Assessment of Nurse Educator Leadership: Instrument Development and Psychometric Analysis

In this episode of NLN Nursing EDge Unscripted, Dr. Steven Palazzo hosts a discussion with Dr. Anne Krouse and Dr. Karen Morin about their newly developed instrument designed to assess nurse educators’ self-perception of leadership competency. As co-authors of the study, Dr. Krouse and Dr. Morin share insights into the instrument’s development and its potential impact on leadership in nursing education. Based on their earlier research, the tool aims to help nursing faculty evaluate their leadership attributes. Learn more about their work, “Assessment of Nurse Educator Leadership: Instrument Development and Psychometric Analysis.”

Krouse, Anne M.; Patterson, Barbara J.; Morin, Karen H.. Assessment of Nurse Educator Leadership: Instrument Development and Psychometric Analysis. Nursing Education Perspectives 45(4):p 208-212, 7/8 2024. | DOI: 10.1097/01.NEP.0000000000001259
Krouse, Anne M.; Patterson, Barbara J.; Morin, Karen H.. Assessment of Nurse Educator Leadership: Instrument Development and Psychometric Analysis. Nursing Education Perspectives 45(4):p 208-212, 7/8 2024. | DOI: 10.1097/01.NEP.0000000000001259

Dedicated to excellence in nursing, the National League for Nursing is the leading organization for nurse faculty and leaders in nursing education. Find past episodes of the NLN Nursing EDge podcast online. Get instant updates by following the NLN on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. For more information, visit NLN.org.

Transcript

0:00

[Music] Welcome to this episode of NLN podcast Nursing EDge Unscripted. I'm your host,  Dr. Steven Palazzo, a member of the editorial board for Nursing Education Perspectives. In this  episode we will discuss relevance, clarity and reliability and validity of a new instrument for  nurse educators that measures self-perception of leadership competency. My guests today are  Dr. Anne Krouse, Dean, Widener University School of Nursing in Chester, Pennsylvania. And with us  also is Dr. Karen Morin, Professor Emerita at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and visiting  professor at Teacher's College, Columbia University. We will discuss their article,  

