitative goals, work ethics, motivation, and professional growth. When speaking of the most appropriate and general definition of leadership, it may be presented as a process where an individual obtains a certain amount of influence over a group of people to achieve a common goal (Cummings et al., 2018). Hence, when it comes to the issue of leadership in nursing practice, it may be concluded that it plays one of the most significant roles in terms of the overall interprofessional communication and work with patients.
Appraisal of Leadership
In order to provide a meaningful assessment of the following concept, it is necessary to outline that one of the major assets of leadership concerns its high level of variability. According to the researchers, various styles of leadership are tailored to secure efficiency in the workplace, as leadership is responsible for providing working environments with new care models and reassuring the patient’s well-being through meaningful cooperation (Cummings et al., 2018). The significance of leadership in nursing practice is primarily concerned with the level of responsibility required to secure proper treatment patterns and working relationships. Thus, it may be concluded that leadership is one of the most crucial aspects of professional practice that maintains the overall standard of care, which should be followed by the vast majority of healthcare employees.
Identification of Cooperation
The notion of cooperation has become one of the most important aspects of people’s everyday life due to the rapid increase of globalization, which implies bringing people together for the sake of achieving a common goal. Thus, when it comes to cooperation in nursing, it may be defined as the process of efficient communication within the team in order to pursue a common goal and preserve the professional relationship in the setting, especially when the issue concerns emergencies (Budi et al., 2019). Such collaborative work is then equally important in terms of cooperation with the practitioners and with the patients, as nurses serve as intermediates between these two groups. Hence, the identification of the following concept should be primarily focused on the process’s significance for healthcare.
Appraisal of Cooperation
Nurses represent the group of medical professionals responsible for the major information exchange in terms of communication with patients, physicians, and other external facilities cooperating with hospitals such as law enforcement. Thus, to secure the overall productivity of any medical intervention, the scope of cooperation should be assessed properly (Altman et al., 2016). In fact, the extent of nursing collaboration is frequently undermined due to the fact the practitioners do not perceive nurses as a valuable source of information, making them perform certain action patterns instead. Moreover, the very process of interprofessional collaboration serves as an integral part of the medical team’s competency and job description understanding, as practitioners should use every possible information in order to provide people with the most appropriate treatment option.
Impact on Clinical Judgement
When speaking of the general conception of medical practice, the importance of nursing in the overall picture is often undermined due to a lack of understanding of the responsibility nurses bear every day. As a result, such notions as leadership and cooperation seem to be irrelevant for nurses, making physicians major decision-makers in the process. However, it should be outlined that some of the most valuable information in terms of reaching the following decision is usually provided by nurses. According to the researchers, nurses’ cognitive abilities play a significant role in terms of the overall treatment outcomes, so the leadership they perform in the process is usually expressed through the on-the-spot action they perform on a daily basis (McCartney, 2017). Moreover, the process of collaboration influences the nurses’ ability to contribute to the treatment process by presenting personal information relevant to the case.
Initiatives
Since the modern healthcare context does now always acknowledge the nurses’ role in the context, over the past year, various healthcare professionals have introduced potential frameworks that contribute to the recognition of nursing practice. Hence, in 2010, the Institute of Medicine introduced the initiative called “The Future of Nursing,” which encompassed a series of factors that should be improved over ten years to escalate the nurses’ image and significance in the professional community (Thew, 2019). The two major aspects of the aforementioned initiative were directly correlated with the issues of interprofessional collaboration and leadership promotion. According to the proposal’s expectations, 10 000 nurses in the US should have been given leading positions within the facilities, whereas the interprofessional cooperation implied providing nurses with an educational foundation in order to apply the obtained knowledge in further professional interaction (Thew, 2019).
Hence, considering the aforementioned objectives, it would be safe to assume that the introduction of the concepts of leadership and cooperation has served as a foundation for reconsideration of the role of nursing. In fact, according to the statistics calculated nine years after “The Future of Nursing” introduction, more than 5,000 nurses in the US are now engaged in leading positions regarding public health and corporate panels (Thew, 2019). Moreover, the courses introduced in the vast majority of medical schools now allow the nurses to collaborate their professional knowledge with the basics of other medical specializations, which serves as a stimulus for nurses’ recognition in the community (Thew, 2019). Hence, it may be concluded that the development of modern initiatives aimed at raising the nurses’ participation in the medical process, despite the progress made, still requires much effort from healthcare leaders.
Advanced Communication
The process of efficient communication is crucial for the nurses in terms of both communication with colleagues and patients, as a lack of cooperation or dialogue frequently leads to the poor quality of medical assistance. When it comes to the workplace, some of the most widespread precedents for poor communication are the inability to delegate tasks and a lack of respect within the team. Hence, to address these issues, both theoretical and practical bases of problem-solving should be introduced in educational facilities. According to the researchers, case scenarios analyzed throughout the learning process allow the medical students to act more efficiently in the actual workplace (Sowko et al., 2019). Hence, it may be concluded that one of the most crucial aspects of nursing education is practical training on problem-solving and effective communication in stressful situations.
Conclusion
The nursing profession, along with other aspects of medical practice, encompasses a variety of skills and competencies required in order to secure beneficial results for the patients. Hence, when undergoing professional courses in nursing, it is of crucial importance to pay attention to the occupational aspects that lead to positive results, including the notions of leadership and cooperation. The primary goal of the following paper was to address the aforementioned aspects to define their current significance to the field. As a result, it was estimated that leadership and interprofessional collaboration play one of the most significant roles in terms of creating a working professional model for nurses.
References
Altman, S. H., Butler, A. S., Shern, L., & National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. (2016). Collaborating and leading in care delivery and redesign. In Assessing Progress on the Institute of Medicine Report The Future of Nursing. National Academies Press (US).
Budi, A. W. S., Afiyanti, Y., & Azidin, Y. (2019). “Teamwork cooperation”: Nurse’s experience of cardiac arrest nursing care. Malahayati International Journal of Nursing and Health Science, 2(2), 41-46.
Cummings, G. G., Tate, K., Lee, S., Wong, C. A., Paananen, T., Micaroni, S. P., & Chatterjee, G. E. (2018). Leadership styles and outcome patterns for the nursing workforce and work environment: A systematic review. International journal of nursing studies, 85, 19-60.
McCartney, M. (2017). Nurses must be allowed to exercise professional judgment. BMJ-British Medical Journal, 357.
Sowko, L. A., Fennimore, L. A., & Drahnak, D. M. (2019). Teaching Workplace Interprofessional Communication to Undergraduate Nursing Students. Journal of Nursing Education, 58(9), 538-542.
Thew, J. (2019). The future of nursing report: where are we now? Web.