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Link to Study Website http://publish.uwo.ca/~hkl/nls/nls.html

Co-Principal Investigators: Heather Laschinger and Carol Wong
Co-Investigators: Sandra Letton, Piotr Wilk, Sandra MacDonald-Rencz, Mary-Ellen Gurnham, Leslie Vincent, Sue Matthews, Sherri Huckstep,  Maurio Ruffolo, Vanessa Burkoski, Doris Grinspun, Greta Cummings, Judith Ritchie, Michael Leiter, Danielle D’Amour, Maura MacPhee, Linda O’Brien-Pallas
Study Period: September 2009 – August 2012
Funding: Canadian Institute of Health Research – Partnerships for Health System Improvement

Background: This study builds on the results of our previous CIHR funded study entitled “A Profile of the Structure and Impact of Nursing Management in Canadian Hospitals” (2004-2007) that investigated the profile of nursing leadership in Canada after the period of restructuring in the 1990’s (Laschinger & Wong et al., 2007). A key finding of that study revealed that the average age of nurse managers across the country was 52 years of age, which raised serious concerns about a nursing leadership shortage in the next 5-10 years. Approximately 6% of the nursing workforce holds nursing management roles (CIHI, 2005). Based on the projected shortage of 113 000 nurses by 2016 (CNA), these data suggest that the profession could be short 6780 nurse managers within the next decade. In order to implement leadership development opportunities to prepare the next generation of nursing management, research is needed to identify personal and work-related factors that influence direct care nurses’ aspirations to nursing management roles.

Research Questions: The research questions are: 1) What are the personal and situational factors that influence direct care nurses’ interests in assuming nursing management roles within their careers? 2) What proportion of staff nurses express interest in managerial roles? 3) What reasons do they give for their interest or lack of interest in assuming these roles? 4) What learning needs do nurses identify as relevant to preparing themselves for leadership roles? 5) What is the relationship between personal and situational factors and nurses’ aspirations to nursing leadership roles?

Method: The study will consist of 2 phases and use both qualitative and quantitative methods to gather data to address the research questions. In Phase I, we will conduct focus groups in 4 regions across Canada (West, Ontario, Quebec, Atlantic) to investigate direct care nurses’ interests in formal nursing management roles within their careers, and to identify what factors are involved in increasing the likelihood of their career aspirations to management roles. We anticipate having 5 focus groups per region, each involving up to 10 nurses. Three focus groups per region will involve staff nurses who are recruited from the Professional Practice Councils of purposively selected regional health organizations, from urban hospitals, and from rural hospitals. One focus group per region with both unit-level leaders (i.e. charge nurses, resource nurses, clinical educators, etc.) and one focus group will involve formal unit managers. We will also conduct telephone interviews with 5 new nurse leaders per region with less than 2 years of experience. Nurses’ responses to open-ended questions about their interests in becoming nurse managers will be content analyzed and compared to factors identified in the literature. Knowledge gained from this phase will be used to develop a national survey of nurses across the country in Phase II.

In Phase II, a national survey of direct care nurses will be conducted using a proportional random sample drawn from each provincial registry body where feasible. We estimate approximately 6000 nurses would provide a reasonable representation of the potential manager applicant pool and provide sufficient sample size to obtain stable estimates among variables in our conceptual model. The survey questionnaire will contain standardized questionnaires that measure the variables of interest in our model, as well as new items that capture key points identified in the Phase I focus groups. This study will provide a national database identifying direct care nurses’ interests in taking on nursing leadership roles and factors that influence these career expectations. It is reasonable to expect that this model may generalize to other health care professionals who are also facing similar leadership shortages within the next decade.