BEYERMAN, KATHLEEN L.; EDD
BOSTON UNIVERSITY, 1990
HEALTH SCIENCES, NURSING (0569); EDUCATION, ADULT AND CONTINUING (0516)
The purpose of this study was to identify nurses with high clinical nursing
practice opinion leadership and
to determine the relationship between opinion leadership and several variables:
self-designated opinion
leadership, clinical nursing expertise, and leadership style. The subjects for
this study were drawn from
community, suburban community, suburban teaching, and municipal teaching hospitals.
The key
informant technique was used to identify opinion leaders. The opinion leaders
and a control group were
studied to ascertain their self-perception of opinion leadership, level of clinical
nursing expertise, and
use of a collaborative leadership style. The Mann-Whitney U and Kruskal-Wallis
were used to test the
hypotheses. The Spearman Rank Correlation Coefficient was used to evaluate the
relationship between
some of the variables. Data analysis revealed that opinion leaders scored significantly
higher than
non-opinion leaders on the self-designation opinion leadership instrument and
the clinical nursing
practice competency scale. They did not, however, score significantly higher
than non-opinion leaders
on the use of a collaborative leadership style. Opinion leaders in different
hospitals did not score
significantly differently on any of the instruments with the exception of the
self-designation opinion
leadership inventory. Opinion leaders are the nurses that influence change in
nursing practice by either
promoting an innovation or rejecting it. It is important for us to understand
their characteristics so that we
may effectively incorporate them into the diffusion of innovations in nursing
practice and hospital care.
Social
Systems Simulation Group
P.O. Box 6904 San Diego, CA 92166-0904 Roland Werner, Principal Phone/FAX (619) 660-1603 |