Sari Järvinen, RN, VET teacher, PhD

The author is working as a Specialist in JAMK University of Applied Sciences in Finland.

What is nursing management in practice?

I had opportunity to work leader in health care services. During those years, I strike a balance between working with my nursing staff and the healthcare facility administrators. However, in same time, I realized that without education, the manager could not have basic knowledge or skills of management. Nurse leaders need strong leadership and communication skills. In addition, I needed in my work knowledge about administration, decision-making, health resources, knowledge management and quality management. I was like team player, who work with other, make decisions, which affects to others, coordinating resources of nurses, meeting goals and support staff in wellbeing at work. I used lots of responsibilities and power. In same time, I collecting data based on evidence-based knowledge and shared it to my staff to practice.

Nurse leaders are in first- line to ensure high-quality patient care. In addition, the nursing ward leader have been associated with greater job satisfaction, reduced turnover intention among nursing staff, and improved patient outcomes. Nurse leaders have a responsibility to in duce changes in the clinical environment, which negatively affects staffs and patients wellbeing. (Kodama et al. 2018.)

Nowadays discussing about leaders education, does they need it or not. It is often expected that a new nurse leaders hit the ground running with no management education. Education improve your management skills as a leader and it support you to grow into an effective leader. With education, you have better career progression, so we can say that management education is necessary for a professional success. (Conally et al. 2019.)

Reference

The Roles of a Nurse Manager: Leading the nursing profession into the future. Available at: https://onlinenursing.duq.edu/blog/roles-nurse-manager-leading-nursing-profession-future/ (accessed 2 January 2020).

Connolly, M., James, C. & Fertig, M. 2019. The difference between educational management and educational leadership and the importance of educational responsibility. Educational Management Administration & Leadership; 47(4): 504–519

Kodama , Y. & Fukahori, H. 2018. Nurse managers’ attributes to promote change in their wards: a qualitative study.  Nursing Open: 209-217. DOI: 10.1002/nop2.87