Program Evaluation of Shared Governance Practice and Perception for Registered Nurses in a Community Hospital Setting

Background: The empowerment of registered nurses (RN) with the implementation of shared governance (SG) councils leads to ownership of professional nursing practice issues. The lack of a program evaluation for this combined SG health system council posed a risk for undefined program effectiveness.
Purpose: The purpose of this project was to complete a formal program evaluation of a SG model implemented in two community hospitals within a healthcare system in northern Virginia.
Methods: Methods included a retrospective review of the five combined SG councils’ structure and process and the use of the Index of Professional Nursing Governance (IPNG) survey to obtain a baseline measurement of SG and the perception of impact on RN’s professional practice. Impact on practice was measured with a Likert scale.
Results: Analysis of completed council SG minutes, agendas, attendance rosters and projects identified inconsistencies from 2018 to 2019. The IPNG survey indicated overall SG score and two out of the six subscales measured in the SG range. The IPNG survey overall score 101.00 (24.44) and two out of the six subscales, influence over resources 25.35 (7.98) and goal setting and conflict resolution 10.59 (4.14) measured in the SG range. The SG program had a 49% moderate to major impact on RNs' professional practice.
Conclusion: A review of SG to obtain a baseline measurement was valuable to both hospitals. These results were shared with key stakeholders to make recommendations to steer the nursing leadership in a direction to create an enduring SG program.