Monday, 30 October 2017
The acute care hospital clinical environment is characterised by increasing patient acuity and chronicity, increasing nurse shortage and workload issues, and increasing accountability and financial constraints. Drivers to meet the positive patient centred care outcomes desired by healthcare organisations includes an investment in the graduate nurse workforce through attributes that inspire and motivate positive graduate attitudes, behaviours and values. The supernumerary Clinical Nurse Educator (CNE), who may or may not have a formal position of leadership, actively engages with GRNs to promote patient safety and quality of care, provide access to resources and empower change for the benefit of patient outcomes. The CNE in the clinical environment does not have a direct patient care role, and as such it is difficult to quantify the leadership influence of the supernumerary role directly on patient’s quality of care and outcomes. In addition, the CNE role is not always recognised or esteemed at management level, but is valued by nurses at the point of care. CNE leadership has been identified in the literature as necessary and likely to influence the promotion and achievement of competent and confident professional nurses and quality and safe patient outcomes in the healthcare organisation. Therefore, in order to articulate the CNE clinical leadership the newly qualified graduate registered nurse (GRN) was used as the lens through which the CNE clinical leadership was evaluated. This poster presents the mixed methods research on the impact of the supernumerary CNE role and leadership on the clinical support of the GRNs’ in their transition to practice year. The results suggest the CNE leadership is associated with the congruent leadership style. The CNE is committed to clinical support through leadership attributes that is effective and valuable in advancing the safe practice and positive patient outcomes of the GRNs’ through their influential presence and optimal use of available resources in contemporary nursing.