By Geralyn Magan
Frontline nurse managers are in a unique position to influence how care is provided in LTSS settings. Yet, they don’t always have the skills they need to carry out their multi-faceted role.
A new research brief from the LeadingAge LTSS Center @UMass Boston summarizes the state of frontline nurse management in aging services, identifies the challenges facing frontline nurse managers, and recommends actions to ensure their success.
Key takeaways from Enhancing Frontline Nurse Management in Long-Term Services and Supports include:
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- Frontline nurse managers have a complex and multi-faceted role in the field of long-term services and supports (LTSS) and are in a unique position to influence how care is provided in LTSS settings.
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- Despite their importance, nurse managers do not typically begin their careers with a mastery of the skills and competencies they need to care for older adults who have complex needs, and to lead and support caregiving teams.
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- Nurse managers need more robust training to enhance their management and supervisory skills. That training has the potential to stabilize and significantly improve the quality of the direct care professional workforce and, ultimately, to improve quality of care and quality of life for residents and clients.
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- Direct care professionals working with effective nurse managers have higher job satisfaction, lower turnover, greater effectiveness in personal care skills, greater support to make decisions, lower job stress, and an enhanced ability to use research findings in their practice.
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- To be effective, nurse managers need strong interpersonal, administrative, relationship, supervisory, technical, and educational skills and traits. These characteristics should be considered when developing competencies for nurse managers.
RECOMMENDATIONS
The bulk of the research brief was developed in preparation for a virtual meeting that LeadingAge and the LTSS Center convened in August 2021 with support from The John A. Hartford Foundation. The meeting was attended by 37 stakeholders, including leaders of nursing and aging services provider associations, researchers, educators, policymakers, and providers of aging services.
At the end of the half-day meeting, participants issued recommendations for action that educational institutions, LTSS providers, and policymakers could take to strengthen the skills and competencies of nurse managers. Those recommendations include:
- Nursing programs at educational institutions must take steps to develop faculty expertise in LTSS, prepare students for LTSS careers, and create leadership curricula specifically designed for licensed practical nurses and licensed vocational nurses.
- LTSS providers must work with academic partners to create meaningful clinical placements for nursing students, define the role of the nurse manager, make organizational changes and develop quality improvement initiatives aimed at improving the quality of nurse management, build nurse management principles into nurse training, and educate directors of nursing about the importance of nurse management.
- Policymakers and regulators must define and develop core competencies and standards for nurse managers, use incentive payments to strengthen the frontline nursing workforce, and understand and operationalize nurse delegation and scope of practice policies.
For a better understanding of how to promote better nurse management and supervision in LTSS settings, read the full research brief.