"Assessment of Nurse Educator Leadership: 1:18

Instrument Development and Psychometric Analysis."  This article can be found in the July-August 2024 issue of Nursing education perspectives. Welcome  to our guests. Thank you. Happy to be here great to be here. Wonderful to have you. So let's get  started. Briefly if you could describe the aims of your study and how it relates to your earlier  work on nurse educator leadership and leadership and nursing education tool that was developed.  So I'll get started. So Dr. Barbara Patterson and I did the initial study where we identified  the competencies for nursing...nurse faculty leaders and you know when you look at leadership  development and how do you translate this empirical research into something practical for  someone to use, to develop themselves as a leader, we decided that we would do the instrument,  develop the instrument to provide a tool that people could really use to evaluate their own  personal leadership. And important is to note is that our definition of leaders when we did the  initial study and as well as when we did the instrument development was that it's  not just someone who's in a formal leadership position, but it's someone who is a leader in  many different ways or sees themself as a leader of nursing education. So we brought in Dr. Morin,  who was an expert in instrument development and developed a great partnership. So I'll turn it  over to Karen now. Right. Yes. I was delighted to be invited to and be part of this team and though  my scholarship certainly hasn't been quite as directed in leadership, my practice certainly has  been in leadership because I've been so involved in leadership development programs and so I think  that's a nice way to merge what you've been doing in your life with the scholarship that's required  of it. And it's, I've always believed that we are missing an opportunity in nursing education when  we don't acknowledge and foster the leadership of faculty writ large, not those that necessarily,  well, those that are in positions of leadership as well, but all of us I think bring leadership  abilities to the table. And I think the instrument that's been developed is a really nice way to help  us understand and appreciate what attributes we have to bring to the table. That's a great summary  of of the work in the in the tool you developed. So specifically, if we were going to ask when  we're looking at a tool like this, how or describe how useful do you believe the tool is, the LEN,  for measuring perceived leadership competency and diverse populations populations such as people of  color, LGBTQI, and men specifically. Perhaps we're seeing what is important for traditional  demographic nurse leaders and missing a new generation of leaders with different ideas  about leadership. What are your thoughts on this? Go ahead Karen. Well, I have been thinking a lot  about that question and I don't think, that's not, we did not elicit those demographics in terms  of describing our particular participants. I think it's a really great point. I might say, because  I've really been thinking about this, that these attributes, when you think about them, the four  major ones I think really are pretty universal. And so I wonder whether or not I would want to explore  whether or not different populations perceive it differently. I mean, it's an interesting thought and  one to pursue because I'd love to be proven wrong as always. But I really wonder about that.  I was just reading another book on leadership and and the qualities are things like gratitude  and empathy and resilience and I would argue that irrespective of who we are we all bring  those to the table so that's, I'll yield to Anne. I agree 100% with Karen. I do think there's value  in looking at the data to see whether there are significant differences and I think we'll have the  opportunity going forward. Already we're getting a lot of nurse researchers asking for use of the  instrument and so we will have, as they share their raw data with us, we will have the opportunity to  possibly explore other populations that it's used with. And even we've asked by  individuals globally to be able to translate the instrument and explore it from that perspective  as well. So I, my initial sense is, as Karen says, that these are really very global competencies  but there might be differences. And  we just had a discussion about our next  steps with the instrument development. One is that we are going to publish data that  we have related to an international study that we did with the instrument looking  at the psychometrics. But one of the things that has been, as a dean, on my mind has been  have things changed since the pandemic with nursing education leadership and particularly  related to resilience, crisis management, preparation for crisis management, and how  does that play into leadership competencies, not only for someone who's in a formal leadership  role like I am, but for faculty you know who had a pivot really quickly and who  are still experiencing the effects of the pandemic on students and their learning deficits. Well, oh go ahead Karen. No, and I'm thinking as as we move forward with this is to  also gather some of that information to which you referred in terms of identity, right, of  our respondents, so that will be really helpful so, anyway. Yeah, I appreciate, I'm happy to hear  that the tool is is being adopted by others and hopefully podcasts like this will help  encourage others to look at the tool and its relevance for them and use it. I see, you know,  I guess the question for me and why I had that question in there was thinking about,  you know, as a gay male myself, do I see empathy and gratitude differently in how I practice  leadership, right? And my suspicion would be probably yes, a little bit, and so that would be  some information that would be really helpful to reveal if there is any kind of difference and if  so, how does that translate then into the delivery, right? Correct. So the attribute you could probably  have a universal definition but how it plays out maybe different. And we know that already when we  look at male-female communication, leader communication. We see that for certain. So it  is an interesting perspective and one worth pursuing for sure. Yeah, the attribute doesn't  change much, the definition of it, but how it is expressed or displayed could look  differently depending on the demographic, right. And I think about the the instrument development  and we use the test statements that came from the original study and the development of this  instrument. So perhaps even as we see differences like we should see differences, right, as we look  at different populations, it might be helpful for us to go back and do qualitative studies  with these groups to go back and do another Delphi to see whether we  can refine these task statements a little bit so that they're more applicable to a wider variety  of populations. Right. How would nurse leaders use this tool? And again,   a nurse leader not being like a formal definition but how we self-identify maybe  as a leader. How would someone in that position use these leadership competencies in their nursing,  with their nursing faculty? I'm all about faculty development and so I think, I mean, and I know that  deans are always about faculty development so I think this is, it's it's a tool in the toolkit  of assessing your abilities as a leader and there are many, many, we know that. So I look at this as an  additional one. And what's nice about this from my perspective: remember, I'm the one that was brought  on the newest kid on the block here, is the is the fact that this is nursing and so we have  gathered information about nurses. So I love Kouzes and Posner but Kouzes and Posner is a  broader, a broader perspective, you know different perspective, and the fact that this instrument was  developed based on input from nurse faculty I think makes it a strength. And then I would  have the conversation and say, gee, let's have all of you have leadership essential . Let's look and see where you are and how we can help you develop further you mentioned Kouzes and Posner. That just brings back a lot of memories from about 12 years ago at the Nurse Faculty  Leadership Academy. I mean, that's one of the frameworks that is embedded in me that continues  to this day. Yeah and their model too is really global as well. So you know, when you think about,  when you think about the the traits. I'm trying to remember exactly the use, it's an inventory, so  yes inventory, but so you know, model the way like it's just very global but it is how you  implement it in your own practice as a leader in terms of how maybe is more reflective of your own identity. As we're talking about this, wouldn't it be fun to them say, okay, we've looked at the  instrument, we've developed and then compare it to see whether what are the attributes? Do they surface over time so that we know that there's some great consistency  in terms of that or maybe there are really important differences, right, in how we perceive  leadership as nurses and so that would a great exercise, another study to do. For our listeners  there's a lot of opportunities here to to work with this tool and help develop this tool and  refine it, right. And you've got two great leaders here that probably would be very encouraging for  that. Any any final thoughts or anything you want to leave our listeners with that we didn't cover  related to your article? I think just, you know, one thought is that I really encourage  faculty that are listening to this to pursue their own leadership development in whatever  way they want to go forward as a leader, whether it is a formal role or just being a leader in  their school, in their course, whatever it is. It's so badly needed in nursing education and  nurses that come from practice that go into nursing education bring a lot to the table in  terms of leadership skills already. So we just really encourage people to take that plunge. I  would agree. I read a book that said act like a leader and then think like a leader. If you keep  acting like a leader eventually you realize that oh, maybe I am a leader, and you can move  forward. So I echo Anne's comments. All of us have leadership potential and I think it's up to  us to be able to examine that and appreciate it and as faculty we have a responsibility  to demonstrate that. I want to thank both of you personally for your championing leadership and  nursing education over the years and having you both as guests today has been very beneficial  for not only myself but I know our listeners they'll be very excited to to listen to your  perspectives. I appreciate your time and expertise in broadening our understanding of the work that  you've been doing and how we can introduce some of this work in our own institutions. And  to our listeners, I just want to mention again that if you had not had the opportunity,  

please look for their work: 15:00

"Assessment of Nurse Educator Leadership: Instrument Development and  Psychometric Analysis" in the July-August 2024 issue of Nursing Education Perspectives. And  thank you both for joining us and thank you to our listeners too. Thank you. Thank you.[Music]