Leadership practices, faculty stress and job satisfaction of Dutch post-doctoral nurses: a national survey.

Abstract

Background: Post-doctoral nurses have an important role in evidence based nursing. Leadership practices are needed to deal with the complexity of faculty roles, faculty stress, and lack of job satisfaction. Insight into leadership practices of Dutch post-doctoral nurses and the relationship with their job satisfaction and faculty stress is needed to improve the position of nursing research. The psychometric properties of relevant instruments, including the Leadership Practices Inventory Self-assessment, Faculty Stress Index and McClosky/Mueller Satisfaction Scale have not yet been investigated. Aim: The main aim was to identify leadership practices of Dutch post-doctoral nurses and to investigate the relationship between leadership and job satisfaction, and faculty stress. Another preliminary aim was to investigate the psychometric properties of the Dutch Leadership Practices Inventory, Job Satisfaction Scale, and Faculty Stress Index, in terms of translational validity. Methods: A quantitative, cross-sectional survey, including a psychometric assessment of the translational validity, was conducted among Dutch post-doctoral nurses. Results: Participants had highly developed leadership practices, especially on the domain ‘Motivating others to act’ (total score 47.9, total mean 8.0). All the subscales of the MMSS showed moderate satisfaction (means 3.9 to 4.1), with the highest satisfaction on the number of responsibilities (mean 4.7). Participants experienced the highest faculty stress due to self-expectations (mean 4.1). Several significant correlations were found between leadership practices, job satisfaction and faculty stress, measured with Kendall’s tau analysis. Content validity of the LPI, MMSS, and FSI showed items to be relevant (92%, 74.2%, 85,2%, respectively). Internal consistency was excellent (α =0.90, α =0.93, α =0.92, respectively). Conclusion and recommendations: Dutch post-doctoral nurses have moderate leadership practices. Additional research is needed to identify the impact of leadership on career development and research productivity, and the societal impact of nursing research.