Nurses in Health Service Leadership: The Power to Influence

This thesis argues the need for a model of ‘purposeful’ leadership focused on enhancing nurses’ effective policy engagement in global health systems. The central themes within the submitted work include activities focussed on influencing policy in health and nursing workforce flexibility, health workforce innovation and capacity development. The subsequent development of a purposeful model of leadership is informed by my experience in nursing in clinical and health service leadership across the course of my career along with the scholarly activity and publications analysed in this thesis. Submitted work includes six original research publications involving rigorous methods of inquiry (both mixed and qualitative methods) with results and aligned themes disseminated via peer reviewed journals and ISBN-numbered reports. The thesis includes eighteen additional pieces of work as exemplars to aid research dissemination and policy influence, and, in building a strong nursing workforce to help prevent and mitigate rising levels of chronic disease. Combined, these works demonstrate politically engaged nursing leadership using established networks, crossing geographical boundaries, straddling multiple sectors and working within varying cultural contexts— the aim being to influence health workforce policy and practice, and build capacity in human resources for health (HRH). Each paper was published with the intent to influence major issues of public opinion, health policy and HRH development; urgent topics given contemporary global health workforce issues at the time of publication. Textual narrative analysis and critical interpretive synthesis are used to highlight the central themes across the submitted works illustrating the utility and relevance of these works in influencing policy pertaining to health and nursing workforce use and development. Critical analysis of the identified literature and submitted work focus on three key questions: 1. What mechanisms can nurses use to demonstrate leadership and harness the power to effectively influence health service and nursing workforce policy? 2. What personal attributes of empowered practice can nurses implement to influence policy across various global contexts? 3. How can nurses lead and positively influence policy despite seeming disempowerment in such contexts? The eighteen pieces of aligned work include communiqués in health periodicals, policy briefs, news/social media, and photographic competitions. These highlight the use of popular online and social media platforms (e.g. professional blogs, twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn) for persistent and purposeful communication of key policy messages and themes – the key themes within this thesis being the leadership strategies and mechanisms used to influence policy in health and nursing workforce flexibility, health workforce innovation and capacity development This thesis provides a unique contribution by proposing a new model of politically engaged, purposeful nursing leadership with power to influence health service delivery and facilitate effective development of nursing and health service personnel. The purposeful leadership model identifies attributes for effective policy influence at every level of nursing and health service leadership.

Grantor dc:publisher

Oxford Brookes University

Year dc:date

2021

Author dc:creator

• Brownie, Sharon M.

Contributors dc:contributor

• Appleton, Jane
• Jackson, Debra

Statement dc:rights

• All rights reserved

Language dc:language

en

DOI dc:identifier

https://doi.org/10.24384/787H-S652

OAI identifier oai:identifier

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