Purpose & Scope

Purpose:

This guideline is intended to assist nurses and others performing both formal and informal nursing leadership roles

This best practice guideline has been developed for nurses in a variety of roles, domains of practice and practice settings. It identifies and describes:

• leadership practices that result in healthy outcomes for patients/clients, organizations and systems;
• system resources that support effective leadership practices;
• organizational culture, values and resources that support effective leadership practices;
• personal resources that support effective leadership practices; and
• anticipated outcomes of effective nursing leadership.

Scope:

This guideline addresses:

• knowledge, competencies and behaviour of effective leaders, in both formal and informal nursing leadership roles;
• educational requirements and strategies that can be used by formal and informal nursing leaders;
• policy changes at both the organizational and system levels needed to support and sustain leadership practices, including those at the point-of-care;
• implementation strategies and tools;
• evaluation criteria and tools; and
• future research opportunities.

Target Audience:

The guideline is relevant to nurses in:

• all roles including point-of-care nurses, administrators, educators, researchers and those engaged in policy work, and also to nursing students;
• all domains of nursing (clinical practice, administration, education, research and policy); and
• all practice settings.

The guideline will also be helpful for:

• inter-professional team members;
• non-nursing administrators at the unit, organizational and system level;
• policy makers and governments;
• professional organizations, employers and labour groups; and
• federal, provincial and territorial standard-setting bodies.