BACKGROUND: The leadership style of the head nurses plays a crucial role in ensuring a work environment that fosters high quality nursing care. Their role involves a range of activities that constantly change, and is therefore difficult to describe. In fact, we do not have a fixed set of characteristics to define the 'ideal candidate'. AIM: To understand how staff defines the key leadership characteristics of the ideal head nurse in charge of a hospital ward. METHOD: Between April-July 2015, 27 nurses were selected from the departments of general medicine in five hospitals. Three focus groups were conducted to identify the key leadership characteristics of an ideal head nurse. RESULTS: The ideal leadership characteristics are expressed through actions of staff empowerment, management skills, and use of coping strategies. All these categories require that a leader should be strongly determined, resourceful, enthusiastic, and willing to be a leader. When balancing 'what you give and receive', the main difficulty of being a leader is to be sufficiently determined to avoid exhaustion, which leads to emotional disengagement and consequently the loss of the leadership role. CONCLUSIONS: The level of determination of a head nurse, just like any source of energy, may sway. Therefore, it is important to recognize the signs of exhaustion and identify the strategy to rekindle determination. Sharing one's vision with others and job rotation could be used as strategies to recharge a leader's levels of energy, and meet the expectations linked to the leader's role. KEY WORDS: nurse manager, leadership style, determination, job rotation, vision.
BACKGROUND: La leadership del coordinatore infermieristico gioca un ruolo cruciale nel creare un ambiente lavorativo che faciliti un’assistenza infermieristica di qualità. È un ruolo complesso, di difficile descrizione, con un ventaglio di attività ampio e in continuo divenire, tanto che vi è una mancanza delle caratteristiche che definiscono “il corretto candidato”. OBIETTIVO: Conoscere la percezione dello staff nel definire le caratteristiche chiave della leadership ideale del coordinatore infermieristico ospedaliero. METODO: In aprile-luglio 2015 sono stati selezionati 27 infermieri del Dipartimento medico dei cinque ospedali dell'Azienda USL di Modena. Attraverso tre focus group, si sono delineate le caratteristiche chiave di leadership del coordinatore ideale. RISULTATI: La leadership ideale del coordinatore infermieristico si esprime nelle azioni di empowerment dello staff, capacità di governo e utilizzo di strategie di coping. Tutte queste categorie richiedono al leader di possedere una forte determinazione, intesa come risorsa interna, carica emotiva, entusiasmo, volontà di essere determinanti, necessaria ad espletare un ruolo guida. In un gioco di “dare e avere”, la difficoltà sta nel saper mantenere livelli idonei di determinazione, per evitare di cadere in un esaurimento e conseguente disimpegno emotivo e perdita del ruolo di leader. CONCLUSIONI: La capacità di determinazione del coordinatore, come tutte le fonti di energia, può subire fluttuazioni. Nei momenti di esaurimento è necessario ravvisarne i segni e trovare strategie per riattivarla. La condivisione della vision e la job rotation possono essere strategie per rialzare i livelli di energia entro limiti, al fine di rispondere alle aspettative richieste dal ruolo di leader.
La leadership del coordinatore infermieristico percepita dallo staff: uno studio qualitativo. [How staff perceives head nurses' leadership: a qualitative study]
Bagnasco A.;Catania G.;Aleo G.;Zanini M.;Sasso L.
2017-01-01
Abstract
BACKGROUND: The leadership style of the head nurses plays a crucial role in ensuring a work environment that fosters high quality nursing care. Their role involves a range of activities that constantly change, and is therefore difficult to describe. In fact, we do not have a fixed set of characteristics to define the 'ideal candidate'. AIM: To understand how staff defines the key leadership characteristics of the ideal head nurse in charge of a hospital ward. METHOD: Between April-July 2015, 27 nurses were selected from the departments of general medicine in five hospitals. Three focus groups were conducted to identify the key leadership characteristics of an ideal head nurse. RESULTS: The ideal leadership characteristics are expressed through actions of staff empowerment, management skills, and use of coping strategies. All these categories require that a leader should be strongly determined, resourceful, enthusiastic, and willing to be a leader. When balancing 'what you give and receive', the main difficulty of being a leader is to be sufficiently determined to avoid exhaustion, which leads to emotional disengagement and consequently the loss of the leadership role. CONCLUSIONS: The level of determination of a head nurse, just like any source of energy, may sway. Therefore, it is important to recognize the signs of exhaustion and identify the strategy to rekindle determination. Sharing one's vision with others and job rotation could be used as strategies to recharge a leader's levels of energy, and meet the expectations linked to the leader's role. KEY WORDS: nurse manager, leadership style, determination, job rotation, vision.
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