NUR 514 APA Assignment: Leadership Style Reflective Essay

Grand Canyon University NUR 514 APA Assignment: Leadership Style Reflective Essay – Step-By-Step Guide

This guide will demonstrate how to complete the Grand Canyon University NUR 514 APA Assignment: Leadership Style Reflective Essay assignment based on general principles of academic writing. Here, we will show you the A, B, Cs of completing an academic paper, irrespective of the instructions. After guiding you through what to do, the guide will leave one or two sample essays at the end to highlight the various sections discussed below.

How to Research and Prepare for NUR 514 APA Assignment: Leadership Style Reflective Essay

Whether one passes or fails an academic assignment such as the Grand Canyon University NUR 514 APA Assignment: Leadership Style Reflective Essay depends on the preparation done beforehand. The first thing to do once you receive an assignment is to quickly skim through the requirements. Once that is done, start going through the instructions one by one to clearly understand what the instructor wants. The most important thing here is to understand the required format—whether it is APA, MLA, Chicago, etc.

After understanding the requirements of the paper, the next phase is to gather relevant materials. The first place to start the research process is the weekly resources. Go through the resources provided in the instructions to determine which ones fit the assignment. After reviewing the provided resources, use the university library to search for additional resources. After gathering sufficient and necessary resources, you are now ready to start drafting your paper.

How to Write the Introduction for NUR 514 APA Assignment: Leadership Style Reflective Essay

The introduction for the Grand Canyon University NUR 514 APA Assignment: Leadership Style Reflective Essay is where you tell the instructor what your paper will encompass. In three to four statements, highlight the important points that will form the basis of your paper. Here, you can include statistics to show the importance of the topic you will be discussing. At the end of the introduction, write a clear purpose statement outlining what exactly will be contained in the paper. This statement will start with “The purpose of this paper…” and then proceed to outline the various sections of the instructions.

How to Write the Body for NUR 514 APA Assignment: Leadership Style Reflective Essay

After the introduction, move into the main part of the NUR 514 APA Assignment: Leadership Style Reflective Essay assignment, which is the body. Given that the paper you will be writing is not experimental, the way you organize the headings and subheadings of your paper is critically important. In some cases, you might have to use more subheadings to properly organize the assignment. The organization will depend on the rubric provided. Carefully examine the rubric, as it will contain all the detailed requirements of the assignment. Sometimes, the rubric will have information that the normal instructions lack.

Another important factor to consider at this point is how to do citations. In-text citations are fundamental as they support the arguments and points you make in the paper. At this point, the resources gathered at the beginning will come in handy. Integrating the ideas of the authors with your own will ensure that you produce a comprehensive paper. Also, follow the given citation format. In most cases, APA 7 is the preferred format for nursing assignments.

How to Write the Conclusion for NUR 514 APA Assignment: Leadership Style Reflective Essay

After completing the main sections, write the conclusion of your paper. The conclusion is a summary of the main points you made in your paper. However, you need to rewrite the points and not simply copy and paste them. By restating the points from each subheading, you will provide a nuanced overview of the assignment to the reader.

How to Format the References List for NUR 514 APA Assignment: Leadership Style Reflective Essay

The very last part of your paper involves listing the sources used in your paper. These sources should be listed in alphabetical order and double-spaced. Additionally, use a hanging indent for each source that appears in this list. Lastly, only the sources cited within the body of the paper should appear here.

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Sample Answer for NUR 514 APA Assignment: Leadership Style Reflective Essay

The current nursing practice continues to evolve in multiple aspects in response to the complex patient needs. This evolution requires nursing professionals and leaders to understand their abilities and apply strengths appropriately. Self-assessments are highly effective for nurses to understand their behaviors for healthy relationships with others and professional excellence. Self-awareness also helps nurses to adjust appropriately and work on their weaknesses. The purpose of this paper is to discuss my self-assessment results and leadership application in nursing.

Summary of Self-Assessment Selections and Results

Various tests provide different information about individual behavior, strengths, and weaknesses. The first test selected for the self-assessment was the emotional intelligence test. Lambert (2021) described emotional intelligence as a critical success factor for effective nursing leadership and management characterized by the ability to understand one’s feelings and effectively respond to those of others. Hence, this test was chosen to evaluate my ability to deal with emotions. The other test was the learning styles assessment through the VARK (visual, aural, read/write, and kinesthetic) questionnaire. Since nurses should continually improve their knowledge and skills, understanding how they learn best is essential for professional growth and development. The third test was the cultural competence self-test. In health care delivery, cultural competence involves awareness of the influence of social and cultural factors on patients’ health choices (Kaihlanen et al., 2019). I selected this test to assess my ability to deal with culturally diverse individuals and groups.

