Design: A descriptive, prospective design was used. Over 6 months, nurses from a region spanning 14 states participated through focus groups and mailed questionnaires.

Population/Sample: The Coaching Survey was returned by 414 nurses. Participants were primarily female (74%), Caucasian (76%), 41years old (M; SD=9.6), had a bachelor's degree in nursing and were nurses for approximately 14 years. They typically saw their first line manager every-day (44%) or at least 3-4 times per week (41%).

Methods: Experts reviewed the instrument for content validity. Minor changes were made and focus groups were conducted. Internal consistency, test-retest reliability and factor analysis were completed.

Findings: After the focus groups, the instrument consisted of 40 questions with high user acceptability, taking only 6-10 minutes to complete. Cronbach's alpha was .98 and one factor, “coaching,” explained 54% of the variance. Test-retest reliability correlations ranged from .52-.82. Male nurses scored their coaches higher regardless of the coach's gender and Caucasian managers were scored higher, regardless of the respondent's race.

Conclusions: The instrument measures coaching behaviors remarkably well, while being easy to administer. Nurses in the sample reported receiving a high degree of coaching except when issues of risk-taking or interpersonal confrontation were involved.

Recommendations: The instrument requires further testing with a more diverse sample of nurses and non-nurses. The Coaching Survey can be used effectively at the unit level or for an entire organization to provide managers with feedback about how their employees perceive coaching. Ultimately, interventions could be developed from the survey data to target areas of learning for managers and staff.

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Back to 15th International Nursing Research Congress
Sigma Theta Tau International
July 22-24, 2004