A systematic review and meta-synthesis of effective nursing leadership

Introduction. There is a prevailing view that leadership and management development play a vital role in the creating of high performing organisations. Aim of the study. The aim of this research is to review relevant qualitative studies to identify the attributes of effective Nursing Leadership. Material and methods. Healthcare systems have experienced a substantial transformation during recent decades. This has resulted in Nurse Managers dealing with increased levels of systemic complexity and change. It’s been found,that leadership skills may help nurse managers to deal with these difficulties. Nine databases, Nursing Journals, reference lists from relevant publications and grey literature were searched. From over identified 2,000 articles, 394 were reviewed at abstract and 257 reviewed in full. Twelve articles were accepted for the systematic review. Systematic review and meta-synthesis methodologies were employed in the study. Data was collected between November 2006 and January 2007. Results. A variety of effective nursing leadership attributes were identified. Six themes were identified through metasynthesis: personal characteristics, interpersonal relationships, future vision, management of change, managerial competence and clinical experience. Conclusions. Whilst the findings of the research could not be explained by any single leadership theory, all the themes and attributes identified (except clinical experience) could be all identified in the generic leadership theory system, particularly in transformational and charismatic leadership theories. Two recommendations arise from the research. Firstly that further enquiries into Nursing Leadership should encompass the views of other relevant groups, such as patients,and other hospital staff groups. Secondly, these attributes should be empirically tested through quantitative methods.