How to Evaluate Leadership Skills in Nursing

Leadership skills in nursing are essential for effective health care. A leader's ability to effectively communicate, meet the patient's needs and provide a positive outcome are all important elements to a nurse's leadership skills. Providing a detailed evaluation of the nurses in leadership positions in your hospital will improve customer satisfaction and accuracy between nurses and other medical professionals, as well as promote effective health care. Perform an evaluation once every 3 months to maintain a high level of professionalism and leadership development.

Things You'll Need

• Survey
• People
• Listening skills

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Instructions

Perform a Communication Assessment

• 1

  Gather the people who work directly under the nurse you're evaluating for a focus group.

• 2

  Ask specific questions about the nurse's communication. Allow honest feedback from the people he or she is leading. Ask questions related to the clarity of the nurse's communication--its effectiveness and outcome.

• 3

  Talk about the frustrations and the strong points of the leader's communication. Capitalize on each aspect of communication such as verbal and nonverbal, listening skills and professionalism.

Evaluate the Patients' Experience

• 4

  Evaluate the patients' experience under the leadership of the nurse. During the discharge process, have a short, written survey available that the patient can fill out anonymously to provide accurate information from a patient's perspective.

• 5

  Create the survey with 10 to 20 questions about the patient's experience. Provide statements such as, "my requests were met in a timely manner," "the communication was clear, concise and understandable," and "I felt well taken care of."

• 6

  Have the patient rate the statements from 1 to 10, 1 being "strongly disagree" and 10 being "strongly agree."

• 7

  Collect data over a 3-month period and then compile it for an assessment with the nurse. Find places for improvement and areas of strength. Provide a clear action plan on how to improve the weak areas and how to capitalize on the nurse's strengths.