| Academic Medical Centers in the United States currently face tremendous pressure for radical reform and improvements in quality outcomes. With escalating costs, intricate reimbursement systems and the demands for higher quality outcomes, healthcare leaders are challenged with leading transformational change. One leadership role specifically, the nurse manager, faces significant complexities in producing measurable quality, financial, employee and patient satisfaction outcomes. This study focuses on the process of nurse manager selection and explores how using a validated nurse manager selection tool may related to hiring or promoting nurse managers more skilled in leadership to produce higher performance outcomes. Specifically, this study assesses the relationship between an existing validated nurse manager selection tool and nurse manager performance at one academic medical center. Nurse manager performance is evaluated beyond the traditional supervisor perception to include objective outcomes metrics of financial, service, engagement, and quality performance indicators. The results of this study indicate that there are relationships between the selection tool scores and performance outcomes of nurse managers. These relationships are not always as expected. Nurse manager traits of self-confidence, multi-tasking, critical thinking, conscientiousness, and customer orientation relate most directly to outcomes. Emotional evenness of nurse managers may be the competency of most interest given its relationship to performance indicated in this study. More importantly, the results of this study generate questions and concerns as to how nurse managers are currently evaluated on performance. Application of these findings could lead to changes in how this academic medical center and others more appropriately select, develop, and measure the performance of nurse managers. |
