Perceptions of Military Chief Nurse Competencies

Chief Nurse Executives in the military need to have many skills and abilities, which are known as competencies. Competencies are the expectations that professionals have for a particular role in a particular setting. Military Chief Nurse Executives operate in a unique environment that is both similar and different from the civilian health care setting. In addition to normal administrative responsibilities, military Chief Nurse Executives are concerned with readiness issues, frequent deployments of their staff and implementation of Utilization Management, outcomes management, and TriCare. The purpose of this proposed study is to develop and test a new tool with the preliminary name of, "Military Chief Nurse Executive Competency Survey." This tool development is based on prior work done in the civilian community, studies of executive skills in the military, and preliminary work of the PI. Since competencies are the expectations that the holder of the role and significant others in the environment have for a role in an organization, surveying Army Chief Nurse Executives, Hospital Commanders and Deputy Chief Nurse Executives in order to compare their perceptions of the competencies needed by Chief Nurse Executives will help to validate the instrument and to provide useful information for the practice of Chief Nurse Executives. A three phase project is planned. Phase 1 includes interviewing Chief Nurse Executives to determine the unique competencies needed in the military health care environment to develop items for the tool. In Phase 2, we will conduct a content validity assessment of the items and pilot test the tool. Phase 3 will involve surveying all Chief Nurse Executives, Deputy Chief Nurse Executives and Hospital Commanders. Future projects will be directed to test the "Military Chief Nurse Executive Competency Survey" with officers in the US Navy and Air Force.