Leadership Research

Wendy’s research on leadership aims to develop theoretical underpinnings and interventions for nursing leadership to improve health care delivery. She has developed a theoretical model — the Ottawa Model of Implementation Leadership (O-MILe) — that has been revised and tested in numerous settings over the past 15 years. The O-MILe has been central to a number of studies, including community care in Sweden, long-term care in Ottawa and acute care in China. It is one of the conceptual frameworks incorporated into a CIHR Foundation grant on Integrated Knowledge Translation (PI: Graham).

Wendy has successfully secured CIHR funding to conduct a knowledge synthesis on managerial leadership for facilitating research use in nursing and allied health care, and published the findings in Implementation Science (4.345 two-year Impact Factor). She also works with a research team from Australia, Canada, England, and Sweden to examine leadership for facilitating evidence-based nursing care (referred to as the FLAME study — Facilitation & Leadership Actively Mobilizing Evidence), using a qualitative approach to understand the mechanisms by which leadership supports evidence-based care. They have disseminated their work at international conferences and in the International Journal of Nursing Studies and Public Administration Review, and won the 2019 Mosher and Mosher Award for the best research article published in Public Administration Review.

Selected publications

  • Chen* W, Modanloo S, Graham ID, Hu J, Lewis KB, Gifford W. (2022). A mixed-methods systematic review of interventions to improve leadership competencies of managers supervising nurses. Journal of Nursing Management. DOI: 10.1111/jonm.13828
  • McMenemy*, C., Rolfe, D., Van Herk, K., Wait, C., Jamison, B., Quesnel, S., Laroque*, C., Muckle, W., & Gifford, W. (2021). Holistic Supports for Street Nurses and Front-line Workers during the COVID-19 Pandemic. Canadian Journal of Nursing Leadership, 34(2), 75–85. DOI: 10.12927/cjnl.2021.26527
  •  Hu, J., Gifford, W., Hong, R., Harrison, D., Li, Q., Ehrhart , M., Harrison, MA., Barrowman, N., Aarons, G. (2021). Validating the Implementation Leadership Scale in Chinese nursing context: A cross-sectional study Nursing Open. 1-10 DOI: 10.1002/nop2.888
  • Kitson, A.L., Harvey, G., Gifford, W., Hunter, S.C., Kelly, J., Cummings, G.G., Ehrenberg, A., Kislov, R., Pettersson, L., Wallin, L. & Wilson, P. (2021). How nursing leaders promote evidence-based practice implementation at point-of-care: A four-country exploratory study. Journal of Advanced Nursing. 77(5):2447-2457 DOI: 10.1111/jan.14773 
  • Almost, J., Gifford, W., Ogilvie, L., Miller, C. (2020).  The Role of Nursing Leadership in Ensuring a Healthy Workforce in Corrections.  Nursing Leadership:  Special Focus on Nursing Leadership in Corrections, 33(1):  59-70.  DOI: 10.1109/5.771073
  • Gifford, W., Lewis, K.B., Eldh, A., Fiset, V*., Abdul-Fatah, T*., Aberg, A.C., Thavorn, K., Graham, I., Wallin, L. (2019).  Feasibility and usefulness of a leadership intervention to implement evidence-based falls prevention practices in residential care in Canada.  BMC Pilot and Feasibility Studies, 5: 103.  DOI: 10.1186/s40814-019-0485-7.
  • Kislov, R., Wilson, P., Cummings, G., Ehrenberg, A., Gifford, W., Harvey, G., Kelly, J., Kitson, A., Pettersson, L., Wallin, L. (2019).  From research evidence to ‘evidence by proxy’? Organisational enactment of evidence-based healthcare in four high-income countries. Public Administration Review, 79(5), 684–698.  (April 30 2019), DOI: 10.1111/puar.13056
  • Hu, J.*, Gifford W., Ruan H, Harrison D, Li Q, Ehrhart MG, Aarons G. (2019).  Translation and Pilot Test of the Implementation Leadership Scale in Chinese Nursing Context. Journal of Nursing Management. DOI: 10.1111/jonm.12768 
  • Harvey, G., Gifford, W., Cummings, G., Kelly, J., Kislov, R., Kitson, A., Pettersson, L., Wallin, L., Wilson, P. Ehrenberg, A. (Feb. 2019). Mobilising evidence to improve nursing practice: a qualitative study of leadership roles and processes in four countries.  International Journal of Nursing Studies. 90, 21-30. DOI: 10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2018.09.017
  • Gifford, W., Squires, J.E., Angus, D.E., Ashley*, L.A., Brosseau, L., Craik, J.M. Domecq, M.C., Egan, M., Holyoke, P., Juergensen*, L. Wallin, L., Wazni.*, L, Graham, I.D. (2018). Managerial leadership for research use in nursing and allied health care professions: a systematic review.  Implementation Science,13:127.  DOI: 10.1186/s13012-018-0817-7
  • Hu*, J., Gifford, W.  (2018). Leadership behaviors play a significant role in implementing evidence-based practice.  Journal of Clinical Nursing. 27 (7-8) DOI: 10.1111/jocn.14280
  • Graham, I.D., Kothari, A., McCutcheon, C., On behalf of the Integrated Knowledge Translation Research Network Project Leads (2018). Moving knowledge into action for more effective practice, programmes and policy: protocol for a research programme on integrated knowledge translation.  Implementation Science,13:22. DOI 10.1186/s13012-017-0700-y
  • Gifford, W., Graham, I.D, Ehrhart, M.G, Davies, B.L, Aarons GA. (2017). Ottawa Model of Implementation Leadership (O-MILe) and Implementation Leadership Scale (ILS): Mapping concepts for developing and evaluating theory-based leadership interventions.  Journal of Healthcare Leadership, 9;15-23.
  • Tistad, M., Palmcrantz, S., Wallin, L., Ehrenberg, A., Olsson, C., Tomson, G., Holmqvist, L.W., Gifford, W., Eldh, A.C. (2016). Developing leadership in managers to facilitate the implementation of national guideline recommendations: a process evaluation of feasibility and usefulness. International Journal of Health Policy and Management, 5(8), 477-486 DOI: 10.15171/ijhpm.2016.35
  • Andersson, A. E., Gifford, W., Nilsson, K. (2015) Improving care in surgery – A qualitative study of managers’ experiences of implementing evidence-based practice in the operating room. Journal of Hospital Administration, 4(4), 73-83. DOI: 10.5430/jha.v4n4p73
  • Gifford, W., Davies, B., Graham, ID, Tourangeau, A., Woodend, K., Lefebre, N. (2012) Developing Leadership Capacity for Guideline Use: A Pilot Cluster Randomized Control Trial. Worldviews on evidence-based nursing, 10(1), 51-65. DOI: 10.1111/j.1741-6787.2012.00254.x