Self-Care Project

Step #1: Do a bit of research on stress triggers and coping mechanisms specific to healthcare workers. Find at least 2 academically significant sources and write 2-3 paragraphs about your findings.

Step #2: Self reflect on your own stress triggers and the coping mechanisms you use. Rate them on effectiveness. Do they work for the short-term vs. long-term, are they healthy, do they make your healthcare team stronger? You can take this in any direction, just truly self-reflect, and see where it leads you. Write 2-3 paragraphs discussing your process.

Step #3: Each week you will take a few minutes and ask 2 people about their personal coping mechanisms for dealing with the stress of working in healthcare during this unique time of Covid. Stress can be physical, emotional, spiritual, or any combination of triggers. Ask a diverse variety of people, don’t forget those in other departs at different points of hierarchy. For example, ask your unit manager, environmental services, volunteers, patients, fellow nurses, etc. Write 2-3 paragraphs on your findings and impressions while respecting the person’s identity.

Step #4: At week #3 submit your work to date, as a rough draft.

Step #5: Write a conclusion that discusses this process and demonstrates your self-reflection on stress triggers and coping mechanisms. Have you learned new mechanisms, did you meet people you would not have met otherwise, did you discover any trends in terms of age, gender, or job, are there things you can do to combat stress for yourself or your team? 

Respond using APA, at least 2 scholarly references

Leadership Insights

Research indicates that promoting leadership development among employees requires the existence of effective organizational leadership (Mabona et al., 2022). This provided insight as the building up of our nursing leadership has been stagnant due to unease with executive leadership. Strong, effective leadership, or lack of, directly influences care, quality and motivation of staff (Mansel & Einion, 2019). We have nurses and leaders with great approaches for change, but a lack of motivation to do so. What was lacking was effective communication strategies, the ability for nurses to be actively involved in making decisions regarding patient care and having a substantial level of professional independence and influence over our work environment (Mabona et al., 2022).

During this week’s reading and research I stumbled across transformational leadership being an evidence-based leadership theory for nursing practice. It makes sense as building a trusting and respectful relationship is essential for implementing and fostering an empowering work environment. An empowering work setting is marked by the provision of information, support, resources, and learning opportunities (Mabona et al., 2022). Creating a supportive work environment fosters a culture of shared knowledge and a higher sense of duty and liability among nurses, while simultaneously safeguarding against and alleviating nurse burnout (Iqbal et al., 2019). Leaders who strive to cultivate a positive work environment through transformational leadership value and consider various viewpoints, display a comprehensive understanding of concerns, recognize and encourage the valuable contributions of nurses, effectively communicate achievements to boost confidence, maintain an approachable demeanor, and provide assistance to their staff (Mabona et al., 2022).

Transformational Leadership in Practice

We recently hired a new Chief Executive Officer (CEO), a position that has historically been filled by personnel with a clinical or medical background. This CEO however does not have this background. Rather than that hindering his abilities as a leader, he inspirationally utilized that as a key tool in motivating staff. Upon our first interaction, he encouraged the nursing team to take ownership of our profession/department and provide him with justifications to our needs and goals. He was transparent in pointing out that he is naïve to what we do and what our needs are, yet was able to still support us a valuable partners in the organization and pledge support to our success as well. This defined him as a transformational leader.

Interestingly enough, study findings show that when nursing staff perceives their leader as transformational, their psychological empowerment is enhanced, and they have higher well-being, which in turn increases their commitment to their workplace (Iqbal et al., 2019). This deemed true for our organization. The CEO sparked motivation that was lacking previously and motivated the nursing team to implement changes that were long overdue. Our admissions process was tedious and outdated for quite some time and was needing revamped but had previously lacked the support to do so. We then did a time study on the process for two-weeks, reviewed the ways in which we could improve that process, piloted those changes, completed a time study to evaluate the effectiveness of those changes, and then received the approval to move forward with those changes. A transformational leadership model has had a positive impact on our department and facility as a whole. Employee attitudes and behaviors have changed which has in turn increased job performance, satisfaction, and turnover.

References

Iqbal, K., Fatima, T., & Naveed, M. (2019). The impact of Transformational leadership on nurses’ organizational Commitment: a multiple mediation model. European Journal of Investigation in Health, Psychology and Education, 10(1), 262–275. https://doi.org/10.3390/ejihpe10010021

Mabona, J. F. M., Van Rooyen, D., & Ham-Baloyi, W. T. (2022). Best practice recommendations for healthy work environments for nurses: An integrative literature review. Health Sa Gesondheid- Journal of Interdisciplinary Health Sciences, 27. https://doi.org/10.4102/hsag.v27i0.1788

Mansel, B., & Einion, A. (2019). ‘It’s the relationship you develop with them’: emotional intelligence in nurse leadership. A qualitative study. British Journal of Nursing, 28(21), 1400–1408. https://doi.org/10.12968/bjon.2019.28.21.1400

In a 300- to 500-word blog post written for a patient and/or caregiver audience, explain signs and symptoms for your diagnosis, pharmacological treatments, nonpharmacological treatments, and appropriate community resources and referrals.
Although you are not required to respond to colleagues, collegial discussion is welcome. 

Please choose one between those 2 :

• Anxiety Disorder. or
• Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder  

Original Work, No Plagiarism, Cite and Reference

You (a research assistant) are administering an electronic survey about chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy to Edith, a participant receiving chemotherapy, in the infusion suite. The survey is administered using software on a iPad. You hand Edith the iPad and while she is clicking around to answer the survey, she accidentally navigates to the main page of the survey administration software, revealing the first and last names of everyone on the study. This is not the first time that a data privacy incident has occurred during the conduct of this study.

Discussion Questions

1. What security steps could you take in the future to prevent participants from navigating to the home page of the survey administration software when they complete the survey on the iPad? 

2. If you were the PI of this study, how would you explain to your research assistant the importance of data privacy/security?

3. If you were the PI of this study, should you report this incident to the IRB? Why or why not? 

4. In an alternate scenario, when you approach Edith to administer the survey, Edith says that she does not remember being apart of a research study. How would you respond in this situation? Should you still administer the survey?