Title : A crisis leadership for nurse managers in crisis situations: Development and psychometric evaluation
Abstract:
Crisis situations such as COVID-19 have a negative impact on society and the economy, with increased mental health issues, medical crises, and mortality among nurses. The inadequate leadership of nurse managers during crisis situations can negatively impact the quality of patient care and infection transmission. Nevertheless, there is no instrument reflecting crisis leadership in nurse managers. Consequently, the aims of this study were to develop a crisis leadership scale for nurse managers and to evaluate its psychometric properties. Therefore, an instrument-development study was conducted, comprising two steps: item generation and content validity, followed by a field testing of its psychometric properties. For the development of the initial items, the literature was reviewed along with the existing measuring tools. The items were evaluated by experts for content validity. This study was conducted from August to October 2023. A total of 443 nurse managers in hospitals in Korea participated in the study to verify the validity and reliability of the instrument. The content, construct, convergent, and criterion validity, as well as the internal consistent reliability of the crisis leadership scale were evaluated. Data were analyzed using exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, Pearson’s correlation, and Cronbach’s alpha. Content validity was assessed two times by experts. The exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses yielded a five-factor solution, while the confirmatory factor analysis showed a good fit (RMSEA = .07, SRMR = .02, CFI = .92, TLI = .91). Therefore, the final instrument was derived, containing 28 items on “crisis management competency” (12), “decision-making” (6), “collaboration” (4), “communication” (3), and “building trust” (3), as well as 5 factors, scored on a 5-point Likert scale. Convergent validity was demonstrated using measures of empowerment. The criterion-related validity was established using the Implementation Leadership Scale (r = .41, p < .01). The Cronbach’s ? for this instrument was .96. In conclusion, the crisis leadership scale showed good psychometric properties for four validity metrics (content, construct, convergent, discriminant and criterion validity) and internal reliability. These findings indicate that the instrument can be applied in both research and clinical practice, being capable of quantitatively measuring the degree of crisis leadership skills of nurse managers.
Keywords: crisis leadership, nurse managers, psychometrics, instrument
Audience Take Away Notes:
- Positive impact on the future of health care and nursing leadership
- Clarification of the content and level of crisis leadership
- Basic data that can standardize crisis leadership training
