Nurses' Experiences of Rebel Nurse Leadership in Psychiatric Care: A Qualitative Interview Study of Positive Deviance

Nurses play a key role in person-centered psychiatric care by supporting patient recovery, fostering independence, and building trusting relationships. However, organizational rules may conflict with nurses' ethical values, leading to moral distress, burnout, and resignation. Drawing on the theory of positive deviance, previous research has identified how nurses may engage in positive rebel leadership, leading and practicing nursing in ways that diverge from prevailing norms, rules, codes of conduct, and workplace strategies. This study explores how such leadership in psychiatric care can support professional standards and improve patient outcomes. The aim was to describe nurses' experiences of rebel nurse leadership in psychiatric care. A qualitative descriptive design was employed, using semistructured individual interviews with 33 nurses experienced in psychiatric care. A qualitative content analysis and meta-synthesis were conducted, with the support of generative artificial intelligence in the synthesis process. The results describe nurses' experiences of rebel nurse leadership in psychiatric care as taking responsibility, guided by professional competence and an internal ethical compass; leading change and challenging hierarchies to enable holistic care that respects patients' rights and dignity; relying on the support of colleagues and management, while facing the risk of exclusion. The study shows how rebel nurse leadership, grounded in professional competence and ethical conviction, might support person-centered and high-quality psychiatric care. The findings illustrate how such leadership emerges in response to organizational norms that constrain nursing practice and frame acts of resistance as expressions of professional responsibility. The study emphasizes the importance of supporting nurses' autonomy to enable improvements in care quality and patient outcomes.