Questionnaire of Leadership in Nursing (QLN)

Historically, the administrative abilities have been more valued than the leadership abilities in the health services. Actually there is a crucial necessity for development of leadership in nursing. The article describes the steps followed for the construction and validation of a questionnaire that can assess the type of leadership developed by Nurses-chiefs: Questionnaire of Leadership in Nursing (QLN). This questionnaire appeared based on scale LPC (least prefered coworker) and on Fiedler Contingence Model -- adjusting then to health area and in special nursing. After a bibliography research of important authors in this field their psychometric proprieties were analyzed and verified. The study was realized with a sample constituted by 114 nurses -- chiefs of Hospitals 'S.A.' from center of country. The QLN is composed by 2 scales: LPC Scale and Situational Influence Control Scale and the last one is divided in 3 subscales (team relationships scale, care structure scale and formal power scale). Considering their psychometrics characteristics the questionnaire presents a strong internal consistency (LPC Scale -- Cronbach alpha of 0,762 and standard alpha of 0,947; Situational influence control scale ---- Cronbach alpha of 0,766 and standard alpha of 0,777). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]