Developing an instrument to assess empowering nurse leader communication behaviours.

ABSTRACT

AIM: The overall purpose of the study was to develop an instrument to assess empowering nurse leader communication behaviours. BACKGROUND: Effective communication by nurse leaders promotes empowerment, yet communication assessments are often broad in nature without specifying precise behaviours. METHODS: An instrument development process was used to identify empowering nurse leader communication behaviours. Nurses working in United States military health care facilities (n = 240) provided responses to 47 pilot items, along with a 12-item psychological empowerment instrument to test for concurrent criterion validity. RESULTS: After review of item performance, 12 items were deleted. An exploratory factor analysis supported either a 2- or 3-factor model, with confirmatory factor analyses conducted to validate the underlying latent variables of empowering and limiting behaviours. The final nurse leader communication assessment consists of 2 factors consisting of 20 positive items (empowering subscale) and 15 negative items (limiting subscale). CONCLUSION: The final 2-factor assessment supports the theoretical premise of the empowering and limiting behaviours. Further testing may provide further dimensional clarity. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT Use of the assessment can provide a basis for the development of training for individual nurse leaders or for facility nurse leaders as a collective.