Leadership Style of Clinical Instructors towards the Clinical Performance of Nursing Students in the College Of Our Lady of Mount Carme

Abstract

Introduction

The world of Nursing is becoming complex. Clinical Instructors play an important role in preparing nursing students who are adept at coping with the growing body of nursing knowledge. Clinical Instructors as nurse educators are considered to be nurse leaders. As an educator, it is expected to deliver as an efficient and effective teaching-learning process to students utilizing the democratic approach so that students can express their ideas as well as their concerns. The researcher is interested in finding out the leadership style practices of Clinical Instructors with the hope of strengthening the areas of weaknesses and to be an instrument of change to enhance the leadership skills of academic and clinical nursing educators responsible for developing the next generation nurses.

Methods

The researcher employed a descriptive research design. It is most appropriate since the study determined the leadership style practices of clinical instructors of College of Our lady of Mount Carmel and its implication to a fourth-year nursing students' performance in giving nursing care.A descriptive research design is a non-experimental design that involves studying a population based on the data gathered from a sample drawn. This type of design generally serves the purpose of describing the characteristics, opinions, attitudes or behaviors they currently exist in the population ( Brink, Wood,2001).

Results

The study revealed the profile of the respondents as follows:1. The largest group of the CI respondents who participated in the study belongs to 35 -39 years and 50 and above years of age. The majorities of the CI are female and are married and had completed their Master's degree in Nursing and have been in the academy for 1-4 years.2. The nursing students who participated in the study belonged to 20 -24 years of age. Most of them are female and single.

Discussion

Based on the salient findings of the study the following conclusion was drawn:1. There is no significant difference between the perception of the two groups of respondents as to the leadership style of the CI in terms of Permissive style, democratic style and autocratic style of leadership. Therefore the hypothesis is accepted.2. There is no significant difference between perceptions of the two groups of respondents as to the students' level of performance in terms of assessment, planning, implementation, and evaluation. Therefore the hypothesis is accepted.