Healthcare Managers/Executives/Administrators
OBJECTIVE To identify the beliefs of nursing managers, determine educational programs about leadership as identified by the nursing managers; and identifying items that may impact teaching leadership and management at the Tucson Veterans Affairs Medical Center (TV AMC).
METHODOLOGY The nursing service at TV AMC consists of 38 identified leaders and all were asked to participate in the study. They received, via mail, a cover letter explaining the study, the Leadership Practices Inventory, and a demographic information sheet. The response rate was 59 percent (N=17). The typical respondent was 45 years old, a female, married, with an average of 20 years of nursing experience and nearly 9 years of management experience.
KEY FINDINGS Nursing leaders in this sample had responses (scores) "similar to the LPISelf as other groups nationally and globally" (p. 27). Enabling was ranked first in terms of frequency of use, followed by Encouraging, Challenging, Inspiring, and then Modeling. Respondents made no suggestions for leadership education, as they felt both too busy and too dis-enfranchised by the organization.