Effects of green management training on nurse managers' environmental sustainability: a randomised controlled trial
Nagah Abd El-Fattah Mohamed Aly, Safaa M El-Shanawany, Maha Ghanem, Elham Mohamed Abd El KaderFayad, Wael M LotfyBackground/Aims
‘Green management’ refers to an organisational strategy that aims to integrate environmental sustainability development into management procedures for maintaining patient safety and delivering high-quality care. This study aimed to assess the effects of a green management training programme on nurse managers in Egypt.
Methods
A randomised controlled trial was conducted using a two-group, pre-test post-test design. The intervention and comparison group comprised 100 nurse managers each. Data were collected using pre-test and post-test questionnaires, which measured participants’ knowledge of green management, as well as their green commitment, engagement, citizenship behaviours and practice of green activities. Mean scores were compared between groups and timepoints. Correlations between mean scores in different domains were also measured in the intervention group. Significance was set at P ≤0.05.
Results
Participants in the intervention groups had significantly higher mean scores across all domains in the post-test compared to the pre-test, with most having sufficient knowledge and practice of green management, and high levels of commitment, engagement and citizenship behaviours. Mean scores in the post-test were significantly higher in the intervention group than the comparison group. Significant positive correlations were found between green management knowledge scores and green commitment, engagement, citizenship behaviours and practice of green activities scores in the intervention group.
Conclusions
Targeted training programmes can have a significant positive impact on nurse managers knowledge of and ability to practice green management, as well as their commitment to, engagement with and practice of environmentally sustainable change.
Implications for practice
Given the role that nurse managers play in wider organisational culture and practice, green management training should be delivered to nursing students and educators, as well as existing staff, so that they can support environmental sustainability in healthcare organisations.