Le parcours expérientiel de l’exercice du leadership clinique infirmier chez des infirmières bachelières nouvellement diplômées

In the Quebec health system, nurses are expected to develop and demonstrate high level of clinical nursing leadership (CNL) in their practice. In fact, researchers argue that the development of this competency is essential to optimizing the quality of patient care and patient safety (Goudreau, Pepin & al., 2015; Stanley & Stanley, 2017). Other researchers argue that the exercise of CNL presents a significant challenge for newly graduated nurses (NGN) who are still trying to learn how to prioritize, organize and delegate care (Benner, 2001; Ekström & Idvall, 2015).  We found only five key research studies from our review of the CNL of new graduated nurses. They focus on the development process of this competency (Pepin & al., 2011), as well as ways to support this development and exercise it in clinical settings (Chappell & Richards, 2015, Ekström & Idvall, 2015, Larue & al., 2013, Won, 2015). To our knowledge, a systematic review (Chappell & Richards, 2015) and only four qualitative studies (Ekström & Idvall, 2015; Larue & al., 2013; Pepin & al., 2011; Won, 2015) have focused on CNL practice in NGNs specifically. The literature provides an understanding of the development of this nursing competency, with landmarks of its exercise, but remains silent regarding the pathways of its exercise. In order to better understand and complement the existing research, this qualitative interpretive descriptive study (Thorne, 2016) based on a constructivist epistemological theory (Guba & Lincoln, 1994), described the experiential path of exercising CNL among NGNs in their first year of professional practice, including the identification of elements that facilitated or impeded its exercise, from their perspective. The conceptual framework guiding this study encompasses the development of clinical nursing expertise (Benner, 2001) and the notion of individuation through life courses (Carpentier & White, 2013).  Through convenience sampling, eight nurses with respectively 1, 5 (n=2), 6 (n=3), 10 or 11 months of clinical practice, respectively, were recruited from a francophone university hospital center. Semi-structured interviews varying in length from 45 to 60 minutes were conducted with each of the nurses recruited. A content analysis based on themes (Thorne, 2016) according to the method proposed by Paillé & Mucchielli (2016) was carried out. The results indicate that for NGNs, it is difficult to exercise CNL during the first months of practice. However, the exercise of this nursing competency is evolutionary and exponential to clinical experience. We found that over a 12-month period, NGNs identified five cumulative ways of exercising their CNL in their bedside clinical practice, either by 1) maintaining an optimal level of quality of their patient care; 2) collaboration and effective communication with the care team; 3) adopting the role of clinical preceptor; 4) professional involvement beyond the patient care; 5) improving practices through consulting scientific evidence. In addition, we identified various factors facilitating and impeding the exercise of their CNL. In all, these advanced-beginner nurses identified four facilitating factors and five impeding factors. We conclude that the influence of organizational contexts and institutional cultures plays a role in the exercise of this particular leadership competency at the beginning of clinical practice is present. These factors are grouped into three main themes: 1) teams; 2) shifts and 3) resources.  We believe that this study contributes greatly to the literature and provides insights into strategies to support the practice of this critical competency in nursing practice. In addition, we hope that this study will serve as a guide for health institutions in adopting strategies that support the exercise of CNL in the nursing field. NGNs are a valuable resource “and every effort should be made to improve retention and reduce turnover of this important segment of the nursing workforce” (Fallatah, Laschinger & Read, 2017, p. 173). Thus, many recommendations have been proposed for practice, research, as well as education.

Keyphrases: étude descriptive qualitative, Clinical nursing leadership, experiential path, newly graduated nurses, qualitative descriptive study