Do we build effective leadership skills in the nursing profession?

Nursing leadership development: why should any nurse be led by you?

Advancing leadership in medical radiation sciences: Incorporating systematic leadership education in pre-registration curricula

A competent nursing workforce plays an important role, as it will ensure effective management of the healthcare system by providing quality nursing care. However, from the literature, it is evident that the learning needs of new professional nurses are not well explored and documented. The objective of this paper was to report identified learning needs of new professional nurses to enhance their clinical competence to ensure that they are able to provide excellent quality nursing care to patients with confidence. A qualitative study design was used to understand the perceptions of operational managers regarding the learning needs of new professional nurses to enhance their clinical competence. The study was conducted at seven public hospitals in the three districts of the North West Province, South Africa, between September and November 2021. Data were analyzed thematic. Four themes emerged from data analysis: 1) Ethos and professional practice, 2) Management and leadership skills, 3) Assessment and observation skills, and 4) Documentation and record keeping. This study provides valuable information regarding the learning needs of new professional nurses. Understanding these learning needs can provide insight into how to better transition student nurses to registered nurses so that they are able to adequately and safely take care of a diverse patient population and work successfully as new nurses.

The lack of artificial intelligence applications in nursing education and the nursing profession in Turkey and the need for strategies for integrating artificial intelligence into the nursing profession continues. At this point, there is a need to transform the negative attitudes and anxiety that may occur in nurses. It was aimed to reorganize the professional transformation in this parallel by analyzing the effect of digital leadership perception, which is explained as how nurses approach digital technologies and innovations and their awareness of how and with which methods they can use these technologies on artificial intelligence anxiety and attitude in the nursing profession. The study was designed as descriptive, correlational, and cross-sectional. The research was conducted by reaching 439 nurses working in hospitals operating in three different regions of Turkey by simple random sampling method. In the first part of the data collection tool used in this study, digital leadership scale, artificial intelligence use anxiety, and artificial intelligence attitude scales were used, including questions determining the demographic information of nurses, their relationship with technology, artificial intelligence usage status and its importance in the profession. It was determined that 29.8% of the nurses had a good relationship with technology, 66.3% knew about using artificial intelligence in health, and 27.3% wanted it to be more involved in their lives. It was determined that nurses' perceptions of digital leadership were at a medium level of 46.9% and a high level of 41.7%, 82.7% had a positive attitude towards artificial intelligence, and 82.7% had low or medium level anxiety when their artificial intelligence anxiety status was examined. There was a significant and negative relationship between digital leadership and AI anxiety (r = -0.434; p < 0.01), a significant and positive relationship between digital leadership and AI attitude (r = 0.468; p < 0.01), and a significant and negative relationship between AI attitude and AI anxiety (r = -0.629; p < 0.01). Finally, it was determined that nurses' perception of digital leadership indirectly affected AI anxiety through AI attitude (β = -0.230, 95% CI [-0.298, -0.165]). It is suggested that the anxiety and attitude towards artificial intelligence can be transformed positively with the effect of digital leadership, and in this parallel, the digital leadership phenomenon should be evaluated as a practical implementation strategy in integrating artificial intelligence into the nursing profession. Our study showed that artificial intelligence attitude has a mediating role in the indirect effect of the perception of digital leadership in nursing on AI anxiety. It was determined that nurses' digital leadership perception, artificial intelligence anxiety, and artificial intelligence attitude differed significantly with demographic variables.

Nurses are on a lifelong learning journey. The Association of Cardiovascular Nursing and Allied Professions Core Curriculum for the Continuing Professional Development of Nurses Working in Cardiovascular Settings provides a ‘map’ to guide learning. Although there are challenges in defining what a clinical nurse specialist and advanced nurse practitioner are, advanced nursing practice must be ‘grounded in direct care or clinical work’ and requires additional and ongoing education beyond initial qualification. Continuing professional development is essential to increase skills, and is widely endorsed as an essential part of every nurse’s role. It is therefore critical that we work together as a team to best deliver patient- and family-centred care. Nurses exist as part of a skilled transdisciplinary team which is fostered by mutual trust, positive working relationships, and clear roles and responsibilities. Learning in, and on, practice is an important part of professional development. Skilled reflection is important for nurse leaders, who need to be able to reflect on how a team works together to improve patient- and family-centred care. Developing new nursing leaders is critical to the future success of healthcare. It is important for nursing staff at all levels to build effective nursing leadership skills such as team leadership and compassionate leadership, among others, for better clinical care and patient safety outcomes every day in nursing practice. Professional societies and associations such as the Association of Cardiovascular Nursing and Allied Professions provide an important support for lifelong learning and development of core skills.

