Leadership as bridging the policy/practice divide
The political ideology of the governing party was found to be an overwhelming authority. Political ideology and the policy process were seen to govern the external agenda that nurse leaders were trying to influence and as a result, politics and policy were in fact driving the professional agenda and therefore the leadership agenda.
Analysis revealed that leaders were performing an interpretation and translation role in order to bridge the divide between the policy context and nursing practice. The divide between policy and practice was perpetuated by the ideology and language used by nurses in practice, which differed from the ideology and language of the policy context. In order to traverse the policy/practice divide, nurse leaders needed to understand this difference, for the difference often meant that nursing was not understood, nor considered a priority.
As interpreters, leaders operated between the domains of nursing to interpret nursing issues to the language used within the context. So, for example, leaders interpreted nursing at the interface between practice and academia by undertaking research which highlighted the impact that nursing had on health outcomes.
As translators, leaders translated nursing to the language and priorities of the context in which they were operating and were seeking to position nursing for meaningful effect. For example, once nursing interventions had been evaluated
in relation to health outcomes, nursing was translated by academic leaders in order to influence the academic context. This academic translation was about positioning nursing so that it could compete within the research assessment exercise, and also be seen as credible within higher education, as well as having a distinct contribution to make to interdisciplinary research.
Each context, the academic, management, political and clinical, has its own distinct ideology and as a result each
requires a different translation. This is important to grasp, for although the leadership domains were all influenced
by the political, the language that leaders needed to adopt to translate to each context was different. For example,
management ideology required leaders to position nursing as one of the deciding quality factors within commissioner/
provider contracts. This required a translation that emphasized the importance of nursing to corporate business
using a language of strategy.
In summary, having interpreted nursing knowledge derived from nursing practice to the domains of political, academic and managerial, the external contextual relationship involved nurse leaders subsequently translating nursing to the language and priorities of politics, academia or management. The art to this translation seemed to be moving nursing from the invisible to the visible, so that in the translation the ideology and values of nursing were not lost, whilst nursing was positioned within mainstream thinking so that it acquired power and influence.
This conceptual shift results in nursing leadership moving from being solely an internally referenced professional concern, to being externally influenced by political processes.