Perioperative nurses' experiences of point-of-care nursing leadership: a narrative inquiry

Front line nurses are increasingly being encouraged to engage in point-of-care nursing leadership to positively influence the health of the persons in the healthcare team and the landscape within which care ensues. Using Connelly and Clandinin’s Narrative Inquiry, I explored how perioperative nurses experience point-of-care nursing leadership in the operating room (OR). My co-participants and I engaged in narrative interviews and Schwind’s Narrative Reflective Process. Participants’ stories were re-constructed and analyzed using Narrative Inquiry’s three levels of justification (personal, practical and social), through the theoretical lenses of Leadership Model and Person-Centred Nursing. Narrative patterns that emerge are: advocacy, relationships, and teaching and learning. The participants’ stories are re-presented using poetry. Implications for nursing and healthcare include a need to embody person-centred care to inform point-of-care leadership practices. A new concept of person-centred point-of-care leadership is developed for further exploration in research.