Managerial leadership for research use in nursing and allied health care professions: a systematic review

Abstract

BackgroundLeadership by point-of-care and senior managers is increasingly recognized as critical to the acceptance and use of research evidence in practice. The purpose of this systematic review was to identify the leadership behaviours of managers that are associated with research use by clinical staff in nursing and allied health professionals.MethodsA mixed methods systematic review was performed. Eight electronic bibliographic databases were searched. Studies examining the association between leadership behaviours and nurses and allied health professionals’ use of research were eligible for inclusion. Studies were excluded if leadership could not be clearly attributed to someone in a management position. Two reviewers independently screened abstracts, reviewed full-text articles, extracted data and performed quality assessments. Narrative synthesis was conducted.ResultsThe search yielded 7019 unique titles and abstracts after duplicates were removed. Three hundred five full-text articles were reviewed, and 31 studies reported in 34 articles were included. Methods used were qualitative (n = 19), cross-sectional survey (n = 9), and mixed methods (n = 3). All studies included nurses, and six also included allied health professionals. Twelve leadership behaviours were extracted from the data for point-of-care managers and ten for senior managers. Findings indicated that managers performed a diverse range of leadership behaviours that encompassed change-oriented, relation-oriented and task-oriented behaviours. The most commonly described behavior was support for the change, which involved demonstrating conceptual and operational commitment to research-based practices.ConclusionsThis systematic review adds to the growing body of evidence that indicates that manager-staff dyads are influential in translating research evidence into action. Findings also reveal that leadership for research use involves change and task-oriented behaviours that influence the environmental milieu and the organisational infrastructure that supports clinical care. While findings explain how managers enact leadership for research use, we now require robust methodological studies to determine which behaviours are effective in enabling research use with nurses and allied health professionals for high-quality evidence-based care.Trial registrationPROSPERO CRD42014007660Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s13012-018-0817-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Translation and linguistic validation of the implementation leadership scale in Chinese nursing context

“…The implementation of EBP in the Chinese nursing context is on the rise (Cheng et al, ), and leadership is likely to play a significant role in the successes or failures of such implementation efforts (Gifford et al, ; Hu & Gifford, ). Thus, validated measures of implementation leadership are needed to determine the degree to which leadership affects EBP adoption, implementation and sustainment.…”

“…Leadership is considered a critical factor for the implementation of EBP in different settings and among different professional groups (Gifford et al, ; Hu & Gifford, ). However, few published studies have focused on leadership for implementing EBP in China.…”

EBP Implementation Leadership of Frontline Nurse Managers: Validation of the Implementation Leadership Scale in Acute Care

“…Previous studies demonstrate critical attributes and behaviors of leaders that influence EBP implementation (Aarons, Ehrhart, Farahnak, & Sklar, ; Birken et al, ; Gifford et al, ). For example, Shuman, Liu, and colleagues () suggest that frontline leaders play a key role in creating practice climates that foster and promote EBP implementation.…”

“…During implementation, leadership behaviors of support, encouragement, and engagement have been associated with higher fidelity to implementation strategies (Augustsson, von Thiele Schwarz, Stenfors‐Hayes, & Hasson, ). Other leadership behaviors of frontline managers that influence EBP implementation include ongoing monitoring and feedback to staff regarding EBP use, role modeling, relationship building, supporting implementation efforts, and providing resources (e.g., EBP workshops; Gifford et al, ; Reichenpfader, Carlfjord, & Nilsen, ; Sandström, Borglin, Nilsson, & Willman, ; Shuman, Ploutz‐Snyder, & Titler, ). Despite recent findings regarding the importance of frontline managers to EBP implementation, common measures of frontline implementation leadership are not used across studies.…”

“…This hinders our understanding of the mechanisms by which frontline leaders influence implementation processes and outcomes. Studies are needed to demonstrate the validity and reliability of pragmatic measures of leadership behaviors specific to EBP implementation (Gifford et al, ; Lewis et al, ).…”