Transformational and abusive leadership practices: impacts on novice nurses, quality of care and intention to leave

To investigate the impact of nurse managers exercising transformational vs. abusive leadership practices with novice nurses.

In a nursing shortage context, it is important to understand better the factors that potentially influence the retention of nurses in the early stages of their career. A large body of research has found that transformational leadership practices have a positive influence on employee functioning. However, very little research exists about the detrimental impact of abusive leadership practices, much less in a nursing context.

A cross-sectional design where 541 nurses from the province of Quebec (Canada) were questioned in the fall of 2013.

A self-administered questionnaire was completed by nurses with less than five years of nursing experience.

Results from three linear regression analysis indicated that transformational leadership practices potentially lead to high quality care and weak intention to quit the healthcare facilities. Conversely, abusive leadership practices potentially lead to poorer quality care and to strong intention to quit the healthcare facilities and the nursing profession.

Paying close attention to the leadership practices of nurse managers could prove effective in improving patient care and increasing the retention of new nurses, which is helpful in resolving the nursing shortage. Our results specifically suggest not only that we promote supportive leadership practices (transformational leadership) but, most of all, that we spread the word that abusive leadership creates working conditions that could be detrimental to the practice of nursing at career start.