Development of Leadership Skills in Health & Social Care 1. Requirements Written Portfolio: 5000 words 2. Presentation This assignment should: - adhere to the Academic Integrity policy. - correctly cite all sources using the ‘Cite them Right’ version of Harvard. - have a completed cover sheet in the School of Health Sciences format (see the Module Handbook in VITAL for guidance).

 Advanced practice nurses play a crucial role in evaluating gaps, improving quality, and ensuring improvements in individual and community health outcomes. As a healthcare provider, the integral role of organizational management and leadership necessitate the utilization and critical analysis of underlying leadership concepts and theories while incorporating practice experiences to assess and evaluate the role and impact on health and social care. The current health and social care environment are characterized by dynamic factors of patient populations, technological advancements, healthcare disparities, and multiple challenges and opportunities including new laws such as the Affordable Care Act of 2010. The dynamic environment has presented new challenges of compliance and ensuring sustainability in the ever-changing environment (Ayeleke, Dunham, North and Wallis, 2018).
The current determinants of health and social care outcomes can be subdivided into internal and external factors that are forcing care delivery into innovative and transformative strategies for sustainability and compliance with the professional standards of care. Some of the internal factors that are shaping the current status of health and social care include staffing ratios and shortage of healthcare professionals following an exit by the aging staff and multiple cases of employee turnover (Ayeleke et al., 2018). Additionally, issues of financing health and social services, policymaking, demand for efficiency and accountability, and the influence of stakeholders in health and social care decision-making (Ayeleke et al., 2018). These issues are emerging as significant determinants of organizational success or failure. The external factors are equally challenging with technological transformations, a change in population demographics, political influence, and changes in economic factors emerging as some of the issues shaping the current health and social care (Ayeleke et al., 2018). The implementation of the Affordable Care Act, for example, has created new opportunities for patients by enhancing access and affordability while increasing challenges of actualizing these goals among the healthcare providers (Joseph and Huber, 2015; Vincent and Reed, 2014). This example, among other changing factors in the current health and social practice, underscores the role of leadership in balancing the opportunities with challenges while utilizing innovative strategies to transform and improve health outcomes. Nurse leaders and other health and social care leaders are primary agents of positive or negative transformations based on the knowledge and appropriate application of leadership skills and concepts.
The current health and social care environment present multiple leadership needs based on its dynamism and the overarching goal of sustainability – leadership in resource management and utilization, leadership in organizational and staffing issues, inter-professional leadership, leadership in advocacy, and leadership in patient needs, safety, and quality. The portfolio appraises critically the role and impact of leadership, application of leadership theories, and the application of evidence-based strategies to develop personal leadership skills and leadership competencies of others. The critical appraisal of evidence will provide current and applicable knowledge while informing the adoption of effective leadership skills in practice. The portfolio also presents an opportunity for reflecting critically, the status of leadership in the current health and social care while identifying opportunities for change and recommending evidence-based improvements or transformations.
Critical Appraisal of Role and Impact
Multiple studies have identified the current healthcare environment as characterized by workforce challenges, changing patient demographics and expectations, and increasing demand for access to health and social care services and resources (Ayeleke et al., 2018; Daly, Jackson, Mannix, Davidson, and Hutchinson, 2014; Fletcher and Marchildon; 2014; Joseph and Huber, 2015; Smith, Fowler-Davis, Nancarrow, Ariss, and Enderby, 2018). Within these challenges and demands, health and social care leaders have been identified as some of the primary facilitators and influencers of change and compliance with the new healthcare issues (Fletcher and Marchildon, 2014; Smith et al., 2018). In a systematic review of literature by Smith et al. (2018), some of the roles of nurse leaders included goal and vision alignment, liaising with stakeholders and other external agents, providing clinical and contextual expertise, and enhancing positive employee and patient outcomes at an organizational level. In another study, healthcare and social leaders were identified as mandated with the responsibilities of enhancing access to healthcare services and resources, increasing funding to meet health and social care needs, and improving health quality and safety (Fletcher and Marchildon, 2014). The combination of these roles shows that leadership is a crucial factor in the realization of organizational and industrial outcomes. It also positions the leaders as not only agents of change, but also the identifiers of the need for change and decision-makers in practice. In another study, leadership in the health and social services settings
Roles of Healthcare Leaders   
In a Delphi study by Fletcher and Marchildon