Assessing adaptability nurse instructor's leadership style in clinical education

Instructors’ leadership styles and characteristics are affected on learning and clinical experiences’ students. If situational leadership model used by nurse instructors effectively, it would be applied as a way for overcoming difficulties and obstacles in clinical education.

The aim of this study was to assessing the level of adaptability nurse instructors’ leadership style in clinical education.

This study was descriptive cross-sectional that was done in 2010 in nursing-midwifery school in Arak city. Data were gathered by “Leader Behavior Description Questionnaire“and nursing student’s “Readiness level questionnaire“. Internal consistency reliability (Cronbach’s alpha) in order were (α=0.88 and α=0.76). All 15 clinical educators and 186 nursing students (11 people in the former, 2nd year 71, 3th year 76, and in the fourth year; 28 people) were selected to complete questionnaires. Data were analyzed by descriptive statistics using SPSS 13 software.

findings showed that nursing instructors were 13.3% male and 86.7% female. Their mean of work experiences were 5.5 years. Also, nursing students were 35.5% male and 64.5% female that their mean of age were 21.18 years. Findings showed that the selling leadership style and then delegating were as the dominant styles of nurse instructors. The majority of nurse instructors (46.8%) had moderate adaptability and 23.7% of them had low.

The ability nurse instructors must be improve for assessing ability and willingness of students for performing the tasks and skills in clinical practicum correctly and their selection the appropriate leadership style. Application scientific principles of management and leadership especially situational leadership would be improve professional development for students.