Running head: TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP IN NURSING 1

Transformational Leadership in Nursing

Cassandra Levchuk

Delaware Technical Community College

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Transformational Leadership in Nursing

When discussing leaders, you may think of someone like Martin Luther King Jr.

or Nelson Mandela. These two men were not formal leaders at all in their time. They

were actually people who had a vision and a want for change and pursued that. Over

time, people followed them, not because of their title but because of their mission. People

like this are known as transformational leaders. Over the last thirty years,

transformational leadership has become a preferred style of leadership in the workplace.

It is based on trust and respect their employees have for their leaders. With this type of

leadership, employees are motivated to do more than expected of them and be actively

involved in areas outside their job description such as quality improvement (Krepia,

Katsaragatkis, Kaitelidou, and Prezerakos, 2018, p. 190). Because of the frequent and

ever need for change in the healthcare profession to improve patient outcomes, quality of

care, and satisfaction of consumers also known as patients, transformational leadership is

on the rise.

Because of the stress of the nursing profession as well as the connection with the

job, transformational leadership is to be effective. Nursing leaders have a love for the job

and the patients and actively seek ways to improve difficulties their patients are having.

With this drive of the nurse combined with their knowledge and experience, nurses are

able to come up with solutions to problems they are having. Then leading by example and

passion, their attitude and outlook spreads to their peers creating overall change. This is

one way any nurse based on their personality and commitment to their job can become a

transformational leader. Another reason for transformational leadership in nursing is the

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constant change in policies and procedures based on continuous evidence based practice

and research. Something that may have been ideal in the nursing field for the last 100

years could change based on medical research being performed around the world right

now. This constant change requires facilities and managers to keep up with the research

and there is a need for nursing research and quality improvement teams.

Transformational leadership in the nursing field creates a culture of active thinking and

encourages workers to become involved with the organization, and this constant need of

change (Krepia et al., 2018, p. 191).

The transformational leadership style according to one of the founders, Bass, has

four key components being idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual

stimulation, and individual consideration. Idealized influence is providing employees or

followers with a mission and being an active role model conveying high morals and

values. Inspirational motivation involves encouraging others to achieve the common goal

of the organization as well as their personal goals in regards to their career. Intellectual

stimulation involves encouraging employees to produce new ideas and participate in

solving problems and change. Lastly, individualized consideration involves the leader

encouraging their employees for higher levels of achievement and supporting their

employees on a personal level and collaborative level (Doody & Doody, 2012, p. 1212-

14). Overall transformational leadership involves a balance of good leadership skills and

direction as well as democracy and individualization.

The lifelong learning aspect of nursing is the reason why transformational

leadership should be applied here. With nurses required to do in-service’s and CEU’s to

keep their license, they learn the latest research and preferred practice. This knowledge
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plus the leadership qualities discussed above, create an environment where nurses are

always learning and teaching. Along with being a leader to our co-workers, we also need

to be leaders to and for our patients. As a nurse, we are constantly making decisions with

our patient because we are their main source of communication with the healthcare team.

It is important we advocate for their personal choices and how they would like their

healthcare conducted. Alison P. Smith says that patient advocacy should be a formal

expectation of the nurse, not an act of “above and beyond” (2004, p. 88). This idea is

important because as a nurse and nurse leader being a patient advocate is a necessity to

giving quality care. With that being said it is important that we have nurse leaders at the

bedside. Some people have characteristics and personalities to become leaders but

leadership skills can also be taught. A study done by Brock University published in 2015

stated that the RN’s voice was often silent in the organization evaluated and when asking

RN’s to make decisions within their scope of practice, they did not feel they had the

authority to do so (Prentice, Robinson, & Pearson, 2015, p. 13). They then had their

nurses participate in leadership development programs recognizing that leaders at the

front-line are just as important. Finally at the end, the bedside nurses described their

experience in the leadership session as empowering and felt they could speak up more

about patient decisions as well as issues they were having on their unit (Prentice et al.,

2015, p. 17). Sofarelli and Brown (1998) said transformational leadership is the most

suitable leadership style for empowering nurses (Welford, 2002, p. 8). Teaching and

guiding is the best way to empower and motivate bedside nurses.

The main component of transformational leadership is communication skills.

Communication is how leaders guide, inspire, and encourage the people around them.
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The transformational leader communicates the vision, the organizational structure,

continuous learning, and desired change (Doody & Doody, 2012, Table 1). When

collaborating with the interdisciplinary team, the nurse leader not only produces their

points, but also acknowledges and respects others for other members of the team may

know more than the nurse about that subject. The transformational nurse leader is not

demanding or over-bearing but does incorporate democratic leadership style. The nurse

leader may communicate with the administrators of an organization in regards to staffing

or patient costs. The manager using transformational leadership will inspire staff to

follow the organization’s mission giving them a sense of purpose and satisfaction in their

current job. This increases staff retention and is efficient for the organization and

administrators. “The best retention tool is a manager’s ability to lead” (Welford, 2002, p.

10).

As a nurse leader, I strive to include transformational leadership qualities into my

career and workplace. The reason I would like to include this into my career is because as

a nurse I have a passion for my job and not only do I want to spread that to my peers but I

also want to put it to good use and create change and better outcomes and experiences for

my patients. I will incorporate individualized consideration by creating goals for my

organization, floor, or shift and also acknowledge others personal goals they would like

to achieve such as learning new things. The need for transformational leaders in the

nursing field is growing due to the uniqueness of the profession and the love for their jobs.
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References

Doody, O. & Doody, C. M. (2012). Transformational leadership in nursing practice.

British Journal of Nursing 21(20), 1212-1218.

Krepia, V., Katsaragatkis, S., Kaitelidou, D., & Prezerakos, P. (2018). Transformational

leadership and its evolution in nursing. Progress in Health Sciences, 8(1), 189-

194. doi: 10.5604/01.3001.0012.1114

Prentice, D., Robinson, S., & Pearson, E. (2015). Enhancing leadership skills for bedside

RNs: evaluation of a leadership program. Perspectives, 38(1), 13-18.

Smith, A. P. (2004). Patient advocacy: roles for nurses and leaders. Nursing Economic$,

22(2), 88-90.

Welford, C. (2002, July). Transformational leadership in nursing: matching theory to

practice. Nursing Management, 9(4), 7-11.