Leadership Capacity and Work Enviironment Among Nurse Managers in a Tertiary Hospital in the Philippines

Abstract

Background. Aside from doing direct bedside care, nurses play a crucial role in planning and implementing health promotion activities, leading health-related organizations, and even educating future experts in health and sciences. With all these roles, one of the definitive roles of nurses is to ensure patient safety and to promote well-being of the population. Objectives. The study aimed to determine the relationship of the leadership capacity and work environment among nurses in a tertiary hospital in the Philippines. Methods. The study utilized descriptive correlational design to determine the leadership capacity of nurse managers to create and sustain a positive work environment for their staff nurses in a national university based tertiary government hospital. Pertinent data was collected using leadership capacity questionnaire and the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN) Healthy Work Environment Assessment Tool (HWEAT) to describe leadership capacity and work environment, respectively. Spearman rank correlation was used to correlate the two test variables. Test scores were interpreted using the AACN Healthy Work Assessment Guidelines. Results. Results showed an average overall score of 4.63 and 4.36 for leadership capacity and work environment, respectively. It was also observed that all domains and overall scores for leadership capacity and work environment had a statistically significant relationship and moderate positive correlation. However, statistical analysis of the relationship between leadership capacity and demographic profile and between work environment and demographic profile had no significant relationship. Conclusion and Recommendations The study showed excellent leadership capacity and work environment scores among the nurse managers in a national university based tertiary hospital in the Philippines. This is consistent with the current literature. However, the non-relationship between demographic characteristics and the test variables may be attributed to response bias presented using Likert scales. The study suggests further and continuing studies to produce more evidence that will help nurses and nurse managers in developing good leadership capacity and an excellent working environment.