JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

The nature and scope of leadership remains poorly delineated despite being consistently identified as an important factor in shaping the uptake and use of mobile health (mHealth) technologies in nursing. This lack of detail about what leadership entails limits practical actions that can be taken by leaders to optimize the implementation and use of mobile health technologies among nurses working clinically.

Objective:

To examine the effects of first-level leaders’ implementation leadership characteristics on nurses’ intention to use and actual use of mHealth in practice while controlling for nurses’ individual characteristics, voluntariness, perceived usefulness, and perceived ease of use of mHealth.

Methods:

A cross-sectional exploratory correlational survey study of registered nurses in Canada (N = 288) was conducted between January and June 2018. Nurses were eligible to participate if they provided direct care in any setting and used employer provided mHealth in practice. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses were conducted for the two outcome variables: intention to use and actual use.

Results:

The implementation leadership characteristics of first-level leaders influenced nurses’ intention to use and actual use of mHealth, with two moderating effects found. Implementation leadership had a greater influence on the intention to use mHealth among nurses with an RN diploma or Bachelor of Nursing as compared to nurses with a Graduate degree. For older participants, implementation leadership had less of an influence on nurses’ actual use of mHealth.

Conclusions:

Leaders responsible for the implementation of mHealth need to assess and consider their implementation leadership behaviours as these play a role in influencing nurses’ mHealth use. Education level and age of nurses may be important factors to consider as different groups may require different approaches to optimize nurses’ use of mHealth in practice.