Evaluation of Nursing and Leadership Competencies - a Baseline for Practice Development

Competent nursing and effective leadership are essential attributes for the provision of high-quality care which is patient-centred, evidence-based and outcome-oriented. The Department of Clinical Nursing science (DCN) of the University Hospital Basel (USB) initiated and implemented programmes of targeted practice development to promote competence in nursing and leadership. With the aim of generating data on nursing and leadership competencies, as well as on the quality of nursing care and the nursing work environment, an evaluation study with a mixed-method design was implemented in 2007. Within the quantitative portion of the study 679 nurses and 27 nurse managers participated. The descriptive results showed that nurses rated their overall level of competence on the Nurse Competence Scale high with a mean score of 75.1 (VAS 0-100). The rating of leadership competencies of nurse managers on the Leadership Practice Inventory was in the upper third of the 10-point Likert scale with mean scores of 40 to 50 (6-60). In order to permit ongoing monitoring of practice development, follow-up evaluations at regularly scheduled intervals are planned. With the introduction of a reimbursement system on the basis of Diagnosis Related Groups into Swiss health care, effective monitoring of nursing service contextual factors is crucial, now and in the future.