Leadership: Key to care, retention among nurses
By Cynthia Lee
Nurses faced with abusive managers are more likely to quit. But a recent study by 平特五不中 and Universit茅 du Qu茅bec 脿 Trois-Rivi猫res researchers finds that the opposite is also true 鈥� transformational leadership - a style of management in which employees are encouraged聽 to work towards a collective goal within a supportive milieu, is linked to nurses鈥� well-being, and has positive impacts upon job retention.
Nursing shortage
鈥淲ith the supply of nurses in Canada in decline, we need to improve how we manage our health-care work force,鈥� says M茅lanie Lavoie-Tremblay, an Associate Professor at the Ingram School of Nursing. 鈥淧aying close attention to the leadership practices of nurse managers could go a long way in improving patient care and increasing the retention rate among our new nurses鈥�.
Early on in her career working as a new nurse, Lavoie-Tremblay found herself 鈥渃oncerned鈥� by the work environment she witnessed and experienced in the healthcare setting. She along with her colleagues took action by studying the effects of abusive and transformational leadership styles using a sample of 541 registered nurses practicing in Quebec with an average age of 26. The team devised an anonymous online survey and asked the participants to self-report on the effect of management styles.
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鈥淲e found that while transformational leadership should be promoted, it is essential to spread the word that abusive leadership creates working conditions that could be detrimental to nursing practice in the profession鈥�, says Lavoie-Tremblay, 鈥淢anagers should use the results to provide training for nurse managers focusing on transformational leadership practices and the dangers of abusive leadership鈥�.
Transformational and abusive leadership practices: impacts on novice nurses, quality of Care and intention to leave, M茅lanie Lavoie-Tremblay, Claude Fernet, Genevi猫ve L. Lavigne, St茅phanie Austin is published in the Journal of Advanced Nursing. DOI: 10.111/jan12860
The work was supported by a grant from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and facilitated by a fellowship from the Fonds de recherche du Quebec Sante and the financial support of the UQTR Research Chair on Motivation and Occupational Health.
To contact the researcher directly: melanie [dot] lavoie-tremblay [at] mcgill [dot] ca