Research Paper on:
Leadership & Management in Nursing

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
Clara Barton and Lillian Wald not only changed nursing, but also society, by not supporting the status quo (Kerfoot, 1998). They were leaders. A danger in any established profession is  that it will regularly produce an abundance of managers and an insufficient number of leaders (Kerfoot, 1998). The following discussion, first of all, looks at the difference between leadership and  management and then broadens the scope of investigation to include the topic of power within this context. Managers are "maintenance thinkers," whose "goal is to make sure that the  status quo runs right, efficiently, and with as few problems as possible" (Kerfoot, 1998, p. 273). These individuals perform the valuable tasks of focusing on present operations while keeping track  of both quality of service and its cost (Kerfoot, 1998). However, managers, as opposed to leaders, use fixed formulas for every situation, including the out-of-the-ordinary crisis. They do not perceive  the necessity of thinking through new models of operation or the obligation to develop creative solutions to new events (Kerfoot, 1998). A leader, on the other hand, is a  creative problem solver who uses imagination to develop new perceptions of even ordinary events, "to continually critically analyze and question the efficiency of the status quo" (Kerfoot, 1998, p. 273).  Leaders create the future rather than simply become its victims (Kerfoot, 1998). They are generally thinking several months ahead, analyzing potential scenarios based on current based on current facts (Kerfoot,  1998). In this manner, leaders are able to shape the course of present day events so that they can react in a proactive manner to whatever may evolve in  the future. Leaders are aware of "many complexities, themes and trends in the future as opposed to the manager who sees very few and sometimes none" (Kerfoot, 1998, p. 273).