Leadership: the key to quality outcomes

Nurse executives are charged with creating a workforce that provides quality care in a creative and cost-effective manner. Style of leadership determines how nurse executives relate to their professional nurses and ultimately how successful their health care institutions will be. The practice-based theory of nursing leadership called the Integrated Leadership Practice Model can be practiced by nurse executives to promote employee satisfaction, assure that quality care is provided based on standards and competencies, and promote an organizational culture committed to quality. This article proposes the application of integrated leadership to the practice of nurse executives and demonstrates how they can foster and support this model for nursing leadership within their nurse managers.