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eCourageous
  Summer 2013
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Courageous Healthcare's 2013 AONE Raffle Gift - a beautiful Swarovski necklace - was won by Dr. Linda Hofler, Senior Vice President at Vidant Health in Greenville, NC. 

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Dr. Hofler! 


Inspirations


"You cannot build character and courage by taking away a person's initiative and independence."

 

Abraham Lincoln 
Modeling Power

Power. It is the ability to influence others' decisions. And while power can be coercive or manipulative, successful organizations and leaders recognize that effective power results in others voluntarily making the "right" decisions.

 

Indeed, power has been the subject of extensive study by psychologists and researchers. In 1959, social psychologists John French and Betram Raven identified five key sources of power, and two -- expert power and referent power -- have emerged as critical to effective leadership today.  

 

French and Raven defined expert power as that which derives from information, knowledge or expertise. Referent power, on the other hand, is acquired from being respected or well-liked -- a role model if you will.

 

No doubt healthcare administrators hold "authority" power based on their organizational roles, but how do you enable direct care workers to consistently leverage their expert and referent powers?  How do you cultivate an environment in which they feel empowered to fulfill the Institute of Medicine's (IOM) call to redesign the healthcare system?

 

Six Steps to Model Power

Here are six ways to ensure that your employees are optimizing their knowledge, skills and certification:

  1. Set high standards, and others will model those expectations.
  2. Continue your education -- both formal and informal -- and others will follow your lead.
  3. Stay involved in professional organizations.
  4. Use reflective practice. 
  5. Give credit where credit is due. 
  6. Show employees that you are sharing rather than hoarding information.
 
 
What Clients are Saying About Our Work on Shared Governance 

 

  

"The Courageous Healthcare consultants assisted The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania Nursing Department to solidify our perceptions regarding what is needed to evolve and improve our existing shared governance model. Their materials were very useful and assisted us to seed a more facile advancement to a new framework and functionality."

 

 

-- Victoria L. Rich, PhD, RN, FANN

   Chief Nurse Executive

   Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania

 

 

Introducing ... 
GEMS Shared Governance Trial Kit


We are looking for courageous leaders to test GEMS Shared Governance in their organizations. Our kit provides you with the tools to make shared governance real for one nursing unit, department or group of up to 50 participants. You manage the process and test it to determine if it is beneficial for your entire organization. The trial kit includes:

 

  • A certificate for up to 50 single-use licenses for the GEMS NPC effectiveness scale (GEMS NPCes). Up to 50 nurses, managers and executives assess the shared governance competencies of one nursing unit, department or group.
  • Quick and highly reliable assessments that are completed online. Both an initial assessment and a six-month follow-up assessment are included.
  • A colorful and easy-to-read Feedback Report delivered electronically after the Self-Assessments are completed
  • The GEMS NPCes GEMS Self-Assessment Manual to help teams review and discuss their Feedback Report
  • Two copies of the GEMS NPC Guide, a field-tested and user-friendly set of practical tips and tools that team members use to improve their competencies for shared governance
  • One-hour of telephone consultation
To learn more about the trial kit, call (407) 733-1448 or (407) 376-3740, or click here to complete a very simple form, and we'll get in touch with you.

 

Modeling Power                                                  Continued..........  Continued 

 

Generating Referent Power

Referent power emerges from employees' respect for and their desire to be liked and admired by their leader. According to Grossman and Valiga, there is inherently more power and leverage in serving your followers versus them attempting to simply serve you. A few tips for maximizing referent power:

  1. Use good communication skills.
  2. Build coalition.
  3. Be able to receive and offer constructive criticism. 
  4. Eliminate unnecessary dependence.
  5. Be consistent and dependable.
  6. Be humble and patient.
Nurses Play a Powerful Role in Redesigning Healthcare

The IOM's 2011 Report on the Future of Nursing:  Leading Change, Advancing Health, calls on nurses "to act as partners with other health professionals and to lead in the improvement and redesign of the healthcare system and its many practice environments." This is no simple call to action and requires a new way of thinking about nursing practice. Expert and referent sources of power can influence others' decisions without manipulation or coercion. Leadership is not embedded in a person but in a situation. All nurses can contribute leadership, especially according to their knowledge (expert source) and relationships (referent source).

 

Over the past 20 years, nursing shared governance has evolved into a valuable and powerful tool to influence positive change and is now one of the criteria to achieve Magnet certification from the American Nurses Credentialing Center. The IOM believes the next step in this evolution focuses on scientific understanding as a key to system-level transformation, especially as financial constraints tighten. Moving forward, nursing shared governance efforts will demand more practical, measurable results -- substantive, rigorous evidence necessary to change practices, policies and payment systems.

 

With measurement and systematic study, nursing shared governance itself can undergo ongoing improvement. And with evidence about the contribution of nursing shared governance, nursing leaders will gain the evidence and experiences that foster respect and collaboration from other clinical disciplines and administrators across care settings. By creating the context for nurses to liberate their own power, healthcare organizations can reap the rewards of loyalty, retention and ultimately, improved performance.