dignam d., duffield c., stasa h., gray j., jackson d. & daly j. (2012) Journal of Nursing Management20, 65–71 
Management and leadership in nursing: an Australian educational perspective

Aim  In this article, we present an Australian perspective on issues influencing management and leadership education in nursing.

Background  Nurse leaders and managers work in a context of high pressure, uncertainty and rapid change, and face unprecedented challenges on a daily basis.

Evaluation and Key Issues  In the present paper, we reflect on the issues and challenges facing providers of management education for nursing, and consider these challenges in relationship to current trends and imperatives.

Conclusions  Collaborative approaches between educational and clinical settings are needed to ensure quality, relevant educational support for managers and leaders, and enhance curriculum integrity.

Implications for Nursing Management  There is a need for contemporaneous and relevant research to inform innovative models of collaborative education.

Management and leadership in nursing: an Australian educational perspective.

We analyse the debt dynamics in countries that benefited from the HIPC/MDRI debt relief initiatives with a view to applying a probabilistic approach to estimating future debt paths for those countries. We extend the probabilistic approach to public debt sustainability analysis (DSA) proposed by Celasun et al. (2006). This required addressing the twin challenges of a the time period that is too short to conduct country-by-country estimations and the presence, suggested by econometric evidence, of a break–point around 2006 in the dynamics of debt accumulation. To overcome the data limitations, we pool the data and estimate a panel VAR, thus taking advantage of the large cross–section. To account for the break–point, while applying a probabilistic approach to forecasting debt paths, we use the post–break–point information so as not to bias the forecasts of debt paths. As an illustration of the approach we apply the methodology to eight countries with different debt profiles.

An Application of the

Factors influencing partnerships between higher education and healthcare.

This article presents arguments for designing tutoring models for learning networks of knowledge-based organizations, whose tasks increasingly involve the development of expertise and knowing. The potential is examined of a curriculum, when the object of learning, in-house development, is deeply situated in the knowledge practices of organizations, is cross-disciplinary and is beyond formal education. A sociocultural understanding of a curriculum is used to analyze a model that the authors developed in collaboration with the learning network of the South Savo region in Finland. The model in question applies the theory of expansive learning and developmental work research (Engestrom, 1987) by specifying it in a learning network setting. The cultural-historical activity theory approach is used to elaborate on the notion of multi-mediation as the main challenge for the pedagogical modeling of a learning network. The outcome of the analysis is summarized in terms of four tension-laden dimensions of learning to be mediated by a development curriculum.

Development Curriculum for Knowledge-Based Organizations: Lessons from a Learning Network

The healthcare services in Iraq currently face many challenges. The most noted is the lack of effective nursing leaders to meet the growing needs of the healthcare services. Effective nursing leadership is critical to the healthcare system, affecting work performance, quality of care and staff satisfaction. The literature suggests that nursing leaders in Iraq are not adequately trained to provide leadership to improve the nursing profession and have limited involvement in decision-making.

The main aim of this study is to explore the views of nurses on what they believe constitutes effective leadership in Iraq. These views are used to inform the development of an effective framework for nursing leadership education. A mixed methods approach is employed involving a qualitative Phase (20 semi-structured interviews of senior nurses) followed by a quantitative Phase (survey to 210 ward nurses). The sample of nurses came from two large general hospitals in Iraq.

The study results indicated that effective nurse leaders need to have a set of characteristics and high personal qualities. Moreover, the results indicated that there were factors that influence the performance, effective leadership behaviour, and professional learning of nurse leader. Test results show that there were significant differences in views of the nurses toward effective leadership behaviour and professional learning of the nurse leader when level of education, gender, and work experience were considered. The qualitative data was thematically analysed and used to develop questions for the survey. Descriptive statistics were used to analyse and interpret the quantitative data.

This research concludes that there are three considerations that need to be taken into account for effective nursing leadership. First, key characteristics and a set of essential personal qualities are required for an effective nurse leader. Second, nurse leader performance is affected by professional development and the recognition of nursing as a well-respected profession. Third, personal and motivational behaviours of nurse leaders influence other nurses to become leaders'.

The findings from this study have particular significance for the Iraqi context. Lack of previous research and knowledge of nursing leadership education in Iraq makes this study significant as it provides empirical evidence regarding effective leadership styles suggests new strategies to improve healthcare policy and provides a framework for professional nursing leadership education.

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Margot C. Russell

Papers

Leadership development: a collaborative approach to curriculum development and delivery.