Innovativeness in nursing: a phenomenological and constructivist study

Hospital administration and the medical field have maintained the status quo of nursing practice, in which nurses have adopted bureaucratic structures where conformity and regimentation are maintained to ensure large-scale efficiency. The lack of control to act on nursing knowledge and expert judgment is linked to work conditions of oppression, lack of autonomy, dissatisfaction, concomitant patient mortality, and morbidity. A climate of innovativeness is one strategy to reverse the negative impact caused by hospital administration and the medical field. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore the behavioral characteristics of lived experiences and knowledge of innovativeness among nurses and nurse leaders in hospitals. Initially, individual interviews were the data collection methodology. Data analysis consisted of identifying common themes in people's descriptions of their experience. Secondly, a focus group was facilitated to construct the reality of innovativeness and to ensure the credibility of findings. Lastly, NVIVO 7, a qualitative analysis software program, was utilized to confirm findings and to ensure dependability of findings. The sample was purposeful, consisting of nurse leaders and nurses employed at a hospital in the southern United States. Findings revealed that innovativeness was acculturated within a 200-bed hospital whose organizational mission included innovation. Results revealed that five conditions are antecedents for innovativeness. These are the mission, organizational identification, organizational support, relational leadership, and workplace relationships. Secondly, these antecedents provide the climate for the social process of trust, inquiry, idea generation, support, trialing, and learning.