An empowerment model for nurse leaders' participation in health policy development

Abstract

The aim of this study was to develop an empowerment model that could be used to enhance nurse leaders’ participation in health policy development. The study explored the extent of nurse leaders’ participation in health policy development; built consensus on: essential leadership attributes and facilitators and barriers to nurse leaders participation in health policy development. A Delphi survey was applied which included the following criteria: expert panelists, iterative rounds, statistical analysis, and consensus building. The expert panelists were purposively selected and included national nurse leaders in leadership positions at the nursing professional associations, nursing regulatory bodies, ministries of health and universities in East Africa. The study was conducted in three iterative rounds. There were 78 expert panelists invited to participate in the study, the response rate was 47% for the first round, 65% for the second round and 100% for the third round. The data collection was done with the use of semi structured (first round) and structured questionnaires (second and third rounds). Data analysis for the first round was done by examining the data for the most commonly occurring categories. The second and third rounds were quantitative and descriptive statistics were used. The consensus accepted for the second round was 90%, and for the third round consensus was 70%. The findings of the study indicate that nurse leaders participate in health policy development though participation is limited and not consistent across all the stages of health policy development. The study revealed consensus on essential leadership attributes required for nurse leaders’ participation in health policy development, including transformational attributes, political skills, interpersonal and communication skills. The facilitators to nurse leaders’ participation in health policy development pertain to: knowledge and skills, involvement, image of nursing, support, structures and processes. Whereas, the barriers relate to: involvement, image of nursing, structures and processes. An empowerment model for nurse leaders participation in health policy development was developed. Implementation of the model may lead to enhance nurse leaders participation in health policy development.