Nurses' and nurse managers' perceived transformational leadership behavioural practices: a survey.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this paper is to compare the perceived transformational leadership practices of charge and staff nurses. Transformational leadership is effective in promoting change in organisations, with the leader guiding followers towards a common vision. DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH: A quantitative, descriptive, comparative survey design was used. All charge nurses (N = 151) and staff nurses (N = 1,950) in six health entities in Malta were included. A mixed mode survey design was used. Data were collected using the Leadership Practices Inventory and analysed using ANOVA and the Kruskal-Wallis test. FINDINGS: An overall response rate of 15% (n = 315) was achieved. Both staff and charge nurses perceived transformational leadership to be practiced. Charge nurses scored consistently higher than staff nurses. In long-term care environments, charge nurses are more likely to "model the way", while in acute settings, they were more likely to "enable others to act". RESEARCH LIMITATIONS/IMPLICATIONS: Transformational leadership appears to be applied by charge nurses in Malta. The response rate achieved was low and may limit the generalisability of the results of the study. PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS: Nurse managers need to adapt their transformational leadership style based on the context in which they work. ORIGINALITY/VALUE: Regular feedback from nursing staff should be sought for charge nurses to be aware of the extent to which they are implementing transformational leadership.

What Influences Parental Engagement in Early Intervention? Parent, Program and Community Predictors of Enrolment, Retention and Involvement.

Poor participant engagement undermines individual and public health benefits of early intervention programs. This study assessed the extent to which three types of engagement (participant enrolment, retention and involvement) were influenced by individual, program and contextual factors. Data were from a cluster randomised controlled trial (N = 1447) of a community-based parenting program, delivered at two levels of intensity (group sessions with and without individualised home coaching) conducted in Victoria, Australia. Individual (parent and family) factors and program factors were assessed by parent report and administrative records, and contextual factors by area-level population statistics. Data were analysed using multilevel logistic or linear regression models. Individual and contextual factors predicted enrolment, while family and program factors were more influential on program retention and parents' active involvement. Provision of individualised support was important to all forms of engagement, particularly for families experiencing the greatest barriers to participation. These findings indicate that different strategies are required to effectively support families in the processes of enrolling, continuing to attend and actively participating in early intervention programs.

Emotion experience, expression, and regulation in Alzheimer's disease.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is associated with intact experience but abnormal expression of emotion. Because emotion regulation is important in determining levels of experienced and expressed emotion, individuals with AD and control participants were asked to watch film clips under conditions of spontaneous expression, suppression, or amplification of emotion. Both groups had difficulties with behavioral amplification that were related to performance on a measure of theory of mind. However, intentional use of suppression was intact even for those with AD, consistent with models of aging that regard some emotion control processes as being relatively more automatic in older adulthood. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2009 APA, all rights reserved).