Leadership Application Paper. Sustainable healthcare project.

Leadership Application Paper
Name Course Instructor Date
Sustainable healthcare project                   
Depression screening in healthcare is one example of a sustainable healthcare project that focuses on implementing and improving depression screening to improve mental healthcare. Depression is a disorder characterized by the presence of persistent sadness and feelings of hopelessness. Depression is a serious public health problem because of social and economic impact. The mental health of patients in primary health care has severe implications for public health. When one suffers from depression, it is more likely that new problems may arise, making it challenging to adhere to treatment and affect the effectiveness of an intervention. It is essential to detect depression early to reduce the burden and risk of the disorder becoming chronic. There are different screening scales for depressive symptoms, and adopting depression screening in primary care would likely improve patients' overall health and well-being. 
Screening tools, instruments, or scales such as the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) are one way to detect depression in both clinical and non-clinical situations. Depression symptoms are associated with a decline in cognitive performance and, in extreme cases, interfere with daily functioning. PHQ is one of the most commonly used depression screening tools validated for the detection of depression symptoms. The nine-item questionnaire identifies depression symptoms based on the DSM-V diagnostic criteria. For the PHQ-9 tool, the scores range from 0 to 27, with cut-off points of 5, 10, 15, and 20. These points establish depression severity levels, such as mild, moderate, moderately severe, or severe depression (Levis, Benedetti & Thombs, 2019). The presence of depressive symptoms is determined when 5 of the nine symptoms have been present "more than half the days" in the last two weeks. For the range of scores, 0 is never and 3 is more than half of the days), and there is a question on how the symptoms affect daily life functioning.  
 Two leadership competencies                                                                      
Communication and relationship-building, and knowledge of the healthcare environment are essential leadership competencies that enhance the project's success. Communication and relationship-building are essential to clarify what is expected and gain stakeholders' support (Yue, Men & Ferguson, 2019). Open communication in an environment that fosters mutual trust is associated with support for changes. Relationship building is one of the people's competencies that often go hand-in-hand with communication as both open communication and mutual trust are required to create mutually beneficial relationships. Adopting the project requires that there is the dissemination of evidence and different stakeholders working together. Communication is an essential competency that makes it easier to influence and collaborate with others to achieve the set objectives and improve outcomes.
Knowledge of the healthcare environment is equally important as it affects stakeholders in the healthcare sector and would be implemented in a health institution. The lack of knowledge on depression screening guidelines is one of the barriers to screening and treating depression in primary care. Knowledge-based competence is necessary to support change projects with intellectual expertise and use the best evidence to support decisions (Broome & Marshall, 2021). Provider education sessions targeting depression screening tools and guidelines potentially improve knowledge and competence in depression screening. Implementing the project would require collaboration among different health practitioners with knowledge on depression screening and implementing change projects. Evaluating various project implementation strategies is also required to improve the project's success.
Management principles related to leadership 
Leaders align strategy with organizational objectives to ensure success, and one way to achieve this is through planning. Effective leadership requires power, communication, motivation, supervision, and decision-making. Planning entails proposing steps to achieve the set objectives and plans that consider all the possible scenarios and strategies to achieve these goals. To adopt changes there is more focus on depression screening, where is an emphasis on leadership to support change management, influence changes, and lead. Leaders should be open-minded, prepared for change and adaptation. Additionally, leaders ought to be proactive, including championing projects to create better organizational opportunities. The process of influencing others to achieve the desired objectives is voluntary. Leaders influence others, and they can manage an organization's culture and values while also focusing on fulfilling organizational goals.  
While the leaders must ensure that planning helps achieve success, they are action-oriented, leading the way and influencing others to focus on shared goals and objectives. Control is another essential management principle for leaders, and the function facilitates the achievement of plans, but planning precedes control. Controlling decision-making and evaluating the results of the decisions that were made, and control compliance with deadlines is necessary to make effective changes. Control metrics are adopted to compare outcomes to the expectations where corrective actions are then undertaken. In other words, control is necessary to ensure that plans are successful in detecting deviations and providing a basis for action to correct actual or potential unwanted deviations. Checking performance at regular intervals is required before making decisions on whether to adopt changes or support training. Performance is measured against goals and plans. The importance of planning and control is to use the resources to achieve project objectives or goals more efficiently and effectively.
 
Leadership theory applicable to the project
There are various leadership theories applicable to nursing, and leaders are expected to adopt the most appropriate approaches based on the situation and reduce role conflicts. Leadership entails influencing people to change regardless of whether the change is insignificant that change. Ideally, leadership ought to achieve the stated goals where there is a positive attitude towards change and using effective performance standards in that profession. Leadership is planned where the change is meant to improve nursing practices. The transformational leadership theory is relevant to the project where there is change management, and the health practitioners require inspiration (Fischer, 2016). The leadership style and theory require the leaders to identify changes and guide the followers or employees while embracing change and working closely with them to ensure project success. Thus, the leaders are highly committed to incorporating change while also being transparent and meeting the project members' needs. 
The transformational leader tends to be charismatic and can influence others, so they must be a person with full knowledge of what to do and capable of promoting action. The leader focuses on a long-term vision since he or she knows great changes take time, so leaders need to patient. Typically, the leaders work with teams but also motivate and inspire others to work independently. Inspiring motivation is essential as the leader project's vision of the future that is achievable encourages others to raise expectations while tackling key issues and conveying an organization's mission (Vaismoradi et al., 2016). Employees with this type of leadership are ready to go the extra mile in a position of greater responsibility.
The leadership style and theory emphasize authenticity, cooperation, and open communication. Leaders mostly allow employees to make decisions and take care of directing tasks. This is an effective style since the leader encourages the employees and the employees have a sense of accomplishment as they are highly motivated. Additionally, transformational leadership is associated with innovation or future planning, emphasizing continuous improvements and improved outcomes (Fischer, 2016). Adapting to changes requires strong leadership, where leaders are open to embracing changes and leading from the front while also providing feedback, so there is clarity on what is expected. Transformational leadership is beneficial as leaders challenge followers and employees to learn, leaders reward growth, and leverage the desire to improve.
Project Planning...