Conceptualizing nurse professional governance to enhance performance, quality and safety of health services

Abstract

The need of nurses’ engagement in the governance of healthcare systems and organizations has been highlighted in order to improve patients’ experience, work environment, financial performance, as well as increase the quality and safety of health services. There is a need to develop information to explore the current spectrum of nurses’ professional governance, especially at the organizational level. This review aims to explore this concept, as well as survey how nurses’ professional governance has been used to overcome health worker issues in previous studies. Data source of this study included Web of Science, Google Scholars, and Wiley online Library (40 articles). Four distinct themes of nurses’ professional governance strategies were identified from the selected articles, namely: shared governance, professional development, performance management, and clinical governance. A conceptual framework on the dynamic of nurses’ professional governance was proposed to conclude the review. This will help streamline the evaluation and investigation on the consequences and impact of these strategies towards delivery services and patient outcomes.