Introduction: The leadership of healthcare managers is considered critical to implementing evidence based practice for strengthened healthcare delivery and improved patient, provider and system outcomes. However, lack of clarity exists regarding what leaders actually do and the basis for their actions, or how to develop leadership capacity for successful dissemination and implementation.
Objectives: To describe a conceptual model that explicates key components of a leadership intervention and the subsequent leadership knowledge, skills and behaviours required by senior and front line managers for implementation.
Method: Using principals from the UK Medical Research Council’s Complex Interventions Framework, evidenceand theories on leadership and implementation science were synthesized with the tacit knowledge of researchers and healthcare managers from Canada, United States and Sweden in a 3 day planning meeting in Ottawa, Canada. An intervention was developed and the key components were graphically depicted in a conceptual model with the hypothesized leadership processes and outcomes.
Findings: The conceptual model depicts the knowledge, skills and behaviours that health care managers require to create a strong leadership process for implementing high quality evidence-based care. The leadership process involves relations, change and task-oriented knowledge and behaviours to: prioritize improvements; set goals for change; assess and manage multi-level barriers; secure resources; and engage clinical and management staff. Together the leadership behaviours influence individuals, the practice environment and the organizational infrastructure for successful dissemination and implementation.
Conclusion: Leadership of healthcare managers is key to building effective healthcare systems; however what they do to influence dissemination and implementation of evidence based practice is not clear. The conceptual model provides conceptual clarity on what healthcare managers do to lead the implementation of evidence based practice, thereby advancing the field of D & I. Primary
Funding Source: Canadian Institute of Health Research
2014.
The 7th Annual Conference on the Science of Dissemination and Implementation, Bethesda, Maryland, USA, 8-9 Dec, 2014.