What Is Servant Leadership In Nursing

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Servant Leadership: Leading the Way to a More Just and Caring World
Amberlie Silva
Denver School of Nursing

Servant Leadership: Leading the Way to a More Just and Caring World Throughout history, leadership has been portrayed as the sole responsibility of select individuals that were chosen through circumstance or job title to do and achieve great things (Rogers, 2009). This concept of leadership implies that decisions are made to the betterment of those in powerful positions and not to serve the needs of an entire organization. Servant leadership changes this concept and places the importance of good leadership qualities on every part of an entire organization, by motivating others to “become the
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The emphasis of the leader must be on the fulfillment of all healthcare goals that best support patient care while embracing all the members of the healthcare team. The servant leadership model is very effective in nursing due to the fundamental nature of putting a patient’s needs first (Garber, Madigan, Click, & Fitzpatrick, 2009).
The author of this paper believes the most important characteristic of servant leadership in healthcare is listening and communication. Nurses must collaborate with physicians, each other and their patient to give excellent patient-centered care while serving the needs of their patients. This involves putting their personal solutions aside in order to effectively work as part of their patient’s healthcare team (Garber et al., 2009). Listening is the foundation of effective collaboration, which will facilitate a mutual sharing of responsibility and power over caring for patients. Servant leaders value the importance of input in the decision making process and the consideration of every member of the healthcare team as a source of knowledge. This emphasis on listening and communication reinforces the importance of effective communication and empowerment for all members of the healthcare team, including the patient (Rubio-Sanchez et al.,
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I have spent eight years as an Army Officer and as a junior leader, I didn’t feel that my position was as important as those placed into higher leadership positions. Frequently, all the credit of my hard work was given exclusively to higher-level leadership. The military embraces and creates Authoritarian leaders that direct others through commands, downward communication and punitive criticism (Marquis & Huston, 2015). I have learned that servant leadership embraces community and emphasizes the importance of all members of an organization. It can be applied to all organizations and not just non-profits, religious affiliated institutions and community focused workplaces. James Hunter, the author of The Servant: A Simple Story About the True Essence of Leadership (1998) specifically uses a drill sergeant in the Army as a character to emphasize the fact that the principles of servant leadership can and should be applied to all

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