Development and Psychometric Testing of a Leadership Competency Assessment

Area of Science:

• Nursing Leadership
• Competency Assessment
• Psychometrics

Background:

• Existing leadership assessments lack a competency-based focus for nurse leaders.
• Competent nurse managers are essential for positive nurse-clinician relationships.
• There is a need for an assessment to identify developmental needs of nurse leaders.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop the Nursing Leadership Competency Assessment (LCA).
• To psychometrically test the LCA for reliability and validity.
• To provide a tool for identifying nurse leader developmental needs.

Main Methods:

• A multimethod approach was employed for LCA development and testing.
• Items were derived from eight established sources of nurse leader competencies.
• Psychometric properties were evaluated using statistical analyses.

Main Results:

• The 76-item LCA demonstrated high reliability (Cronbach's α = 0.99).
• Confirmatory factor analysis supported six domains: leading self, people, organizations, change, innovation, and globally.
• Subscale reliabilities ranged from α = 0.87 to α = 0.98.

Conclusions:

• The LCA is a validated instrument for assessing nurse leader competencies.
• The LCA can guide the development of targeted educational programs for nurse leaders.
• The assessment aids in identifying specific content areas for leadership development.