Community Nursing Case Study

The incident chosen to be described is from the author’s practice whilst in the community and reflects how the community team leader used her leadership and management skills to take action upon an event and empower the team members to undertake training and to improve their competence. The real names will be replaced with pseudonyms as per Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC 2015) confidentiality requirements. Mrs S, a 65-years old lady developed a leg ulcer on her right lower leg and was in the care of the community nurses after being discharged from the tissue viability service. Mrs S complained that after the community nurse's second visit, she was not satisfied with the compression bandages applied on her last home visit which was too loose, her leg was swollen and was totally different from when the compression bandages were applied in the clinical setting where she was seen by the tissue viability team. The community team leader recognised the need for the community nurses to undertake some training and to improve their compression bandaging techniques. However, she explained the situation to the community nurses and allowed them to sign themselves on a list of those who believed that they needed training to improve their compression techniques. Moreover, to motivate others, she was first to sign herself onto the training list. As a result, her example was followed by half of her team members. It is clear that she used her leadership and management skills to empower her team members to improve their competencies by undertaking some up to date compression bandaging training and in accordance with the Best Practice Statement (Wounds UK 2016). Fuller (2014) is emphasising the importance of the senior team leaders in guiding and supporting the staff members to improve their skills and practice. Moreover, West et al (2015) identified that the participative leaders have the power to influence the climate of the team. O Luanaigh (2017) suggest that future nurses must be dynamic leaders and representatives for change and outstanding in care, the combination of these provides the shape of the future nurse. The role of the modern nurse had evolved substantially to meet the population health requirements and the challenges associated with, namely, the increase of the life expectancy and the reduced recourses. Therefore, there is a great need for nurses to adapt and to developin order to comply to the modern model of nursing Sullivan & Garland (2013). The action of the community team leader had influenced some of her colleagues to follow her example. Her action can be categorised as being a transformational leadership. West et al (2015) identified that transformational leadership have the power to positively influence the standards of quality of care provided across healthcare settings. Although she has a managerial position, she used the role model and team building skills to create a motivating climate. Cherry & Jacob (2017) highlight the importance of positively influencing the performance of the team as the high quality of care delivered is enhanced if all members of the team are sharing the same objectives and goals. Moreover, this will bring in return not only the patients’, but also the nurses’ satisfaction (ibid). The community team leader was able to recognise immediately the need for the members of staff to improve compression bandaging skills. Her empathy and the skills that she possessed to understand and to motivate her team members and how she related to the team are identified as emotional intelligence (EI). Moreover, she used this incident as an opportunity to improve her followers’ skills whilst enhancing the effectiveness at the organisational level. As a leader, she used initiative to promote staff …show more content…
The 6 C’s were launched with the purpose to embed the compassionate care into practice and to improve the care delivered due to the lack and inconsistency of these nursing value being used in the past as identified by the Francis Report. Moreover, the 6C’s are seen as crucial and at the core of future nursing-“Leading change, Adding Value” (NHSE 2016). Gopee & Galloway (2017) suggest that this framework is intended to bridge the NHS gaps identified in the Five Years Forward View (NHSE