Big changes on the horizon – but are nurse leaders prepared for the challenge?
The BDO Center for Healthcare Excellence & Innovation and the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing have released news of a study indicating that clinical and business leaders value the skills nurses bring to their organizations at most levels except the leadership level.
According to the “Unleashing Nurse-Led Innovation” study released May 14. 2019, clinical and business leaders rank skills like the interface of clinical innovation and technology and design-thinking for process change, as well as excellent clinical acumen, in the top four most valuable for nurse innovators in their organizations by 2025. However, study results show that most have not elevated nurses to the leadership levels needed to fully transform care. Just 31 percent of clinical leaders today have a designated nursing leader whose primary responsibility is innovation, and less than half (46 percent) of business leaders say their C-suite includes someone with a nursing background.
The good news is that both sides of the industry said they’re taking steps to change this. More than three-fourths (81 percent) of clinical leaders say investing in placing nurses as decisionmakers on all strategic planning teams will be very important for health organizations. More than half (57 percent) of business leaders, meanwhile, say advanced leadership is a skill they’ll view as very important to nurse innovators within their organization.
“Health stakeholders’ ability to thrive amid the new consumer-driven health system depends on nurses claiming a seat at the table at the leadership level,” said Antonia M. Villarruel, PhD, RN, FAAN, Margaret Bond Simon Dean of Nursing at the University of Pennsylvania, in a statement. “If true care transformation is to take shape to improve patient outcomes at lower costs, health systems and businesses must recognize that nursing can and must extend well beyond the bedside and community—and into the boardroom.”
The most perplexing health issues facing healthcare providers - caring for a growing aging population, chronic care management and addressing mental health issues like addiction - necessitate that shift, said the researchers. These critical areas are where clinical and business leaders agree that nurses have the most opportunity to transform and improve care by 2025, the study revealed.
“Nurses are already leading sweeping, research-driven innovations at larger, systemic levels within clinical and business organizations; they’re just having to navigate around certain roadblocks to do it,” said Karen Meador, MD, MBA, Managing Director and Senior Physician Executive in The BDO Center for Healthcare Excellence & Innovation in the statement. “Roadblocks need to be removed, and systems must embrace nurses as leaders in innovation. Unleashing nurse innovators is a care imperative and a business imperative.”
