Curtis et al. (2011, p.309) stated that clinical leadership is an important part of nursing practice which should be started ‘at the earliest stages of basic nursing education and training’. I propose to critically examine clinical leadership education for nursing students, overcoming barriers to clinical leadership education and developing future clinical leaders in the implementation for health care policy and practice
I intend to publish this article in the Journal of Advanced Nursing and use Harvard reference style as stipulated in the ‘Author Guidelines’ of the Journal (see Attached Appendix).
Key words clinical leadership, education, nursing students, nurse leaders INTRODUCTION Over recent years, emphasis on the clinical leadership has been shown by a significant increase in the number of publications on the topic. Understanding of clinical leadership has become a crucial issue ‘for developing work force competence, innovation and quality improvement initiatives’ (Stanley 2014, p. 126). Nurses are ideal roles to offer clinical leadership to optimize patient outcomes (Casey et al. …show more content…
2011). McKee et al. (2013) found that sustaining clinical leadership behaviours among nursing staff was not sufficient by providing clinical leadership training, therefore, introducing clinical leadership skills should be started at the early stage of nursing education and training (Curtis et al. 2011). Relevant and contemporary curricula related to clinical leadership skills are needed to respond realities at the workplace and prepare students as future clinical leaders being able to manage and adjust rapid changes, intense pressures, and chaotic workplaces. Undergraduate students in nursing require to be improving clinical leadership skills and having good communication skills to adjust the workplace culture and provide optimum patient care (Middleton 2013).
This paper will focus on clinical leadership in the context of nursing education. Then, overcoming obstacles to clinical leadership education will be discussed. This will be followed by developing future clinical leaders in the implementation for health care policy and practice. BACKGROUND Clinical leadership is defined as an ability of a clinical leader to steer the intrapersonal and the interpersonal capabilities and to ascertain the provision of quality care in many settings including complex health system and the lack of local workforce (Fealy et al. 2011). Clinical leadership has been associated with providing high quality patient care (Casey et al. 2011), developing healthy work environment (Fealy et al. 2011; Sherman & Pross 2010), and increasing job satisfaction level (Atefi et al. 2014). Demeh & Rosengren (2015) stated that clinical leadership skills bridge the gap between theory and practice in the educational process by facilitating the transition from student life to workplace environment. Lekan et al. (2011) reported that clinical leadership program had directly impact on undergraduate …show more content…
Demeh & Rosengren (2015, pp. 890-1) reported that students in their last year of study at bachelor level felt anxiety when the clinical leadership course started ‘due to the lack of knowledge and skills in nursing management’, met difficulties in integrating the theory and practice, and felt nervous to provide patient care as a forthcoming nurse. Hence, newly graduate nurses are not well prepared to be clinical leaders and to practice in demanding and consistently changing work environment (Curtis et al. 2011). Overcoming these obstacles needs supervisor as role models and vision to bridge the gap of theory and practice. In addition, university stakeholders and nursing organization should focus on the learning needed to produce well skilled