CHARACTERISTICS OF NURSES WITH HIGH CLINICAL NURSING PRACTICE OPINION LEADERSHIP.
Contributors: Boston University.
Published: 1990
Number of pages: 177
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.; Education, Adult and Continuing.
Description: 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.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 51-04, Section: B, page: 1739.

Thesis (ED.D.)--BOSTON UNIVERSITY, 1990.

School code: 0017.