Developing nursing management and leadership capability in the workplace: does it work?

The review that was conducted by Dr. Prezerakos [1] has contributed to the body of knowledge on Emotional Intelligence (EI). It was systematically conducted with the aim to highlight the importance of EI in achieving effective nursing leadership. Although several reviews were conducted on EI in the nursing context [2-4], this was a unique study targeting nursing management and leadership. The review provided a critical analysis of the presented literature and included both qualitative and quantitative studies. While a limitation, the data presented in the review are still valuable given the lack of randomized trials on EI and nursing leadership. Prezerakos’s article is not a systematic review, though it has summarized and provided basic evidence about the significance and influence of EI on effective leadership in nursing. The outcomes ascertaining the association of EI with effective leadership do not only exist in the health sector but also other organizations and sectors [5]. Therefore, the results of Prezerakos’s article could be of benefit to a wide range of disciplines involving leadership research. In this sense, the discussion of the article was circling around the importance of emotional skills of leaders in achieving a healthy work environment [6]; see also studies in Dr. Prezerakos' review. If we agree that EI is a viable concept which differs from the concept of personality, and if we agree on the validity and reliability of the different measures and operational definitions of the concept, we must agree that it can be an indicator of success and efficacy (see list of instruments used to measure leadership in [7], and the Situational Awareness and Emotional Intelligence survey designed by Wanda Curlee and Marie Sterling [8]). Leaders in health education and health services have introduced the concepts of EI into their work environments influencing the culture of the organization [9]. Prezerakos' review showed leaders the collective benefits of improving their leadership abilities by including EI in their plans for nurses. Understanding and improving nurses' behaviors are crucial for best patient care. 2. EI as a Skill EI is a concept where the skill lends itself to complement all other skills whether in health care or any other discipline. It is of importance to note that the previous decades witnessed an increase in the conduction of research investigating EI and its associated factors within different disciplines including nursing. Research outcomes showed that EI influences nurses' work and relationships with patients. This applies to all nursing levels starting from students, professional nurses in practice, finalizing with nursing administrators, faculty members and leaders. It is well established that patient outcomes can be improved if health care professionals show empathy and resilience towards their patients. As such, emotionally intelligent managers empower their teams hence improve patient satisfaction. Actually, the expansion of research outcomes in all directions make enough bases for shifting to such evidence-based- emotional intelligence practice [2]. As a cumulative skill, EI of leaders combined their previous experiences as students and practicing nurses into their new role as managers or leaders. Leaders' efficacy cannot be judged by looking at their past undertakings but their current skills are for sure affected by their past experiences. While each leader has his/her unique personality that shapes their vision, hence their leadership style, the key to any successful leader will be gaining intercultural competency which, for sure, requires high EI [10]. In this ever-changing world, technical skills alone are no longer sufficient. Every individual including leaders needs to possess some other non-technical skills such as intercultural awareness and EI.

Using a knowledge translation framework for effective interprofessional leadership: A nursing student perspective

QSEN? What’s QSEN?

