RESEARCH ARTICLE
Does a Nursing Associate Programme Team Work and Leadership Module Make a Difference to Student Nursing Associate Self-reported Leadership Skills? A Mixed-methods Study
Graham Williamson1, *, Beverley Maund1, Sandy Knowles1
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2021Volume: 15
First Page: 143
Last Page: 148
Publisher ID: TONURSJ-15-143
DOI: 10.2174/1874434602115010143
Article History:
Received Date: 24/3/2021Revision Received Date: 7/6/2021
Acceptance Date: 22/6/2021
Electronic publication date: 05/10/2021
Collection year: 2021
open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Background:
Leadership is an essential element in the skills of healthcare professionals at all levels. This is true for Registered Nurses as well as Nursing Associates, who are registered professionals with a two-year foundation degree programme as role preparation.
Objective:
This paper reports a study examining potential gains that might accrue from leadership and team-working module in year two of the Nursing Associate Foundation Degree programme at one university in the South West of England.
Methods:
We conducted a mixed-methods study in the summer of 2020, with a pre- and post-module survey using the Student Leadership Inventory – Self, and a virtual focus group on the video conferencing software Zoom ™.
Results:
The survey results showed a statistically significant difference between Student Nurse Associates’ scores before and after the module, with a moderate effect size. The virtual focus group confirmed benefits that included growing personal confidence amongst those that attended and that they could identify leadership styles and team dynamics in practice.
Conclusion:
As effective leadership is associated with patient safety and quality of care, we conclude that not only has this module been effective, but also that such preparation for practice can have important real-world impacts beyond the classroom.
