Nurses play a critical role in the field of aging services by motivating and teaching frontline staff who deliver the majority of hands-on care to patients. In the process, nurses determine how nurse aides view and carry out their jobs. Research conducted in nursing homes shows that good supervision can improve certified nursing assistant job satisfaction and the ability of certified nursing assistants to work effectively and make good decisions. Positive supervisor relationships may prevent certified nursing assistant turnover, whereas poor supervision can negatively impact quality of care (McGilton et al., 2016).
Nurse supervisors also influence job quality and turnover among home health aides in home care settings. Being a nurse leader is more challenging in these settings because nurses and frontline staff typically have limited opportunity for one-on-one interactions because home health aides are often assigned to patients across a large geographic area.
Despite the importance of providing leadership, nurses do not typically begin their careers with the necessary skills. That is because few nurses:
* Receive training to help them become effective supervisors.
* Understand that strong supervisory skills could help them work more effectively with home health aides (Siegel et al., 2008).
* Feel ready to lead others. When nurses start working in the profession, they often focus solely on mastering the tasks associated with nursing.
Once nursing tasks are mastered, leadership training must be the next step in professional development. A good model for that training is the online Nurse Leadership Enrichment and Development (Nurse LEAD) program. The program is designed to help nurses acquire critical leadership and supervisory skills. The Nurse LEAD program includes seven modules, which explore the following topics: leadership; coaching and supervision; critical thinking; managing conflict; communication; diversity; and working with management. In-person coaching sessions ensure that leadership lessons are incorporated into daily practice. The LeadingAge LTSS Center @ UMass Boston worked in partnership with University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Nursing to develop the Nurse LEAD training program through a grant-funded project. The program comes with an implementation guide and a companion document featuring activities to help nurses apply their new skills and knowledge in the workplace.
Our experience shows that active support is required to create and sustain organizational change. Providing nurses with opportunities to use what they have learned, coaching them through trials and errors, and providing a sustained focus on building leadership are all vital to changing workplace practices. Nurses can enroll in the online Nurse LEAD program through the LeadingAge Learning Hub. The program is available free of charge for LeadingAge and VNAA members, but there is a cost for nonmembers. We urge organizations to encourage a group of nurses to register for the training together so those nurses can meet together for mutual support and to discuss the Nurse LEAD content.
References