Self-assessment results accurately reflect nurses’ strengths and critical improvement areas. The emotional intelligence test revealed my type as the empath. With a score of 80/100 (self-awareness) and 96/100 (empathy), I can easily understand and empathize with the emotional experiences of others (Appendix A). Concerning learning styles, I am multimodal: visual- 7, aural- 4, read/write- 2, kinesthetic- 7 (Appendix B). On cultural competence, I scored highly (50/54) in the evaluation areas, particularly communication (Appendix C). These scores will help me to maximize my strengths for effective patient care and leadership while addressing my underperformance areas.

Leadership Style Aligning with my Philosophy of Care

Nursing leaders use different approaches to influence policies, decisions, and patient care outcomes. Concerning my philosophy of care, health professionals should prioritize patient needs and ensure adequate resources and preparedness to respond effectively. Accordingly, the primary purpose of nursing is to address patient needs through active interactions, support, and empathy. The servant leadership style aligns with my care philosophy since it emphasizes serving others. As Canavesi and Minelli (2022) stated, servant leaders put others’ needs first, implying they do not prioritize their concerns. Such an approach is crucial for patient-centered care, where the treatment plans are tailored to address the patient’s specific needs.

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Prioritizing others’ needs appeals to me the most about servant leadership. The implication is that servant leaders are determined to explore others’ needs and ensure their interests do not prevent them from achieving the desired organizational goals. The other encouraging attribute of servant leadership is such leaders’ commitment to the growth of their followers. Servant leaders prioritize their followers’ growth, well-being, and empowerment to foster an inclusive workplace (Thao & Kang, 2020). Inclusivity and a desire to cooperate with colleagues are vital in care coordination and for successful interdisciplinary care.

Incorporating Elements of the Leadership Style

Successful leadership involves implementing aspects that maximize outcomes and instill the right values. One way of incorporating servant leadership elements while exercising leadership is prioritizing others’ needs before mine. A suitable example is when workers are overwhelmed, and I assist accordingly to prevent burnout. Another way of incorporating servant leadership in routine practice is promoting positive interactions to serve others for the greater good. For instance, embracing teamwork to address a patient’s complex needs comprehensively aligns with the fundamental principles of servant leadership.

Self-Improvement Areas and Steps to Improve Leadership Capabilities

Current and emerging nursing leaders should work on their weaknesses to improve their productivity and influence. A key improvement area based on the assessment results is the emotional control aspect of emotional intelligence, where I scored 19/100 (Appendix A). Improving this area is essential for effective control of emotional experiences. Malinowska-Lipień et al. (2021) underlined the importance of emotional control to enable individuals to overcome negative experiences, job stressors, and bad moods that can inhibit their productivity and interprofessional interactions. I should improve in this construct by identifying activities that cheer me quickly and implementing them regularly. Self-care practices such as meditation and exercise therapies will also help me avoid bad moods as I strive to become a better leader overall.

Characteristics of Effective Professional Nurse Leader

Nursing can only succeed when driven by forward-thinking leadership. An effective professional nurse leader should excel in communication, problem-solving, and integrity. Communication involves information transmission to guide nursing teams in executing their routine tasks. Besides preventing workplace conflicts, effective communication skills foster positive patient and staff experiences (Brooks et al., 2019). Excellent problem-solving is primarily about the leaders’ ability to formulate measures for overcoming obstacles. Therefore, nursing leaders should be advanced in analyzing and solving practice problems. Integrity involves being honest and integrating the appropriate ethical principles in leadership. These characteristics are vital for effective leadership in nursing since healthy leaders-followers relationships depend on clear communication. The implication is that excellent communication enables employees to work productively to realize organizational goals. Workplace problems, including technology challenges, inadequate workforce, and burnout, require excellent problem-solving skills. Integrity ensures nursing leaders instill a positive workplace culture and that followers look upon them for guidance, mentorship, and everyday support.

