Nurse leaders can learn management and leadership tips from school head teachers

The drive to improve quality in the education sector is similar to that in health care, and lessons from the schools system are relevant to nursing leadership.

Nurse leaders in the can learn management and leadership lessons from school head teachers, according to an article in July's Nursing Management journal.

The article suggests that there are relevant and transferable lessons the health service can learn from the education sector for managers at all levels, including heads of nursing, matrons, and executive directors of nursing.

Parallels are drawn between the UK's 'Ofsted' education inspection system and the Care Quality Commission's hospital inspections, as well as between the practice discipline-based managerial roles of nurse directors and head teachers.

The author claims that frontline leaders in nursing, dealing with the new government's agenda, can learn from their teaching contemporaries by adopting a learning-centred approach to improving care, with a focus on staff education and continuing professional development.

He also argues that nurses in strategic leadership positions, and health policy leads, can use evidence from the education sector to inform how proposed changes are implemented and to advocate for appropriate resourcing for leadership development.

'The main points that the NHS (National Health Service) can draw from the experience of the education sector are that the most effective leaders promote learning formally and informally at all levels of their organisations, and that support for poorly performing trusts should come from within local systems; one of the main lessons from schools is that context is important and that different approaches are needed in different areas,' the author says.