C-Suite Strategies for Nurse Empowerment and Executive Accountability

Abstract

We examined C-suite executives' strategies to empower the nursing workforce and to ensure their own accountability for nursing empowerment. BACKGROUND Leadership affects workforce empowerment. The literature provides little formal guidance on optimal strategies C-suite executives can adopt for improving nurse empowerment or ensuring leadership accountability for empowering the workforce. METHODS A system's top 47 executives were invited to be panelists in a Delphi study. Two Delphi rounds revealed leadership strategies for embedding empowerment and strategies for assessing leadership performance in workforce empowerment. RESULTS C-suite executives rated specific strategies higher for nursing workforce empowerment and for holding themselves accountable. Specific strategies were rated high as easier to implement and more likely to have a major impact. CONCLUSIONS C-suite executives implementing strategies with greater impact may accelerate nursing empowerment, especially when executives also adopt their own strategies for holding themselves accountable.