Perception of Nurses toward Nursing Leadership as an Influential Factor to Better Healthcare Outcome

Abstract

The research study is basically on the perception of Nigerian nurses towards nurse leadership as an influential factor to better healthcare outcome. This research study was a qualitative research study underpinned with the philosophy of ethnography. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the ethnographic interview data. A purposive convenient sampling was employed to ensure the right people were recruited and interviewed at their convenience to ensure enough time was given to the interview process, to allow in-depth exploration of information from the participants. The study sample size was eight. The participant were known by the researcher and were only selected with the inclusion criteria which includes only Nigerian nurses in the University of Sunderland, nurses that have been or are in the position of a nurse leader and have practice for more than ten years. Consequently, ethnographic interview was conducted with a face-to-face semi-structured open ended question to able to explore into the nurses experience. Data collection was through audio tape recorder, transcribed and analysed using thematic analysis. Conclusively, the key themes formed the discussion of the findings. The key themes emerged from the subthemes. The themes were generated from the data collected from the participants according to the information they gave which answered the research question to give the desired result. However, the data collected from the ethnographic interview were strengthened by theories and literatures to give a final report. Therefore, the support from theory and literature confirmed the findings of the study. As a result, the study revealed that nursing leadership has an enormous influence on better healthcare outcome, through their roles and performances to ensure quality care. Hence, the perception of nurses indicates that nursing leadership is an influential factor to better healthcare outcome.