Determining nursing service management standards in Turkey: A Delphi study

Business Acumen for Nursing Leaders: An Exploratory Qualitative Study

AIM

The aim of this study is to explore the status of and need for business acumen of nurse leaders.

BACKGROUND

Health systems globally continue to reform to deliver better care, while working within sustainable budgets. However, beyond leadership and management expertise, nurse leaders need strong business acumen to appreciate the complexity of the system.

METHOD

Two groups, emerging nurse leaders and established health system leaders, were interviewed for their perspective on four elements related to business acumen.

RESULTS

Business in healthcare was defined and therefore valued with variation across both groups. Adequate business education for nurse leaders was considered lacking by both groups. Inconsistent business acumen was seen as a barrier for nursing inclusion at the system level.

CONCLUSIONS

Business acumen is a skillset more valuable for the nursing profession, than the current educational preparation allows, creating a reputational barrier for nursing's full participation in health system level leadership, but is considered an opportunity for the future.

IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT

Improving the foundation business acumen across the nursing profession will not only raise the profile of nurse leader capability to input and influence across the health system, but also improve the wider nursing team's understanding around nurse leader advocacy and decision making.

Business acumen for nursing leaders: A scoping review

AIM

The aim of this study is to explore the current evidence on business acumen of nurse leaders.

BACKGROUND

Health systems across the world are under immense pressure to stay solvent, maintaining services within a defined budget as we recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. Effective nurse leaders not only need to have strong leadership and management skills but also strong business acumen to navigate the complexity of the system.

EVALUATION

A scoping review of research was undertaken, using preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (PRISMA) scoping extension checklist, with 571 studies found across multiple databases, 17 meeting final review eligibility.

KEY ISSUES

Findings were noted surrounding three themes: the value of business acumen in nursing, the gaining of business acumen in health care as a nursing leader and the utilizing business acumen as a nurse leader in the health care industry.

CONCLUSION

While nursing leadership and management were well researched, limited studies covered the specific focus of business acumen in health care for nurses or broader clinicians.

IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT

While evidence points towards business acumen being important for health care leaders in balancing care and cost, inadequate research limits the recognition of these professional capabilities of nurse leaders. Further understanding could inform future policy and curriculum, as well as empower our next generation of clinicians.

Enhancing training effectiveness for organizations through blockchain-enabled training effectiveness measurement (BETEM)

Purpose

Due to technology advancement or transparency in system, there is a constant inflow and outflow of technology in the business for transparency and efficiency. To seize a competitive advantage, companies have emerged new technological solutions to respond to the change in the organization environment. There is a surge in the requirement of learning opportunities and effective training programs in the organization. The current study has been an effort to understand the potential of blockchain technology that can create better training evaluation.

Design/methodology/approach

The electronic-Delphi (e-Delphi) method has been conducted by recording the final consensus and to find a balance for implementation of blockchain technology and measuring training effectiveness. The current research is one of its new types where blockchain-enabled training effectiveness measurement (BETEM) model has been formulated using a qualitative approach.

Findings

The study has considered human resource (HR) professionals as the experts and based on their responses, the formulation of theoretical network model has been structured using e-Delphi–BETEM (e-DLH–BETEM) approach. By critically examining the experts’ responses and comments, the study formulated the four major themes and 11 subthemes for the smooth functioning of the BETEM for an organization.

Research limitations/implications

The research aims to aid innovations in BETEMs model for training evaluation. The model will contribute incrementally toward the complete transformation of the training development programs of employees. The goal of BETEMs is to ensure that organizations, specifically HR personals can prepare themselves to have competitive advantage by using blockchain technology.

Originality/value

The application of blockchain technology in measuring the training effectiveness is an addition to existing literature as majority of existing studies have studied the use of technology for measuring training effectiveness.