Leading nursing beyond 2020 - the challenge and the opportunity

Nurses and ward managers' perceptions of leadership in the evidence-based practice: A qualitative study

AIM

To describe nurses and ward managers' experiences with nursing leadership in the implementation of evidence-based practice.

BACKGROUND

The implementation of evidence-based practice requires to identify the most suitable styles of nursing leadership for the successful application.

DESIGN

A qualitative descriptive study.

METHODS

The study was carried out with 57 nurses (clinical nurses and ward managers) in eight focus groups from five public hospitals. Template analysis, using the Promoting Action on Research Implementation in Health Services framework, was used. The Consolidated Criteria for Reporting Qualitative Research guide was followed in planning and reporting this research.

RESULTS

Three types of nursing leadership were identified: traditional leadership, medium leadership and transformational leadership. Traditional leadership was the most frequent, with a predominance of bureaucratic tasks for ward managers, so implementation of evidence-based practice is difficult.

CONCLUSION

Nurses do not feel empowered and they perceive the changes as an imposition. In the absence of strong leadership for evidence-based practice, a natural leader emerges.

IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT

Clinical nurses demand more empowerment for decision-making, and ward managers need clarity of roles. To create an environment favourable to evidence-based practice, it is necessary consider the role of the transformational leader.

Creating Empowering Conditions for Nurses with Workplace Autonomy and Agency: How Healthcare Leaders Could Be Guided by Strengths-Based Nursing and Healthcare Leadership (SBNH-L)

The COVID-19 pandemic had the unintended consequence of placing nurses in the spotlight because their knowledge and skills were in desperate need. While it will be years until we fully understand the impact that this pandemic has exacted on the nursing workforce, early studies have found that nurses have been traumatized by this event and many intend to leave the profession This seismic event only further exacerbated an already vulnerable and strained nursing workforce that pre-existed worldwide prior to COVID-19. The pandemic also highlighted the many challenges facing nursing leadership, in particular, how to create conditions to maintain and sustain a healthy nursing workforce. Nurses’ job satisfaction has emerged as an important predictor of whether nurses remain in an organization and stay in the profession. When examined more closely, job satisfaction has been related to nurses feeling empowered to exercise autonomy over their own practice and having agency. Autonomy and agency, in turn, are affected by their managers' leadership styles. Leaders are instrumental in setting the tone and creating the climate and culture that either values or devalues autonomy and agency. To help leaders create empowering conditions, we have developed a guide for leaders. This guide, based on the value-driven philosophy of leadership called Strengths-Based Nursing and Healthcare Leadership (SBNH-L), is founded on principles of person-centered, empowerment, relationship-focused, and innate capacities (ie, strengths) that are operationalized in eight core values. This guide can be used by leaders as their roadmap to create empowering workplace conditions that value and facilitate nurses’ autonomy and agency.

Future Challenges of Nursing in Health System of Iran

Purpose: Nursing development is considered as one of the most important ways to achieve the universal health coverage and sustainable development goals in different countries. Nursing in Iran has the potential to provide services at all levels of universal health coverage. Therefore, planning for nursing in Iran needs to recognize the future challenges. This study aims to explore the future challenges of nursing in the health system of Iran from the perspective of nursing experts. Methods: In this qualitative study, 11 semi-structured interviews were conducted with nursing experts by purposive sampling in 2017-2018. Interviews were recorded and transcribed and framework analysis method was used to analysis the data. Results: The results showed that a favorable future requires planning in three areas of nursing "governance challenges" including centralized nursing stewardship, policy-making and legislation, monitoring and evaluation, and cooperation and communication with other institutions, "inadequacy of professional development with social demands" including community-based nursing, nursing upgrades with disease patterns, expanding home care, expanding care centers, and use of technology, "human resource challenges "including nursing education tailored to the needs of the community, empowering nursing managers, recruiting and retaining nurses, and specialized nursing. Conclusions: A favorable future requires a coherent nursing government, professional development of nursing based on social demands, and enhancing human resources in line with the emerging needs of the future.

Nursing Now campaign and its impact on nursing education in a federal university

OBJECTIVE

To report the actions developed by a group in the Nursing Now campaign and its impact on nursing education.

METHOD

It is an experience report about the execution of the work group formed by nurse professors, nursing academics and master's students at a federal university in Brazil focusing on the Nursing Now campaign, developing actions in the second half of 2019.

RESULTS

The actions developed involve the creation of a work group and the active participation of the group in four major events resulted in the visibility and appreciation of the work developed by the profession.

CONCLUSION

The organized group promoted actions that had a positive impact inside and outside the University, expanding visibility to the profession and the actions developed. The academic environment, associated to the worldwide mobilization of the campaign, promoted a favorable context for the debate about the valorization of the category and leadership in nursing.