Are Nurses Getting Elevated to Leadership Levels? A New Study Explores

Both clinical and business leaders value the innovation and clinical acumen skills nurses bring to their organizations at most levels—just not at the leadership level, according to a new study released by The BDO Center for Healthcare Excellence & Innovation and the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing.

The research, “Unleashing Nurse-Led Innovation,” surveyed two separate groups—104 clinical leaders and 172 business leaders—about the future of nursing innovation and its role in their organizations. The data revealed that clinical and business leaders both rank skills like the interface of clinical innovation and technology and design-thinking for process change, as well as excellent clinical acumen, in the top four most valuable for nurse innovators in their organizations by 2025.

However, most of these healthcare leaders have not elevated nurses to the leadership levels that are needed to fully transform care, according to the researchers. Just 31 percent of clinical leaders today have a designated nursing leader whose primary responsibility is innovation, and less than half (46 percent) of business leaders say their C-suite includes someone with a nursing background.

In the next six years, though, that is expected to change, per the survey results. By 2025, both sides of the industry signal that they’re taking steps to fully unleash nurse innovators at the leadership level. More than three-fourths (81 percent) of clinical leaders say investing in placing nurses as decision-makers on all strategic planning teams will be very important for health organizations. And more than half (57 percent) of business leaders say advanced leadership is a skill they’ll view as very important to nurse innovators within their organization.

“Health stakeholders’ ability to thrive amid the new consumer-driven health system depends on nurses claiming a seat at the table at the leadership level,” Antonia M. Villarruel, Ph.D., R.N., Margaret Bond Simon Dean of Nursing at the University of Pennsylvania, said in a prepared statement. “If true care transformation is to take shape to improve patient outcomes at lower costs, health systems and businesses must recognize that nursing can and must extend well beyond the bedside and community—and into the boardroom.”

What’s more, the industry’s most complex issues—such as caring for a growing aging population, chronic care management and addressing mental health issues like addiction—are critical areas where clinical and business leaders agree that nurses have the most opportunity to transform and improve care by 2025, the study revealed.

“Nurses are already leading sweeping, research-driven innovations at larger, systemic levels within clinical and business organizations. They’re just having to navigate around certain roadblocks to do it,” added Karen Meador, M.D., managing director and senior physician executive in The BDO Center for Healthcare Excellence & Innovation. “Roadblocks need to be removed, and systems must embrace nurses as leaders in innovation. Unleashing nurse innovators is a care imperative and a business imperative.”

The researchers further concluded, “What we found is that organizations across the system are already looking to nurses for individual-level innovation and clinical acumen skills. But they’re missing out on the opportunity—including improved patient outcomes—that comes from bringing nurses into innovation at the leadership level.”