Transforming Leaders into Stewards of Teaching Excellence: Building and Sustaining an Academic Culture through Leadership Immersion.

Abstract

Nursing must transform education and practice to meet the changing healthcare environment; yet, steps to desired change remain unknown. Academic leaders are well-positioned to initiate change and transform the academic landscape. However, many advance to leadership positions with minimal orientation to the role. Moreover, leaders in academic nursing often have expertise as clinicians and administrators, and not as academics. It is incumbent on nurse leaders to acquire needed competencies to fulfill the academic role. The purpose of this quality improvement project was to immerse leaders in an exploration of steps to initiate and sustain change in the teaching and learning process. Self-reported low- and high-level outcomes were analyzed using Kirkpatrick’s Model (1994) to evaluate the effectiveness of the immersion in preparing leaders to build and sustain a quality academic culture. Leadership immersions were implemented to transform leaders into stewards of teaching excellence. Pre- and post-immersion surveys captured data across three levels: satisfaction, knowledge and skill acquisition, and change in behavior. Seventy-three participants were evaluated. Participants for inclusion in the three-month analysis culminated in a 41% response rate. Findings were analyzed using ANOVA and t-tests. Further analysis was performed using Cohen’s d to determine effect size. Three-month follow-up surveys revealed no significant effect change (p<0.05). Results suggest immersion is effective in preparing leaders of academic nursing to build a quality academic culture. Through immersion, leaders established a collective vision of teaching excellence and proficiency in confronting and resolving actual and desired teaching practices, while enriching the life and work of faculty.