Abstract
Nurses are routinely placed in front-line positions to take on leadership roles with little formal preparation. Nurses who try to balance the dual roles of their specialties as well as leadership roles are likely to encounter conflict or uncertainty, since, while they have received professional clinical training, they may not have been trained in leadership and its concomitant roles. Nurses’ abilities to be shift leaders and to understand their leadership roles will depend not only in their preparation for such leadership roles, but it will also depend on how organisations support and, recognise them in terms of time, resources and personnel.
The purpose of this research was to explore and describe nurses’ experiences regarding their leadership roles, and to develop recommendations to enhance the nurses’ leadership roles in a private healthcare day clinic in Gauteng. A qualitative, exploratory, descriptive and contextual research design using a descriptive phenomenological approach was used. A purposive sample of nurses who were in leadership positions (shift leaders) and who were willing to participate in the study was used. Data collection was achieved through in-depth, phenomenological, individual interviews. Data was analysed using Giorgi’s descriptive method of phenomenological data analysis. In order to protect the participants’ rights, the researcher adhered to ethical principles throughout the study. Measures of trustworthiness by ensuring credibility, dependability, confirmability, and transferability were applied throughout the study.
The central theme revealed by the study was that participants experienced their leadership roles to be challenging and multifaceted, with the two main themes emerging as follows: leadership roles’ experiences; and emotional experiences related to leadership roles. Recommendations to enhance the nurses’ leadership roles are made, as are recommendations for nursing practice and policy, nursing education, and future nursing research. The evaluation, limitations, conclusion, and reflection of the study are presented in Chapter 4.
M.Cur. (Nursing Management)