Application of Leadership Theory and Different Personal Style

Leadership theories and styles influence nursing leadership differently. The transformational leadership theory’s fundamental principle is motivating employees towards a shared vision through idealized influence (Saad Alessa, 2021). As a result, a transformational leader envisions a particular outcome and motivates followers to achieve it by working together for a common purpose. Besides idealized influence, transformational leadership is characterized by intellectual stimulation, individual consideration, and inspirational motivation (Saad Alessa, 2021; Khan et al., 2020). The implication is that transformational leaders recognize the contribution of their followers in realizing organizational goals and fostering collaboration. Such leaders continually empower and motivate their followers to prevent conflicts and cultivate a spirit of teamwork for shared decision-making. As a result, the transformational leadership style is effective in workplaces where the staff members have diverse skills, values, and strengths. The nurse leader capitalizes on the strengths of team members and groups them to work optimally, increase productivity, and achieve high job satisfaction.

Conclusion

The present nursing practice requires forward-thinking and committed nursing leadership. Such leadership is excellently positioned to motivate and empower the workforce while addressing workplace issues. Self-awareness is critical for nursing leaders to understand their behaviors, strengths, and weaknesses. I will continue working on my weaknesses for personal growth and development in critical areas like leadership, patient care, and interprofessional relationships.

References

Brooks, L. A., Manias, E., & Bloomer, M. J. (2019). Culturally sensitive communication in healthcare: A concept analysis. Collegian, 26(3), 383-391. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.colegn.2018.09.007

Canavesi, A., & Minelli, E. (2022). Servant leadership: a systematic literature review and network analysis. Employee Responsibilities and Rights Journal, 34(3), 267–289. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10672-021-09381-3

Kaihlanen, A. M., Hietapakka, L., & Heponiemi, T. (2019). Increasing cultural awareness: qualitative study of nurses’ perceptions about cultural competence training. BMC Nursing, 18(1), 1-9. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12912-019-0363-x

Khan, H., Rehmat, M., Butt, T. H., Farooqi, S., & Asim, J. (2020). Impact of transformational leadership on work performance, burnout and social loafing: a mediation model. Future Business Journal, 6, 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1186/s43093-020-00043-8

Lambert, S. (2021). Role of emotional intelligence in effective nurse leadership. Nursing Standard (Royal College of Nursing (Great Britain): 1987), 36(12), 45–49. https://doi.org/10.7748/ns.2021.e11782

Malinowska-Lipień, I., Wadas, T., Sułkowska, J., Suder, M., Gabryś, T., Kózka, M., Gniadek, A., & Brzostek, T. (2021). Emotional control among nurses against work conditions and the support received during the SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic. International Journal of Environmental Research And Public Health, 18(17), 9415. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18179415

Saad Alessa, G. (2021). The dimensions of transformational leadership and its organizational effects in public universities in Saudi Arabia: a systematic review. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, 682092. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.682092 Thao, N. P. H., & Kang, S. W. (2020). When servant leaders inspire followers to become organizational citizens? Empirical evidence from Vietnam. Sage Open, 10(1), 2158244019900184. https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244019900184

Sample Answer 2 for NUR 514 APA Assignment: Leadership Style Reflective Essay

Nurses require emotional intelligence and self-awareness through reflecting on their leadership attributes and styles. In her article, Landry (2019) asserts that an emotional aspect is a critical component for anyone in leadership role as it allows one to successfully coach teams, manage stress and deliver feedback as well as collaborate with others. Leaders who use emotional intelligence understand the emotion and motivation of their employees towards work which extends beyond efficiency, timeliness, productivity and target. Leaders can only employ emotional intelligence when they are self-aware and understand their environment through knowing their personality. Reflective practice allows nurses and nurse leaders to cultivate self-awareness, improve their emotional intelligence and develop strategies to enhance productivity in their practice. The purpose of this paper is to provide a reflection of leadership style based on personality tests’ outcomes and other associated components of effective leadership in nursing.

Rationale and Brief Summary of Self-Assessment

Personality tests and assessments are critical components of developing an effective approach to leadership and identifying areas of concern for improvements. In this case, I tool three tests to identify my leadership attributes, skills and characteristics. These included the VARK Questionnaire (learning) test, emotional intelligence test, and personality assessment test. Through the personality test, one understands their strengths and weaknesses. The personality test results show that I demonstrate some levels of extraversion as well as introversion. The assessment revealed that while I have an outgoing personality, I occasionally like being in solitude which means that I am versatile and flexible since I can work in teams and also alone.

