Positive spiritual climate supports transformational leadership as means to reduce nursing burnout and intent to...

To explore the relationship between spiritual climate and transformational leadership, and examine their impact on nurses perceived emotional exhaustion and intentions to quit.

Transformational leadership is known to have a significant positive effect on work environment and job satisfaction. Additionally, promoting spiritual climate amongst staff can benefit workers by increasing self-worth. The relationship between the two is unknown.

Nurse clinicians from 2 sites in the Jiangsu Province of China completed self-report questionnaires based on spiritual climate, emotional exhaustion, clinical leadership and Turnover Intention Scales. Mediation analysis was applied to evaluate impact of spiritual climate.

Perceived positive spirituality amongst nurse clinicians reinforces transformational leadership to reduce emotional exhaustion (indirect effect of -0.089, p < .01). Burnout and intention to leave showed significantly positive correlation with lower levels of perceived spirituality (r = .545, p < .01).

Transformational leadership in the workplace can reduce nurses' burnout, and a positive spiritual climate increases meaningfulness in their work. This may help in nurse retention.

Health care leaders must look beyond transformational leadership to maintain a positive and supportive clinical climate, and this may involve acknowledgement of nurses' spiritual needs.