The Ambassador Project: Evaluating a Five-Year Nationwide Leadership Program to Bridge the gap Between Policy and District Nursing Practice

Abstract

District nurses have a crucial position in healthcare provision and are expected to use leadership practices to ensure optimal quality patient care. To better equip them, a leadership program named the ambassador project was developed to support the development of a liaison role between policy and district nursing practice. This research aims to evaluate from different perspectives the impact of this nationwide, five-year leadership program for district nurses at the organizational, regional, and societal levels. A mixed-methods study was conducted using two focus groups based on peer-to-peer shadowing (n = 14), semistructured interviews (n = 13), and an online questionnaire (n = 45). The analysis shows that the impact of a nationwide leadership program for district nurses was perceived as predominantly positive, and nurses experienced an increase in courage, assertiveness, professional pride, and leadership skills. They obtained confidence in representing the group of district nurses at the organizational, regional, and societal levels when speaking with various key stakeholders from the healthcare system. They were able to bridge the gaps among daily practice, policymaking, and politics by using translations and shaping actions and information into terms suiting the needs of those involved.

The Impact of COVID-19 from the Perspectives of Dutch District Nurses: A Mixed-Methods Study

“…District nursing is marked as a specialty nursing practice at the national [35] and international levels [36][37][38][39], with specific nursing interventions and competencies. At the national level, the ambassador's project was developed to strengthen district nurses' leadership skills [22]. Although the importance of district nurses has become more visible among the public, they wish for more confidence in district nursing as a profession.…”

“…District nurses establish organisational and professional ties with patients, informal caregivers, other healthcare professionals, local policy makers, and health insurers [21,22]. To equip and prepare district nurses to establish these connections, the Dutch Nurses' Association developed a nationwide leadership programme for district nurses in the Netherlands [22]. This Dutch ambassador programme for district nurses is a 9-month leadership programme that started in 2013.…”