The Transformational Leadership Of Florence Wald

Introduction

Dying with dignity involves the good care that those who have come to the end of life need to be taken care of. The goal of this research is to focus on transformational leadership in the United States so that its nurses can take serious measures to improve the care of the dying. This exercise was started by Florence Wald, who played a very important role in the factors of transformational leadership (Buck, 2005). This idea of transformational leadership amongst the nurses rose during World War II, which relates to how the dying patients were treated poorly. Florence Wald organised a group of community members together, the health members, to create the first hospice in America in the year 1971 in Connecticut that would be used to care for the dying by slowly moderating their pain so that it would be easy for them to bear.

Problem and Purpose Statements

This study involved the very deep exploration of Florence Wald’s exploration and the techniques that she used to come up with the group of members involved in the creation of the first hospice in America through seven serious, in-depth- interviews. Documents from the archives of the Yale University library were also used in the research. It was found that Florence Wald’s focus on transformational leadership was mainly on respect for somebody’s life and social justice for all (Buck, 2005). It took her more than two years to ensure that descriptive evidence existed on it. She acknowledges that nursing leaders who mainly focus on direct insights through the sharing of values will have more success will have success in reaching very convenient results on transformational outcomes. Further, she says that nursing leaders who work together as groups will steer up very important changes in developing value-driven cultures that will help investigate decisions that align with the evidence and help obtain very supportive results (Buck, 2005).

Conceptual Model and Literature Review

Need for Transformational Leaders in Nursing is a motivational study by Florence Wald. It is believed that nursing leaders face a lot of difficulties in the world of health care. Most challenges they face are being less innovative and not creative enough to cater to the high demands that are emerging (Buck, 2005). The study shows that as improved technology increases in health care, the challenges of incorporating psychological, spiritual and sociological aspects in nursing health care have become a problem. Retaining and hiring nurses who can guide a very promising vision and help achieve the goals is very scary. This is because leadership skills are not taught in the nursing programmes. The research also further indicates that most highly professional nurses are unwilling to take responsibility as leaders in health care.

Through designing safe systems in health organisations, these experts have empowered nursing leadership. The study further articulates that leadership and very clear planning are very significant to the productive development and strategic plan for the future.

Through a case study over the last fifty years in America, transformational leadership skills have come into existence. This rose as a result of challenges on how the dying ill were treated. The start of hospice care in the United States was to help to find a solution to how patients were treated. Nurses followed the doctors’ orders very closely. Not all patients were allowed to associate with their families, and they were always hospitalized (Buck, 2005).

Florence Wald listened to a lot of mentors and educators about leadership in nursing in order to reduce the pain of the dying through proper care. In 1971, with the assistance of many members, she started off her first hospice care in New Haven. This hospice care was to help cover the sociological, psychological and spiritual needs of patient families. The study indicates that the philosophy of hospice care spread throughout America, and many programs were opened across the country. Florence Wald’s leadership skills were crucial in changing the way health care handled dying over a time limit.

Research Methodology

The researcher used a very intensive descriptive design approach in order to create a very deep understanding of transformational leadership. A narrative inquiry was used in this study to give a clear understanding of the quality of the experience. The study also interviewed seven individuals to collect a clear narrative of this important dynamic change in health care and write the story to help people understand the logic of it. These tales comprised the psychological, physiological and historical situations in which the events took place (Buck, 2005).

This case study used detailed interviews by Florence Wald and hospice starters to obtain clear insights and illustrations into a change of leadership and creating an important change in hospice care (Buck, 2005). The research also takes a look at three groups of documents found in the Yale University library by the Florence and Henry Wald archives. All the interviews between Wald and community members were also reviewed to aid in the research. Triangulation was the main strategic plan used to ensure that the information obtained was not biased in any manner. Also, there was a clear check-up among the members to ensure the findings that were obtained were accurate (Buck, 2005).

The research employed a sophisticated system to obtain enough analysis and organise it into chronological order as obtained. This approach enabled the researcher to display clear evidence to organise her data properly in order to obtain a clear and detailed analysis. Data collection and analysis were conducted simultaneously to give very clear insights into the narrative process. Finally, a case study database gave clear information on the study and how the data was arranged (Buck, 2005).

Results

All of the seven people who were selected to assist in obtaining a clear understanding of this research agreed that hospice care was steered by Florence Wald. The interviews also showed that group work motivation and having a lot of care towards the dying allowed Wald to carry out the research for more than two years. The study showed that Florence Wald was highly talented and very vigilant in monitoring the events that took around the world and did what was required for the improvement of the United States. The documents that were archived showed that Florence Wald had organised many forums and seminars for transformational leadership in health care. (Buck, 2005)

Enough evidence exists from the interviews that Florence Wald gave priority to outreach to raise a highly motivated team to initiate important change (Buck, 2005). She had a clear understanding of the importance of building social capital and participation of large communities in transformation change. Finally, the data showed that Wald created an agreement on a vision of meaningful change by working together with the founders and her workmates by asking them complicated questions to help set high standards of care.

Discussions / Conclusions

In conclusion, Florence Wald’s leadership was collaborative and consistent in that she actively brought the group together to discuss and share values to find a collective purpose larger than any member‘s vision. Wald believed that dying patients needed great care and to be fully supported in the end stage of care. Florence Ward was also highly committed to the value of involving the patients and families in the palliative care decisions (Buck, 2005).

The people who were involved in the interview for the research reported that Wald openly and always shared ideas and took steps that showed her motivation to connect their collective voice with evidence from research results to come up with new ways. Finally, Wald always asked hard questions to her colleagues and founders, which helped to improve the required levels of health care for the dying population patients.

References

Buck, J. (2005). Rights of passage: Reforming care of the dying 1965–1986. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Virginia, Charlottesville.