Why should nurses look into taking graduate leadership programs? There are many good reasons to do so.
Nursing needs more people who have management and leadership education. As is well known, there is now a shortage in all areas of the nursing field. Because of this shortage, there is also a lack of nursing leadership as well, which is essential.
In the rapidly changing healthcare landscape today, nurses more and more must take on a leadership role to ensure that patients receive high quality healthcare and to become more involved in healthcare planning. Acquiring leadership skills has become necessary to improve the quality of patient care.
Globalization, advances in technology, and expanding population diversity all make demands on nurses to increasingly handle complex information, coordinate different kinds of patient care, and use technology to deliver and evaluate results. Leadership skills are necessary to accomplish such a wide and demanding range of tasks.
The emphasis today is on patient-centered care, which emphasizes evidence-based medicine, a constant effort at quality control and improvement, and an emphasis on access to current health information. But for all this to happen, healthcare must become more interdisciplinary, with healthcare providers from different areas coming together to care for the patient.
These providers must discuss the patient’s condition and come to an agreement on a plan of care. And, as the person with the best knowledge of the patient, it is the nurse who is the natural person to help coordinate the different people involved in patient care. Leadership training will enable the nurse to work more effectively with physicians, physical therapists, social workers, pharmacists and other nurses who also are caring for the patient. Leadership training will enable the nurse to communicate more effectively with other providers, and advocate more effectively for the patient’s interest.
The profession of nursing will also need leaders if the profession is to fulfill its obligation to protect patients and promote the general health of people. With leadership training, nurses will be able to move into policy and regulatory positions, enabling them to influence the future course of patient care and healthcare in general. They also can then take positions of leadership at healthcare facilities and educational institutions.
Graduate leadership programs help prepare nurses for leadership positions in all areas of healthcare. The programs are designed to develop management and leadership skills for those who are practicing clinical nurses. The programs can include study in economics, finance, human resources, quality improvement and marketing. These programs will give the student opportunities to work in an interdisciplinary environment, to train them for such practice in the field.
Take your nursing career to the next level by earning your Master of Science in Nursing degree and Management/Leadership through Western University of Health Sciences’ College of Graduate Nursing’s MSN-CNL program. The CGN is one of the first nursing colleges to offer this new professional track. Most of the program is online, so that you may pursue your advanced nursing degree at times that are convenient to you.
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