Associations between nurse managers' leadership styles, team culture and competence planning in Norwegian municipal in-patient acute care services: A cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND

Increased complexity in the primary healthcare services has followed in the wake of health reforms and reveals the need for competence enhancement in the nursing services. Effective and visionary leadership, sufficiently qualified staff and cooperation among professionals are considered as key measures to safeguard quality in the services.

AIMS

To identify which leadership styles characterise first-line nurse managers in Norwegian municipal in-patient acute care (MipAC) units and to investigate how first-line nurse managers' leadership styles are associated with team culture and documented nursing competence planning.

METHODS

A cross-sectional survey was distributed to all the first-line nurse managers in Norwegian MipAC units (n = 229). Data were collected between March and June 2019. The response rate was 80.5% (n = 182). First-line managers' background information and data about their focus on team culture and competence planning were recorded. Furthermore, we noted organisational structural characteristics, and managers' transformational (relational) leadership and transactional (task-oriented) leadership styles.

RESULTS

The managers exhibited a high degree of transformational leadership behaviour, which was significantly associated with team culture. No significant associations between leadership behaviours and documented competence planning were found. Notably, we found a significant correlation between transformational and transactional leadership styles, indicating that the managers adapt their leadership behaviours to actual requirements and situations. Organisational structural factors: the share of registered nurses (RNs) on the staff and having a position for a professional development nurse were positively associated with competence planning.

CONCLUSION

A relational leadership style promotes team culture and both factors may empower the professional nursing environment. However, first-line nurse managers need to acknowledge nursing competence planning as a central part of effective leadership. Having a professional development nurse position seems to complement leadership and ease the manager's responsibilities regarding team culture and competence planning.

An overview of patterns and trends in nursing publications from the People's Republic of China

Objective

To explore patterns and trends in nursing publications from the People's Republic of China.

Methods

Using the Scopus online database, the author performed two searches in August 2019. The first search identified all items in the category of nursing affiliated to China, and the second search identified publications from China within one specific nursing journal. The author used a theoretical framework to provide a more in-depth understanding of patterns and trends within these items.

Results

The number of articles categorized as nursing, with listed authorship in China, within the Scopus database was 17,506. The majority of published papers were categorized as research. Top-ranking Chinese universities, such as Peking University and Fudan University, scored high in terms of several publications listed within the database. Although categorized as nursing, the most common source titles that are mostly high-ranking journals did not feature the high-ranking nursing journals. Identified authors were generally not affiliated with nursing schools. Focused analysis of one of the top-ranking nursing journals, the Journal of Nursing Management, featured top Chinese universities and consistent nursing authorship. Nursing authors were found to have lower h-indices than international nursing professors.

Conclusions

There has been a steady increase year by year in publications categorized as nursing from China since 2009, with the majority of published papers categorized as research. There is clear evidence of scholarly activity in nursing in China, both in the published literature and anecdotally in practice. However, nursing scholars need to do more to increase dissemination and ensure that nursing professors are leading and driving nursing research, although in a multidisciplinary context. There is also a need for increased exposure of Chinese nursing scholarship in high-ranking nursing journals.