            The emotional intelligence test helps one understand their reactions to others and based on their emotions and the tasks before them. The test results show that I have 70% implying that I have sufficient skills and abilities to not only identify buts also perceive and express emotions in others and myself. These results illustrate a room for improvement. The third test was the learning test through the VARK Questionnaire. The test is necessary to allow a nurse leader understand their learning styles and how they can deal with subordinates to inculcate a learning culture to attain efficiency. The VARK Questionnaire showed that I possess a multimodal learning preference meaning that I utilize and learn from a host of approaches and methods. The implication is that these tests are essential to helping one get effective understanding of themselves and their environments.

Leadership Style

Nurses are leaders because of the critical role that they play as patient advocates and frontline care providers. Nurses interact more with patients and their families than any other health care and medical professionals. Imperatively, they must develop a philosophy of care that allows them to discharge their duties well, relate with patients, and colleagues while delivering quality care.  A nursing philosophy captures one’s intrinsic values, beliefs and goals within the profession. Again, having a defined philosophy allows one to attain a deeper connection to those beliefs, shapes one as a nurse and offers directions for which skills and specialties one can focus on improving (Solbakken et al., 2018). My nursing philosophy is founded on serving others to improve their health outcomes. As a nurse, I focus on providing patient-centered by prioritizing their values and preference through my commitment and focus on better outcomes. I have respect, autonomy, service to them, and unwavering search for knowledge through research and use of evidence-based practice to deliver quality and cost-effective care through innovations.

Based on this nursing philosophy, the leadership style that aligns with it is servant leadership. Again, transformational leadership would also be appropriate but servant leadership is more inclined to developing connections with patients and serving them in the best way possible.

            Servant leaders lead by meeting the team’s concerns and needs. Servant leaders demonstrate different attributes that motivate their teams to attain set goals. Sherman (2018) asserts that humility is a critical component of effective leadership and allows nurses to understand that they are not alone in their leadership as each person plays a role in the organization. Servant leaders attain results for their organizations through meeting the needs of those they serve. A core aspect of a servant leader is to encourage their subordinates through empowering and uplifting them. A nurse servant leader focuses on the needs of the staff and continuously inquires about the solutions to their issues and promotion of their personal development. Servant leaders possess and demonstrate empathy, are listening, provide a healing environment, are self-aware, use persuasion and conceptualize, they are effective stewards and have foresight, they are committed to the growth or people and build communities (Best, 2020). The implication is that servant leaders are keen on serving through humility and promotion of others’ needs.

Incorporating Elements of Servant Leadership in Nursing Practice

The incorporation of servant leadership in nursing practice is essential as nurses serve patients and colleagues to improve outcomes. The elements of servant leadership like empathy are well documented in nursing as nurses always empathize with patients and their families. Nurses employ listening when attending to patients through assessment to understand their problems and make a diagnosis as well as develop a treatment and care plan. The increased need for cultural competency skills arise due to nurses interacting with patients from diverse backgrounds. Nurses can incorporate the elements of servant leadership when the increase their level of self-awareness, conceptualize nursing challenges and ways to solve them as well as build communities through collaborations (Mrayyan et al., 2023). As a nurse, can integrates servant leadership by offering a healing environment for patients and even colleagues to enhance their care delivery. One can also incorporate this style by using persuasion to influence policies and need to enhance patient-centered care in their practice environment or health care organization setting.

Areas Requiring Improvement

The three tests were critical in having a better understanding of my strengths and areas that require improvement. For instance, the emotional intelligence test assesses one’s levels of emotions and how they deal with others; both colleagues and patients as their families. While the test showed that I am emotionally intelligent, I can improve and get better scores by showing more concerns and acceptance of people’s perspectives. This means mitigating a judgmental attitude that lowers objectivity. The personality test showed that I have equal balance for extraversion and introversion. However, I need to improve on dealing with people from diverse backgrounds and accepting them to deliver quality care. The VARK assessment was essential since a leader should always be willing to learn new concepts to improve interactions with others. As such, this test was accurate and precise by depicting my learning style as multimodal.

Improving one’s leadership capabilities is essential to attaining set goals and motivating employees to enhance their productivity. Leaders can improve their skill through advanced learning like taking a master’s degree in nursing. In their paper, Maglione et al. (2021) assert that servant leadership characteristics among nurses increase from Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) to Master of Science in Nursing (MSN). The implication is that advanced education is one of the ways for one to improve their leadership attributes and apply servant leadership style. Imperatively, I will improve these areas through advancing my education, going for leadership training and conferences and reading more on these attributes and practicing them in nursing area.

