Paper
Wednesday, July 21, 2004
Leadership to Sustain Knowledge Transfer
Wendy Gifford, RN1, Barbara L. Davies, RN, PhD1, Nancy Edwards, RN, PhD2, and Pat Griffin, RN, PhD3. (1) Nursing/Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada, (2) Nursing/Health Sciences, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada, (3) Office of Nursing Policy, Health Policy and Communications Branch, Health Canada, Ottawa, ON, Canada
| Learning Objective #1: Describe components of nursing leadership that increase the capacity for evidence-based change to occur at the clinical and organizational levels |
| Learning Objective #2: Compare and contrast skill sets identified in the United Kingdom, United States and Canada for effective leadership in nursing |
The delivery of efficient and high quality nursing care in today’s health care environment requires that nurses utilize research evidence to guide their decision-making in clinical practice. Best Practice Guidelines (BPG’s) are an accessible link to research evidence and an effective tool for improving quality health care. Despite reported benefits and dissemination strategies, knowledge transfer and uptake of guidelines does not always occur, and sustainability over time is seldom evaluated. There is emerging evidence that leadership plays a fundamental role for sustained knowledge transfer of BPG’s. However, an understanding of effective nursing leadership to sustain knowledge transfer remains unclear and research is limited. Objective: To describe the evolving development of a conceptual framework for sustaining knowledge transfer of BPG’s into nursing practice in Canadian health care settings. Methods: A critical review of the literature has been conducted. A model was developed to direct an inquiry about leadership characteristics and activities in 10 organizations that either sustained, partially sustained or did not sustain practice guidelines two years after the original implementation initiative. Findings: A conceptual framework has been developed to represent the key components of leadership and how they are operationalized for the knowledge transfer of BPGs into clinical practice. The model is an assimilation of the United Kingdom and North American literature and includes a pathway for personal attributes, defined skills and knowledge repertoires that emerge from 2 domains of influence: cultural/clinical and political/organizational. Although the literature shows many similarities between the leadership paradigms, some differences in discourse and approach were found. Implications: To create successful strategies to sustain practice innovations, we need to better understand how nursing leaders operate effectively within both clinical and organizational environments. This framework is groundwork for conceptualizing nursing leadership as a vehicle to influence, shape and sustain evidence based nursing practice.
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Sigma Theta Tau International
July 21, 2004