Evidence-based practice in healthcare implementation

Evidence-Based Practice Section G: Evaluation

Section G -- Evaluation

Methodology and data collection rationale. The role of leadership styles and training in nursing situations has been described in the literature and there is a substantive body of work suggesting that leadership can significantly affect the praxis of nurses and the outcomes of patients (Looke, 2001). Training that occurs over time is believed to enhance adoption of desirable behaviors in the workplace environment, and to strengthen the implementation of transformational leadership (Bowles & Bowles, 2000). Because individuals develop leadership skills over time, it is rational to survey nurses who receive training in transformational leadership at intervals during and after training to assess their levels of transfer of training to practice. The Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI) will be used to conduct face-to-face interviews of nurses receiving training in transformational learning. Use of the LPI will broaden and deepen the data collected about the subjects receiving training, and will provide opportunity for comparison with the work of Bowles and Bowles (2000). In addition, surveys designed to assess formative mastery of the transformational leadership curricular content will be employed.

Evaluation of extent of achieved objectives. The purpose of the research is to provide greater knowledge of the training and development practices that lead to lower rates of attrition amongst nurse management and leadership. Measurement of this research goal will primarily focus on the practice and leadership differences, observed during the first two years of working in a management role, of nurses who have had training in transformational leadership and nurses who have not had this training.

Measurement and evaluation of outcomes. Explicitly, measurement of the attainment of the research objectives will focus on self-reported changes in the practice and the outlook of trained nurses, changes in work environments that are perceived to result from the transfer of training, levels of formative learning of curricular content, and the differences in attrition rates between these two groups of nurses. Data about self-reported observations regarding changes in practice and individual outlook of trained nurses will be collected through interviews. Data about the work environment changes believed to be related to transfer of the transformational leadership training will be collected through interviews. Data that establishes formative learning of the transformational learning curricula will be gathered through surveys. The measurement of differences in attrition rates, over the initial two-year period following first work in managerial roles, will result in quantitative data.

Validity. Quantitative data will be triangulated against the qualitative data collected through surveys and interviews of subjects. A baseline survey will establish levels of knowledge about the implementation of transformational training, about evidence-based practice, and about change in organizations. This first survey will strengthen the validity of subsequent surveys and interviews by establishing definitions and meaning of terminology used in subsequent surveys and interviews. The transformational leadership training itself will further solidify subjects' conceptual understanding, thereby contributing to content validity.