Nurse Leader Expertise for Pandemic Management: Highlighting the Essentials

The Relationship among Crisis and Emergency Risk Communication, Managerial Support, and Nurses' Social Capital During COVID-19 Pandemic

Background

The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly impacted the nursing team, emphasizing the need for effective emergency risk communication in public health situations. The current study aims to explore the relationship among CERC, managerial support, and nurses' social capital during recovery the from COVID-19 pandemic.

Method

The researchers utilized a descriptive correlational research design. The study was carried out at four large hospitals that provide mainly tertiary health care services. A systemic random sampling technique was adopted to select 839 nurses working at the selected settings. Three instruments were used; Crisis and Emergency Risk Communication, Top management Support, and Nurses' Social Capital questionnaires. The researchers used Spearman correlation, Mann-Whitney U test, Student t test, analysis of variance, and Kruskal-Wallis tests to analyze collected data.

Results

Significant positive correlations were noted between Crisis and Emergency Risk Communication as independent variables, and each of top management support and social capital as dependent variables.

Conclusion

COVID-19 pandemic had put significant pressure on nurses' social capital and their ability to communicate effectively. Thus, focusing on risk communication and managerial support are crucial for keeping staff social capital, especially during health crisis.

Implications for Nursing Management

Continuous training centered on risk communication during emergencies and health crises coupled with high managerial support would keep staff nurses' social capital.

Nurse leadership practices during the Covid-19 pandemic in university hospitals

OBJECTIVE

to analyze the leadership practices among nurses in face of COVID-19 pandemic in university hospitals in Brazil.

METHOD

this is a multicenter, qualitative and exploratory-descriptive research. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 139 nurses who worked in the care for patients with COVID-19 in Brazilian university hospitals. Thematic content analysis was carried out with support of Iramuteq® software.

RESULTS

Three categories were obtained: 1) Leadership practices with individual emphasis, highlighting decision-making agility and technical-scientific knowledge as relevant elements for professional performance; 2) Leadership practices with emphasis on the team and direct care for critical patients, presents the challenges faced in managing human resources amidst a high number of infections and professional absences; and 3) Leadership practices with emphasis on Safety and material management, presenting strategies to enhance patient and professional safety despite difficulties related to the supply of materials.

CONCLUSION

leadership practices such as adaptive capacity, transmission of trust in the leader, collaborative decision-making, encouraging team development, management of human and material resources, and effective communication allowed nurses to cope with the critical moments of the pandemic.

Reliability and validity of the Italian Version of the Chase Nurse Manager Competencies Scale

Objectives

This study aimed to translate and test the psychometric properties of the Chase Nurse Manager Competency Instrument (CNMCI) among Italian nurse managers and to provide further support for the scale's validity testing.

Methods

An instrument translation and cross-sectional validation study was conducted. The English version was translated into Italian using the translation method, which included pre-translation (establishing equivalence), initial translation, pretesting, review, and administration. From August 2022 to June 2023, 349 nurse managers were recruited through a web survey from 31 public and private healthcare organizations in North, Central, and Southern Italy. Validity assessments included content and structural validity. Reliability was evaluated using Cronbach's α coefficient and test-retest reliability.

Results

The content validity confirmed all the items of the CNMCI in the Italian version, including the two measurement sections, "knowledge and understand" and "ability to implement and/or use." The instrument's item-content validity index (I-CVI) ranged from 0.83 to 1.00, while the scale-level content validity index (S-CVI) for both instrument sections was 0.97. The confirmatory factor analysis showed an acceptable fit. In the "knowledge and understand" section, Cronbach's α coefficient was 0.978, and in the "ability to implement and/or use" section, Cronbach's α coefficient was 0.976. The correlation coefficient between each dimension was 0.494-0.908. The test-retest reliability score was 0.82, suggesting good instrument consistency.

Conclusions

Overall, the Italian CNMCI demonstrates good reliability and validity for measuring nurse managers' core competencies and supports the construct's multi-dimensionality. Also, our findings support the hierarchical nature of the factors, further supporting the validity of the instrument.

Challenges faced by nurse managers during the COVID-19 pandemic: an integrative review

Background

Nurses have crucial roles in caring for patients and preventing the spread of COVID-19. Therefore, nurse managers have a prominent role during the pandemic, being responsible for the support and training of the nursing team to ensure quality care. While performing their duties in this time of fear and uncertainty, nurse managers face several challenges.

Aim

To identify the challenges faced by nurse managers during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods

It is an integrative literature review whose search for articles was carried out in Medline, PubMed and Scopus. Qualitative content analysis was used.

Results

Twelve primary research studies were included. Four themes emerged: (1) Workplace demands, (2) Impacts on physical and psychological health, (3) Coping measures and resilience and (4) Recommendations to better support nurse managers in times of crisis. Nurse managers had their roles expanded or completely changed, and they experienced many pressures and stressors in the workplace. Nurse managers also faced physical and psychological health problems. Nurse managers drew on experience; management skills; social media applications; support from family, colleagues and hospital administrators; training, and continuing education to solve the problems that emerged due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Organisations should use collaborative, inclusive and participatory practices for better crisis management.

Conclusions

Knowing the experiences of nurse managers during the pandemic period may help health institutions and policymakers better prepare for emergencies.