Clinical leadership @ hospitals

Clinical leadership increases the quality of patient care in the hospital! But what if bedside nurses are not aware of their leadership skills? Carmen provides that awareness and helps nurses grow as clinical leaders.

Research Theme: Leiderschap in de zorg; Samen werkt

Field of interest: Health and Care; People and Society

Duration: 1/03/2017 - 31/08/2019

Financing: PWO

It is clear from literature that there is a positive link between the presence of clinical leaders and quality of care. Quality is an essential component of today's rapidly evolving healthcare system. Nurses have an important role in organising effective and innovative care.

A clinical leader was defined, using focus groups and interviews with experts, as a bedside nurse who has no formal authority. Core characteristics of this nurse are clinical expertise, effective communication, flexibility, a sense of responsibility and a vision for the future.

But what if a nurse is unaware of her own leadership skills? What if this nurse does not recognise this role of clinical leader in herself? In this research project, we found out through literature review, expert interviews and focus groups. The need for awareness is clear!

Following the methodology of human-centred design, the needs and barriers of clinical leaders were identified. The research team went to work on this and thus CARMEN came to life: CARMEN - Caring Role Model of Excellent Nursing. CARMEN takes bedside nurses on a journey to create awareness among bedside nurses. In addition to raising awareness, the research project also aims to help clinical leaders grow in their role. The research shows that it is essential to focus on both bedside nurses and head nurses. Throughout the PWO, the following outcomes were developed:

Bedside nurses:
- Basic nursing education with the aim of gaining awareness of the characteristics of a clinical leader in nurses.
- Self-Awareness Tool that was validated using a Delphi procedure. It offers nurses a chance to hold up a mirror to themselves and gain insight into the characteristics of a clinical leader that they are strong in and where there is room to grow further. You can complete this tool here: bit.ly/ClinicalleadershipTSA
- Navorming by trait of clinical leadership so that nurses can follow the navorming that suits their personal needs.
Head nurses:
- Training for head nurses that shows them how to make their nursing department the environment to grow clinical lead ship.
- Concrete tools that can be used to work with nurses on clinical leadership (e.g. guidelines for performance interviews, compliment cards to make it easier to appreciate, tool to pass on information from training sessions to other nurses, etc.)