The influence of nurse manager competency on practice environment, missed nursing care, and patient care quality: A cross-sectional study of nurse managers in U.S. hospitals

AIMS: Identify and examine drivers of nurse manager competency and high-quality practice environments.

BACKGROUND: Nurse managers are a key predictor of positive professional practice environments, which are, in turn, associated with nurse, patient, and organisational outcomes. However, little work has examined the factors that contribute to nurse manager competency.

METHODS: Nurse managers completed online surveys, which were matched to unit-level aggregate data of their subordinate direct care nurses' responses on the National Database of Nursing Quality Indicators. This resulted in a final sample of 541 nurse managers across 47 U.S. hospitals. Multilevel path analysis was utilized to assess a model of the antecedents and consequences of nurse manager competency.

RESULTS: Nurse manager competency and practice environments were predictive of missed nursing care and nurse-reported quality of care. Nurse manager experience was found to have twice the effect on competency as advanced education.

CONCLUSIONS: Nurse manager competency and its downstream effects are achieved through nurse manager experience and advanced education.

IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT: Nurse manager competency yields better practice environments and nursing care. Considering the influence of experience, careful attention should be paid to the competency development process of more novice nurse managers.