Feng Zhilang, Zhang Hui, Liang Zhanming
School of Public Health, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, People's Republic of China.
College of Business, Law and Governance, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland, Australia.
J Healthc Leadersh. 2025 Jul 17;17:327-341. doi: 10.2147/JHL.S527992. eCollection 2025.
Nursing leadership competency is important for staff empowerment, quality improvement, and patient safety, yet inadequate investment in its development hinders its development. This highlights the urgent need for strategic leadership competency building in nursing management.
This study aims to examine the importance of self-assessing leadership competency in guiding Nursing Directors' leadership development and the relationship between nursing directors' leadership quality and nursing staff empowerment.
The cross-sectional quantitative study included two online surveys completed by 21 Nursing Directors and 260 nursing staff from two hospitals with >90% response rate. Two surveys were conducted: Survey for Nursing Directors adapting items from Management Competency Assessment Project to self-assess competency on leadership and professionalism; Survey for nursing staff using Leadership Behavioral Scales to reflect on Nursing Directors' leadership behaviors as observed by nursing staff. Descriptive statistical analysis (mean, frequencies and percentages) of the 21 behavioral items self-assessed by Nursing Directors and 19 leadership behaviors assessed by nursing staff were performed and reported Pearson correlation test was performed to test corrections of different variables.
Nursing Directors' self-assessment on competencies of leadership and professionalism yielded a combined mean score of 4.63 and 4.85 respectively. Between 35% and 60% of staff recognized Nursing Directors' positive leadership behavior which were significantly and positively correlated with four dimensions of psychological empowerment scale used. The study also found consistent differences in the results of the assessment by Nursing Directors and nursing staff between two targeted hospitals.
The study confirmed that leadership demonstrated by Nursing Directors are important to empower nursing staff and organizational context plays an important role in developing nursing leadership and improving nursing management effectiveness. The study supports the value of management competency self-assessment in identifying competency gaps and competency development needs amongst Nursing Directors.
护理领导能力对于员工赋权、质量改进和患者安全至关重要，但在其发展方面投入不足阻碍了其发展。这凸显了护理管理中战略领导能力建设的迫切需求。
本研究旨在探讨自我评估领导能力在指导护理主任领导力发展中的重要性，以及护理主任的领导质量与护理人员赋权之间的关系。
这项横断面定量研究包括两项在线调查，由两家医院的21名护理主任和260名护理人员完成，回复率超过90%。进行了两项调查：针对护理主任的调查，改编自管理能力评估项目的项目，以自我评估领导能力和专业精神；针对护理人员的调查，使用领导行为量表来反映护理人员观察到的护理主任的领导行为。对护理主任自我评估的21项行为项目和护理人员评估的19项领导行为进行描述性统计分析（均值、频率和百分比），并进行皮尔逊相关检验以检验不同变量的相关性。
护理主任对领导能力和专业精神的自我评估综合平均得分分别为4.63和4.85。35%至60%的员工认可护理主任的积极领导行为，这些行为与所使用的心理赋权量表的四个维度显著正相关。该研究还发现，两家目标医院的护理主任和护理人员的评估结果存在一致差异。
该研究证实，护理主任展现的领导力对于赋权护理人员很重要，组织背景在培养护理领导力和提高护理管理有效性方面发挥着重要作用。该研究支持管理能力自我评估在识别护理主任能力差距和能力发展需求方面的价值。
