Transformational leadership model for nursing education leaders in nursing education institutions

Abstract

The nursing education leader provides visionary leadership to his/her organisation, as well as to the profession of nursing, and must have t he authority and resources necessary to ensure nursing education and training standards are met. This link between professional practice and operational activity of the organisation leads to greater involvement in decision making and fosters collaboration within nursing education and training and interdisciplinary teams. A collaborative approach contributes to quality education and training. It involves lecturers participating in a common vision for their workplaces and being recognised for their unique contribution. Nursing education leadership is required to work out work schedules and to ensure that proper service rendering is at the order of t he day. Nursing education leaders are appointed according to their academic achievement and not their managerial or leadership skills. Policies, t he environment, and the workplace have, however changed significantly over the past couple of years. This has left nursing education leaders without a proper model to manage and lead the structure of their Nursing Education Institutions. As part of the process of reaching the academic level, leadership skills will play a secondary role. Although this.is the reality, leadership skills need to be addressed as part of the total armour of the nursing education leader. Based on the problem statement the following research questions were posed: -• How can a model for transformational leadership be developed for nursing education ?leaders in Nursing Education Institutions . To answer this question the following sub questions were posed: -• What are the concepts and related concepts in transformational leadership for nursing education leaders in the context of Nursing Education Institution? • What is the relationship between these concepts and how can these relationships be constructed for the development of a model for transformational leadership for nursing education in the Nursing Education Institution? As it is the researcher's intention to identify the concepts from an emic perspective, the following questions were formulated: • What are the expectations of the lecturers, students and administrative personnel of nursing education leaders? • What are present leadership styles used by nursing education leaders? The overall aim of this study was to: • Develop a model for transformational leadership for nursing education leaders in Nursing Education Institutions. In order to achieve this aim the following objectives were formulated: PHASE 1 OBJECTIVES The objectives of phase 1 were formulated to enable the identification and classification of concepts in relations to transformation to transformational leadership of nursing education leaders in the Nursing Education Institutions. These objectives were as follows: • Phase 1(a) To explore and describe the expectations of the nurse educators, students and administrative personnel from nursing education leaders. To describe the present leadership styles used by nursing education leaders. PHASE 2 OBJECTIVES To develop and describe a model for transformational leadership for nursing education leaders in the Nursing Education Institutions, the following objectives were formulated: Phase 2 (a): To describe the concepts in the model for transformational leadership for nursing education leaders in the Nursing Education Institutions Phase 2 (b): To construct relational statements between concepts, Phase 2 (c): To critically reflect on the model for transformational leadership for nursing education leaders in the Nursing Education Institutions