Centre for Positive Psychology and Education

Leanne Cowin has been a nurse for over 25 years, working in many clinical areas ranging from community mental health care and forensic nursing through to accident and emergency nursing. Leanne has taught at a number of universities in NSW and Victoria on topics as varied as microbiology through to research methods and epidemiology. Her current areas of interest include nursing research, retention issues, and mental health nursing. As the author of the Nurses Self-Concept Questionnaire, Leanne is committed to the development of self-esteem and professional identity for nurses within the health care workplace. Topics of current research include new graduate nurses, job satisfaction, nursing retention, leadership and professional identity. These topics continue to be key issues in Australia's nursing workforce.

Leanne is a Senior Lecturer at the School of Nursing and Midwifery at the University of Western Sydney. She teaches in the areas of professional issues, leadership and management, research methodologies and mental health nursing, while maintaining a strong research output.

Qualifications

BN (Deakin), MNS (Deakin), PhD (UWS)

Thesis title

The self-concept of nurses and its relationship to job satisfaction

Abstract

This study explores the development and rigorous testing of a new self-concept instrument designed specifically for nurses for use in a longitudinal, multi-cohort study on self-concept, job satisfaction and retention in nursing. The outcomes of this study are that nurses' self-concept can now be measured by a new theoretically and empirically substantiated multidimensional instrument. This will provide potential new directions for nursing research on which to build specific self-concept enhancement and retention strategies. The transitional period of student to graduate nurse can be the subject of ongoing assessment by utilising the new self-concept instrument in conjunction with a valid measure of nurses' job satisfaction. The findings of this study have raised an awareness of the importance of self-concept in the retention challenge for all nurses and in particular the newly registered graduate nurse

Thesis submission date

2002

Supervisors

Professor Maree Johnson, Professor Rhonda Craven & Professor Herb Marsh

Publications
Books

Happell, B., Cowin, L.S., Roper, C., Foster, K. & McMaster, R. (2008) Introducing Mental Health Nursing: A Consumer Oriented Approach. Sydney, NSW: Allen and Unwin.

Book Chapters

Cowin, L.S. & Duchscher, J.E.B. (2008) Transitional programs. In E. Chang & J. Daly (Eds) Transitions in Nursing (2nd Ed). NSW: Elsevier.

Cowin, L.S. (2007) Psychosocial health and illness. In J.M. Wilkinson & K. Van Leuven (Eds) Fundamentals of nursing: theory, concepts & applications (186-208) Philadelphia: F.A. Davis Company.

Journal Articles

Cowin, L.S., Hengstberger-Sims, C., Eagar, S.C., Gregory, L, Andrew, S. & Rolley, J. (2008) Competency measurements: Testing convergent validity for two measures. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 64(3), 272-277.

Cowin, L.S., Johnson, M., Craven, R.G. & Marsh, H.W. (2008) Causal modeling of self-concept, job satisfaction, and retention of nurses. International Journal of Nursing Studies, 45(10), 1449-1459.

Andrew, S., Gregory, L., Cowin, L.S., Eagar, S.C., Hengstberger-Sims, C. & Rolley, J. (2008) Psychometric properties of the Australian nurse competency 2000 standards. International Journal of Nursing Studies, 45(10), 1512-1515.

Hengstberger-Sims, C., Cowin, L.S., Eagar, S.C., Gregory, L., Andrew, S. & Rolley, J. (2008) Relating new graduate nurse competence to frequency of use. Collegian, 15(2), 69-76.

Cowin, L.S., Craven, R.G., Johnson, M. & Marsh, H.W. (2006) The dynamic nature of nurses' self-concept. Collegian, 13(3), 25-31.

Duchscher, J.E.B. & Cowin, L. (2006) The new graduates' professional inheritance. Nursing Outlook, 54(4), 152-158.

Cowin, L.S. & Hengstberger-Sims, C. (2006) New graduate nurse self-concept and retention issues. International Journal of Nursing Studies, 43(1), 59-70.

Duchscher, J.E.B. & Cowin, L. (2004) Multi-generational nurses in the workplace. Journal of Nursing Administration, 34(11), 493-501.

Duchscher, J.E.B. & Cowin, L. (2004) The experience of marginalization in new nursing graduates. Nursing Outlook, 52(6), 289-96.

Cowin, L.S. & Jacobsson, D.K. (2003) The Nursing shortage: Part way down the slippery slope. Collegian, 10(3), 31-35.

Cowin, L.S. & Jacobsson, D.K. (2003) Addressing Australia's nursing shortage: Is the gap widening between workforce recommendations and the workplace? Collegian, 10(4), 20-24.

Cowin, L.S., Davies, R., Estall, G., Berlin, T., Fitzgerald, M. & Hoot, S. (2003) De-escalating aggression and violence in the mental health setting. International Journal of Mental Health Nursing, 12(1), 64-73.

Cowin, L.S. (2002) The effects of nurses' job satisfaction on retention: An Australian perspective. Journal of Nursing Administration, 32(5), 283-291.

Cowin, L.S. (2001) Nurses' self-concept. Collected papers of the Advancing Nursing through Research Conference, Hamilton, New Zealand, March 16-17, 2001.

Cowin, L. (2001) Measuring nurses' self-concept. Western Journal of Nursing Research, 23(3), 313-25.

Cowin, L.S. (2000) The self-concept of nurses and the relationship of multiple dimensions of nursing self-concepts to job satisfaction. Collected Papers of the Inaugural Self-Concept Enhancement and Learning Facilitation (SELF) Research Centre International Conference, Sydney, Australia, October 2000, 180-186.