Study: Authentic leadership improves workforce stability, care outcomes

Nursing leaders exhibiting authentic leadership characteristics can strengthen nursing practice environments, including professional engagement, interprofessional relationships, workforce retention and quality of care outcomes, a study found. Published in the Journal of Nursing Administration, the study consisted of a cross-sectional assessment of 431 nurses across seven hospitals. The researchers’ defined authentic leadership as characteristics incorporating self-awareness, relational transparency, balanced processing and internalized moral perspective. The researchers found leadership behaviors explained up to 45.8% of staff nurses’ perceived sense of leadership support and were linked to higher levels of participation, staffing perception and collaboration. The authors say healthcare organizations could benefit from including authentic leadership competencies into leadership development programs, mentorship initiatives and performance evaluation processes, especially in strategies intended to improve workforce engagement and retention. (Journal of Nursing Administration article, 8/4/26)