Nurses’ lived experience serving on unit-based councils: A literature review

Abstract

Introduction: Shared governance (SG) is an organizational model that allows frontline nurses to have control over their daily work environment and nursing practice. Unit-based councils (UBC) are an important operational element of SG and its members are frontline nursing staff. Purpose and methods: The purpose of this paper is to review the literature on UBCs and SG, staff nurses' perceptions, and factors that influence their adoption and successful implementation. Results: Five major themes emerged from the literature: perception of SG; leadership implications; improvement in patient care; increase in job satisfaction; and improvement in work environment. Conclusions: Nurses serving on UBCs have perspectives different from managers on the success of SG and UBCs. SG is viewed as a journey that requires continuous support from nurse leaders to address any issues that may arise during this journey.

Nurses' critical reflections of working in unit practice councils—A qualitative interview study

“…The support of nurse leaders is vital for the work of the councils (Cox Sullivan et al, 2017;Gabel Speroni et al, 2021), but many times nurse leaders and personnel have different perceptions about what the meaning of the council is and how shared governance really is (Hamad & Kehyayan, 2018;Hess, 2011). Nurse managers are more often found to perceive that nurses are involved in decision-making (Choi, 2021;Hess, 2011) while nurses do not see any difference in governance and can be confused about the role of the councils (Hamad & Kehyayan, 2018). The current study set out to gain a deeper understanding about the lived experience of nurses working as unit practice council members.…”

The functionality of unit practice councils and its relationship with nurses' accountability: A cross‐sectional study

“…Engaging nurses at the service point in raising clinical and operational issues is linked to greater levels of empowerment and confidence pertaining to shared governance and its related UPCs (Al‐Marri & Kehyayan, 2018 ; Brull, 2015 ). Implementation of professional governance structures can enhance the synergistic work environment between the management and frontline employees, and improve employee work conditions enhancing teamwork, open‐mindedness and the adventure of finding new solutions to old problems (Fuentes et al, 2019 ).…”

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A positive and healthy work environment is considered an essential and crucial component to increase nurses' satisfaction; therefore, nurses used shared governance and its related Unit Practice Councils (UPCs) as a way to attain it. UPCs are innovative management and leadership process built on shared decision-making among all nurses and focused on nurses' practices and accountability of their care (Lamoureux et al, 2014).Engaging nurses at the service point in raising clinical and operational issues is linked to greater levels of empowerment and confidence pertaining to shared governance and its related UPCs (Al-Marri & Kehyayan, 2018;Brull, 2015). Implementation of professional governance structures can enhance the synergistic work environment between the management and frontline employees, and improve employee work conditions enhancing teamwork, openmindedness and the adventure of finding new solutions to old problems (Fuentes et al, 2019).One of the ways to implement shared governance is through the creation and institutionalization of UPCs which are groups of nurses within units who take lead in implementing, monitoring, evaluating standard and consistent practice among staff nurses and the wider multidisciplinary team (Sloan, 2020).

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