Summary
Background
Effective nursing leadership is necessary for the delivery of safe, high quality healthcare.
Yet experience and research tells us that nursing leaders are commonly unprepared
for their roles. Take The Lead (TTL), a large-scale, multifaceted professional development program was initiated in New
South Wales, Australia, to strengthen the capacity of Nursing/Midwifery Unit Managers
(N/MUMs). The aim of this study was to examine the effects of TTL on job performance, nursing leadership and patient experience.
Methods
Nursing/Midwifery Unit Managers (n = 30) and managers of N/MUMs (n = 30) who had completed the TTL program were interviewed between August and December 2010. The semi-structured interviews
included a combination of open-ended questions and questions that required respondents
to rate statements using a Likert scale. Data from the open-ended questions were thematically
analysed to identify and categorise key concepts. The responses to the Likert items
were analysed via descriptive statistics.
Results
Nursing/Midwifery Unit Managers’ participation in TTL engendered improvements in job performance and leadership skills, as well as some
improvement in patients’ experiences of care. The program facilitated role clarification
and helped foster peer-support and learning networks, which were perceived to provide
ongoing professional and personal benefits to participants.
Conclusions
Our study revealed a consensus about the beneficial outcomes of TTL among those involved with the program. It supports the significant and ongoing value
of widely implemented, multifaceted nursing leadership development programs and demonstrates
that participants value their informal interactions as highly as they do the formal
content. These findings have implications for delivery mode of similar professional
development programs.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: November 04, 2014
Accepted:
September 19,
2014
Received in revised form:
August 26,
2014
Received:
November 18,
2013
Identification
Copyright
© 2014 Australian College of Nursing Ltd. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