Characteristics of an Effective Professional Nurse Leader

Nurse leaders are a critical component of better care delivery because they influence and impact their subordinates. Good leadership in nursing is both a science and an art. As an art, good leadership is about caring for patients, forging and nurturing personal relationships with them and colleagues. The essential role of leadership in nursing implores one to cultivate these attributes and skills which can be attained and developed through education, mentorship and experience. The qualities of an effective nurse leader are focused on two distinct yet related areas: leading oneself and leading others (Mrayyan et al., 2023). To lead oneself, the nurse should possess self-awareness, self-motivation, self-management, knowledge critical thinking and analytical skills, flexibility and adaptability, confidence and integrity. Leading others requires possession of communication skills, problem solving and conflict resolution attributes and skills, active listening, dedication, compassion and empathy, and building relationships or communities. In other words, the leader should blend servant and transformational leadership attributes.

Leadership Theory and Style

The transformational leadership theory asserts that transformational leaders work with followers to identify changes and create a vision through inspiration, and execute the change with committed followers. The transformational leadership theory asserts that transformational leaders have intellectual stimulation, individualized considerations, idealized influence and inspirational motivation. For instance, under intellectual stimulation, transformational leaders encourage their followers to be creative and innovative through development of new ideas (Collins et al., 2019). Under idealized influence, they believe that leaders influence through practice and doing what they preach. The transformational leader is a mentor to the followers and rewards them for creativity and innovation.

The theory and leadership style supports a professional nurse leader by demonstrating that he or she can only attain the created vision when they work collaboratively with others in a team. The theory shapes the nurse leaders by demonstrating that they need to collaborate as a team to attain better outcomes and resolve conflicts by encouraging innovative and creative ideas (Reza, 2019). The theory is essential for a professional nurse leader as it shows that they can make better decisions through participation and negotiation. Effective leadership means that one must have the attributes of a transformational leader to mentor others to attain better levels in the execution of their duties and tasks.

Conclusion

Nursing leaders need reflective practice to enhance their leadership attributes and offer quality care to patients. In this case, the reflection paper shows that self-awareness and emotional intelligence are core component of effective nurse leaders. As such, nurses and nurse leaders should invest in reflective practice, develop appropriate leadership styles, and demonstrate their focus on better ways to improve patient care and support their colleagues to attain set goals and objectives.

References

Best, C. (2020). Is there a place for servant leadership in nursing? Practice Nursing, 31(3), 128-

132. https://doi.org/10.12968/pnur.2020.31.3.128

Cheraghi, F., Yousefzadeh, M. R., & Goodarzi, A. (2019). The Role and Status of Philosophy in

Nursing Knowledge, Insight and Competence. Journal of Clinical Research in Paramedical Sciences, 8(2). DOI: 10.5812/jcrps.90762.

Collins, E., Owen, P., Digan, J., & Dunn, F. (2019). Applying transformational leadership in

nursing practice. Nursing Standard, 35(5), 59–66. DOI: 10.7748/ns.2019.e11408.

Landry, L. (2019 April 03). Why Emotional Intelligence Is Important in Leadership.

 https://online.hbs.edu/blog/post/emotional-intelligence-in-leadership

Maglione, J. L., & Neville, K. (2021). Servant leadership and spirituality among undergraduate

and graduate nursing students. Journal of religion and health, 60, 4435-4450.

DOI: 10.1007/s10943-021-01311-9

Mrayyan, M. T., Algunmeeyn, A., Abunab, H. Y., Kutah, O. A., Alfayoumi, I., & Khait, A. A.

(2023). Attributes, skills and actions of clinical leadership in nursing as reported by hospital nurses: a cross-sectional study. BMJ Leader, leader-2022. http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/leader-2022-000672

Reza, M. H. (2019). Components of transformational leadership behavior. International Journal

of Multidisciplinary Research (IJMR), 5(3), 2455–3662.

Sherman, R. O. (2019). The case for servant leadership. Nurse Leader, 17(2), 86-87.

 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mnl.2018.12.001

Solbakken, R., Bergdahl, E., Rudolfsson, G., & Bondas, T. (2018). International nursing: caring

in nursing leadership—a meta-ethnography from the nurse leader’s perspective. Nursing administration quarterly, 42(4), E1-E19. DOI: 10.1097/NAQ.0000000000000314