Creating room for evidence-based practice: Leader behavior in hospital wards

Area of Science:

• Healthcare Management
• Nursing Practice
• Organizational Behavior

Background:

• Integrating evidence-based practice (EBP) into hospital management is vital for patient safety and outcomes.
• Hospital managers and clinical leaders are key to EBP integration, but effective leader behaviors remain unclear.
• Leader actions can significantly influence the success or failure of EBP implementation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a theory explaining leader behaviors during the integration of EBP in clinical settings.
• To understand how leaders navigate resource constraints and nurse workload when implementing EBP.

Main Methods:

• A classic grounded theory methodology was employed.
• Data collection included participant observation of 63 nurses and interviews with 5 ward leaders.
• Focus groups with 18 clinical nurses provided additional insights.

Main Results:

• The emergent theory is "Creating room for EBP."
• This theory describes leaders' interactions to integrate EBP amidst limited resources and nurse capacity.
• Key processes involve positioning for, executing, and interpreting responses to EBP implementation.

Conclusions:

• "Creating room for EBP" offers a framework for understanding leader strategies in EBP integration.
• Effective leadership is crucial for sustaining EBP under resource constraints.
• The theory highlights the dynamic interplay between leadership actions, context, and EBP implementation success.