Title: Critically discuss the role of nurse leadership in maintaining quality of care, and factors impacting on care quality.

Learning Outcome 1 (LO1): Analyse the key attributes required for effective leadership and management.

Learning Outcome 2 (LO2): Compare and contrast various approaches to managing risk and uncertainty in the healthcare context.

Learning Outcome 3 (LO3): Apply knowledge of political, economic, policy, and organisational influences on the discussion of patient care and health outcomes.

Learning Outcome 4 (LO4): Examine the impact of staffing levels and skill mix on nurse morale and health outcomes.

This assessment requires you to complete a 3,500-word written essay. You are asked to provide a critical and evidence-based discussion of the role of the nurse in contributing to and sustaining quality of care through effective leadership.

You should consider experiences you have had in clinical practice, but you must demonstrate your understanding of evidence-based practice by referring to appropriate research and literature to support your discussion.

Assessment structure

Introduction (approx. 250 words) Briefly introduce your topic and its importance/significance to clinical practice. Provide a brief outline of your main essay discussion topics.

Main Body (approx. 3,000 words) This should include discussion related to all the module learning outcomes.

Part 1 Critically discuss the role of the nurse leader in sustaining and contributing to quality of care, including the potential impact on care quality of effective/ineffective leadership.

Part 2 Identify and critically explore approaches to managing risk within healthcare. You should include: An exploration of what we mean by risk management within healthcare. A critical discussion of approaches to risk mitigation and risk mitigation tools. An evaluation of the potential impact of risk management decisions on patients/service users, individual staff, teams, or the healthcare institution (to include the potential impact of staff numbers/skill mix).

Part 3 Critically evaluate the potential wider impacts of organisational influence, politics, policy, or economics on quality of care and health outcomes.

Conclusion (approx. 250 words)

Briefly summarise the key discussion points in your essay. Conclude your findings into a strong essay finish, e.g., insights gained, areas still needing to be addressed, and/or future developments/ideas to consider, etc.