Implementation of a Charge Nurse Fellowship for Continuous Development

Abstract

Charge nurses are often times placed in leadership roles without the proper education, training and support. Charge nurses are front-line leaders and provide support for nurses, providers and other clinicians that make up the healthcare team. Developmental needs for charge nurses are ongoing and should not stop at the end of an orientation period. This project focused implementing a Charge Nurse Fellowship program by providing four sessions that focused on various transformational leadership topics and skills. Charge nurses (N=10) on impatient units from a selected service line within the hospital volunteered to participate in the fellowship program. The charge nurses completed a Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) at the beginning and end (pre and post) of the fellowship program to analyze if leadership styles improved with the fellowship program. Matched data from the pre and post MLQ (N=5) showed improvements in transformational leadership behaviors following the Charge Nurse Fellowship program. In consideration of future implications, findings suggest expanding the Charge Nurse Fellowship program to the entire health system and to include all charge nurses in the inpatient setting. This could allow for more developmental opportunities for charge nurses and will grow transformational leaders within the health system.

Keywords: charge nurse, charge nurse fellowship program, education, leadership, work environment, training, learning, and professional development