Paper
Friday, 21 July 2006
This presentation is part of : Career Building for Nurse Retention
Building Nurse Leadership Competencies
Karen Stratton, PhD, MS, BS, RN, PMA, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
The role of the nurse manager is essential to retention of staff nurses at the bedside. Its importance is evident in the observation that ‘poor supervision’ is a frequent source of health care worker job change.  The purpose of this study, therefore, was a) to determine the importance of specific nurse leadership roles and how competent the nurse leaders felt they were in their work activities.

Both current nurse managers and nurse executives (The Advisory Board, 2000) report the need for improvement in nurse manager role effectiveness.  The IOM Report (2001) has a number of recommendations relating to nursing leadership and evidence-based management.  Competencies to accomplish these tasks are essential to promoting a positive and safe work environment. The Edwards Leadership Survey eleven subscales are based on the critical need for well-prepared direct practice nursing leaders that can function within the dynamics of the healthcare environment (1996). The eleven subscales are: 1) resource allocator/financial control, 2) liaison/disseminator, 3) operations, 4) disturbance handler/negotiator, 5) leader, 6) communication, 7) technical expert, 8) interpersonal relations, 9) figurehead/spokesperson, 10) strategic assessment, and 11) entrepreneur.The Edwards Nursing Leadership Survey (5-point Likert scale) was administered to students from three Midwestern urban community hospitals prior to the beginning of the Administrative program. Data was collected at each facility during the first day of courses for those enrolled in the using paper and pencil questionnaires.  

Results indicated that the difference in “importance” and  “competence” means was statistically significant (Importance=4.30, Competence=3.50). This gap indicates an educational need to align nurse manager/leader competencies with work activities. Organizations can use this data to guide manager/leader development programs now and create effective nurse leaders with skill sets to provide quality care services and promote nursing retention. The project is currently in its last year of implementation, with another two years of evaluation to proceed.

See more of Career Building for Nurse Retention
See more of The 17th International Nursing Research Congress Focusing on Evidence-Based Practice (19-22 July 2006)