Date of Award

January 2025

Document Type

Open Access Thesis

Degree Name

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP)

Department

Yale University School of Nursing

First Advisor

Mary Ann Camilleri

Abstract

Empowering Emerging Air Medical Leaders through a Novel Professional Development Program Adapting National Nursing and Healthcare Management Competencies to a Multi-State Air Medical ServiceHigh turnover in the nursing workforce has led to clinicians with limited experience being promoted to leadership roles without proper training or support. Nurse leaders directly impact clinical outcomes and retention. The financial burden of turnover is significant, as health systems must continually replace employees. Despite this, limited evidence exists on effective professional development and retention strategies in non-traditional, non-hospital settings. This DNP project sought to adapt and implement a novel professional development program, derived from the American Organization for Nursing Leadership’s Nurse Manager Competencies, to increase the self-efficacy of front-line, unit-level managers in a decentralized air medical organization. Emerging leaders with two years or less in their management role attended a two-day development program, conducted in-person and virtually Overall, the program demonstrated a statically significant increase (M1 = 7.15, M2 = 8.13, t = -6.47, p = .008) in the emerging leader’s self-efficacy across selected AONL nurse manager competencies and domains including: Professionalism (9.49%), Communication and Relationship Management (21.17%), Business Skills and Principles (11.68%), and Leadership (13.16%). All participants would recommend the program, with a majority (61.1%, n=11) recommending in-person delivery. This competency-based program, implemented within a large air medical organization, demonstrated a statistically significant increase in participants’ leadership self-efficacy and a high degree of participant satisfaction. Its scalable framework enables broader utilization in decentralized and non-hospital healthcare environments through the delivery of innovative curricula via both in-person and virtual modalities.

Comments

This is an Open Access Thesis.

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