Doctor of Nursing Practice , Case Western Reserve University, 2016, School of Nursing

Abstract This study describes the clinical nurse leadership skills of operating room nurses. Despite intense focus on patient safety cultures, two of the top ten reported sentinel events to the Joint Commission from 2012 – 2014 occurred in the surgical environment: unintended retention of foreign objects and wrong patient, wrong site, wrong procedure surgery. With leadership identified as a significant root cause for operating room error, no research exists to support evidence based practice specific to clinical nurse leadership at the bedside of the patient. This descriptive, correlational study will provide information regarding clinical nurse leadership within the operating room environment. This study will draw on the conceptual model of staff nurse clinical leadership by Chavez and Yoder to hypothesize the relationship amongst the variables of interest: (1) clinical nurse leadership competency, (2) certification in operating room specialty, (3) organizational culture, and (4) years of operating room experience. The hypothesis for this study is that clinical nurse leadership competency will be greater in operating room nurses within Magnet accredited institutions or specialty certification or greater than ten years of operating room experience. The Leadership Practice Inventory® tool will be used to evaluate clinical nurse leadership in operating room nurses. This is the first study to examine clinical nurse leadership skills of nurses in the operating room environment. Findings may provide evidence to support leadership training for operating room nurses making safety decisions that are essential to preventing patient errors.

Committee: Gayle Petty DNP, RN (Committee Chair); Ronald Hickman PhD, RN (Committee Member); Rebecca Patton MSN, RN (Committee Member) Subjects: Health Care; Nursing