Saint Louis University

Baguio City
School of Nursing

JOURNAL:
Nurse Leadership Style, Nurse
Satisfaction, and Patient
Satisfaction

Submitted to: Mrs. Sahlee Florendo

Submitter by: Annlery Kaye Valdez

 Organizational factors such as inadequate staffing, heavy work-loads, job dissatisfactions,
turnover, and absenteeism, are associated with compassion fatigue, nursing burnout and higher
rates of attrition. AACN healthy work environment model emphasizes six essential standards for
a healthy work environment: skilled communication, true collaboration, effective decision
making, appropriate staffing, meaningful recognition, and authentic leadership.
Nursing leadership styles may impact nurse performance through motivational factors
such as autonomy in practice, working relation- ships, accessibility of resources, individual nurse
characteristics, and leadership practice. This review also examined how nurse leaders promote
effective nursing care while balancing organizational goals and patient outcomes.
Relational leadership characteristics focus on the ability to create, sustain, and effectively
manage these relationships with staff, patients, colleagues, and families. Relational nursing
leadership models identified in the literature were transformational, situational, resonant,
democratic, affiliative, emotionally intelligent, and authentic. Task-oriented leadership models
focus on the completion of individual tasks. These characteristics are variously described through
transactional, primitive, autocratic, paternalistic, or dissonant leadership styles in the literature.
Cummings et al conducted a study providing an organizational focus on transformational
leadership as a potential enhancement to nurse satisfaction, recruitment, retention, and a
healthy work environment in a worsening nursing shortage. Findings revealed that through
investments of energy into relationships with nurses, relational leaders could positively affect the
health and well-being of their nurses.
Wong and colleagues conducted a review on nursing leadership and patient outcomes
reporting findings that relational leadership practices are positively associated with some
categories of patient outcomes in various out-patient and inpatient health care settings.
Relational leadership styles and lower patient mortality, reduced medication errors, decreased
restraint use, and lower hospital-acquired infections.
Transformational leadership, where leaders take a visionary position to inspire followers,
and transactional leadership, which is more concerned with maintaining the flow of operations,
are the 2 most commonly written about leadership models. Nurses who worked with relational
leaders had higher levels of reported job satisfaction than nurses who worked with task-oriented
leaders. Six studies found that relational leadership styles resulted in favorable views of leaders.
Job satisfaction was also reportedly increased in looking at extra effort and effectiveness
with emotional intelligence in relational leaders. Andrews and colleagues found a significant
relationship between relational leadership and job satisfaction, specifically in regard to
perceptions of leadership styles.
Laschinger and colleagues reported that relational leadership styles significantly
decreased workplace bullying and emotional exhaustion. In addition, 3 studies found that
relational leadership styles had a positive effect on intent to stay whereas 2 others linked this
style to an increase in organizational commitment.
In terms of task-oriented leadership, 4 studies found that job satisfaction was significantly
decreased. Two studies identified a decreased association of task-oriented leadership with intent
to stay, whereas praise and recognition and emotional intelligence were noted to decrease with
task-oriented leadership.
 This review suggests that relational leadership traits contribute to greater nurse
satisfaction and intent to stay, although the direct effects that leadership styles have on patient
satisfaction were not reported. Relational leadership that supports and guides nurses to meet a
shared vision led to more favorable views of leaders and was found to result in higher reported
praise and recognition. Findings indicate that task-oriented styles do not typically lead to similar
positive staff outcomes and may actually result in decreased employee satisfaction. Relational
leadership traits are reported to have positive effects on job satisfaction, organizational
commitment, and intent to stay. Throughout the literature, relational leadership practices such
as mentoring, coaching, and relationship building were found to influence nurse satisfaction.
Organizations that invest in leadership skill training have the potential to influence
nursing satisfaction and retention, thereby decreasing the impact of the nursing shortage.
Managers should be aware how their leadership style impacts organizational commitment and
should frequently re-assess this to address potential nurse attrition. Furthermore, nurse leaders
who relate to employees (Rebecca, Lyles, & Larkey, 2017) and engage with staff foster an
environment that supports positive attitudes and performance motivation, which relates to job
satisfaction.

Bibliography
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