Interview With Cathleen Wheatley, DNP, RN, CENP

The aim of the present study was to investigate emotional exhaustion, work engagement, and turnover intention in the nursing profession by exploring the antecedent effects of ethical leadership and job components such as decision authority. Emotional exhaustion, low work engagement, and high turnover intention are prevalent issues in the nursing profession. The experience of feeling overworked has led to feelings of burnout and low morale among nurses in Ireland, which has prompted the authors to identify potential variables that reduce these outcomes-in this case, ethical leadership and decision authority. A descriptive, cross-sectional survey design was used across three hospital sites. A cross-sectional sample of 89 nurses was recruited from three Irish hospitals to capture the experience of nurses between December 2017 - February 2018. Hypotheses were tested using path model analysis. Ethical leadership positively predicted decision authority among nurses. Ethical leadership also had an indirect effect on all three outcome variables (work engagement, exhaustion, and turnover intention). Further effects were noted in relation to the mediators in relation to the three outcome variables. Decision authority had a positive effect on work engagement and related to lower turnover intention. The present study demonstrated the role of ethical leadership as a mechanism to positively affect job control and work experience outcomes for nurses at work. Ethical leadership style in hospitals and providing nurses with the authority to make decisions can improve their work experience and help to engage, support, and retain nurses. The study found support for the positive role of ethical leadership in relation to decision authority and as a positive predictor of work engagement, negative predictor of emotional exhaustion, and turnover intention among nurses.

The nursing profession is wrought with high levels of turnover, particularly among new nurses. One reason for this turnover may be explained by a disparity between what new nurses expect in terms of communication from leaders and coworkers and what they realistically receive. This study uses a mixed-methods experimental design to explore young adult nursing students’ preferences for manager communication behaviors, how different managerial archetypes influence nursing students’ perceptions of their leader, and how personal factors may influence nursing students’ preferences for various managerial styles. Findings suggest that new nurses prefer more mentor- and teacher-type managers and that managerial archetypes influence young adult nursing students’ perceptions of leader credibility, effectiveness, leader-member exchange, and employee commitment. Furthermore, personal factors such as self-worth and desire for relational communication behaviors influence preferred manager type. Participants’ qualitative responses reveal several task and behavioral wants and needs of new nurses. Findings from this study can informatively help to bridge the gap between expectations and reality in the nursing profession, thus addressing a potential reason for consistent turnover.

Background: Leadership and management skills are essential and foundational in nursing, yetthey arevery complex and built through years of work experiences.Aim: Toexamine newly graduate nurses’ preparedness of their knowledge, attitude and practice ofleadership and managementskills after aone-year induction programme in the clinical setting.Methods:A cross-sectional study on newly graduated Registered Nurses in Brunei Darussalamusingsurvey developed from key indicators ofthe Nursing Board for Brunei Darussalam and InternationalCouncil of Nurses.Results:Knowledge level of leadership and management skills ranged from 66.1% to 100%. Attitudescore was between 15.2% to 93.2%. Practice score was between 19.0% to 94.9%. The results showedthat nurses with clinical experiences are more prepared in terms of knowledge, attitude and practiceof various leadership and management skills compared to those immediately working in managerialposition. Some leadership and management skills (such as task-oriented management and conflictmanagement) were enhanced, and yet certain essential skills (such as advocacy and communicationwith patients) were diminished as nurses acquired more work experiences.Conclusion: A well-defined framework on foundational leadership and management skills is deemedimportant that should commence from nursing educational preparation and consistently assessed andmonitored throughout the nursing profession.

Attention Nurses: It's Time to Think Outside the Box

While the importance of nursing best practice champions has been widely promoted in the diffusion of evidence-based practice, there has been little research about their role. By learning more about what champions do in guideline diffusion, the nursing profession can more proactively manage and facilitate the role of champions while capitalizing on their potential to be effective leaders of the health care system. To determine how nursing best practice champions influence the diffusion of Best Practice Guideline recommendations. A mixed method sequential triangulation design was used involving two phases: (1) key informant interviews with 23 champions between February and July 2006 and (2) a survey of champions (N= 191) and administrators (N= 41) from September to October 2007. Qualitative findings informed the development of surveys and were used in interpreting quantitative information collected in phase 2. Most interview and survey participants were female, employed full-time, and had worked in practice for over 20 years. Qualitative and quantitative findings suggest that champions influence the use of Best Practice Guideline recommendations most readily through: (1) dissemination of information about clinical practice guidelines, specifically through education and mentoring; (2) being persuasive practice leaders at interdisciplinary committees; and (3) tailoring the guideline implementation strategies to the organizational context. Our research suggests that nursing best practice champions have a multidimensional role that is well suited to navigating the complexities of a dynamic health system to create positive change. Understanding of this role can help service organizations and the nursing profession more fully capitalize on the potential of champions to influence and implement evidence-based practices to advance positive patient, organizational, and system outcomes.