Measuring Council Health to Transform Shared Governance Processes and Practice.

Area of Science:

• Healthcare Management
• Nursing Leadership
• Organizational Effectiveness

Background:

• Shared governance is crucial for decision-making in healthcare, primarily occurring within councils.
• Existing literature revealed a lack of standardized instruments to evaluate the functioning of these shared governance councils.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a reliable instrument for measuring the effectiveness of shared governance councils.
• To provide a tool for assessing council performance at unit or division levels.

Main Methods:

• A four-phase development process was employed, including expert content validation, pilot testing for feasibility and internal consistency, and exploratory factor analysis.
• Input was gathered from over a dozen experts and participants across nearly 30 healthcare organizations.

Main Results:

• The final instrument, the 25-item Council Health Survey, was developed.
• Items were categorized into structure, activities, and membership to measure council effectiveness.

Conclusions:

• The study emphasizes focusing on shared governance councils as the locus of shared governance work.
• The Council Health Survey provides a means to evaluate these critical structures effectively.