The Practice of Caring Leadership: A Resource Addressing the Duality of Health Care

Healthcare    Managers/Executives/Administrators

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TITLE The Practice of Caring Leadership: A Resource Addressing the Duality of Health Care
 
RESEARCHER Britni Bolstad
Creative Nursing (2018)
Vol 24, No. 4, pp. 203-210
DQI: 10.1891/1078-4535.24.4.203

OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this research was to examine how a caring leader practicum experience impacts engagement in professional, relationship- based practice.

METHODOLOGY
A caring leader practicum experience (i.e., four-week educational intervention) was applied and delivered across a senior living home care enterprise. The practicum included interactive content on the foundation, knowledge, and principles of caring leadership, implementation management, building and strengthening relationships, and leading change in everyday practice (Creative Health Care Management, 2016). In order to determine the extent of leadership practice enculturation, the Caring Assessment for Care Givers (CACG) instrument and the Leadership Practices Inventory–Self were completed before and after facilitating multi-site practicum sessions.

KEY FINDINGS
In considering the change from baseline for the five leadership practices and the five CACG subscales, the mean change represented statistically significant improvement in all variables.

The author notes: “Themes and subthemes identified through phenomenological inquiry of study participants suggest that leadership and relational expertise can be described within the context of professional, relationship-based practice….. Home care team members do not differentiate caring practice from leadership and consider caring leadership to be an effective framework for leading with caring intention and conscious action each day” (p. 207).