Developing and Sustaining Nursing Leadership

Published: July 2013
Available in English, French, Chinese, Simplified
Health system,  Healthy work environment (HWE)

Purpose and scope

The purpose of this best practice guideline is to assist nurses and others performing both formal and informal nursing leadership roles from the point-of-care to the board room, across a variety of practice domains and settings. It identifies evidence-based leadership behaviour that nurses can…

The purpose of this best practice guideline is to assist nurses and others performing both formal and informal nursing leadership roles from the point-of-care to the board room, across a variety of practice domains and settings. It identifies evidence-based leadership behaviour that nurses can implement individually and collectively to benefit patients, health-care team members, organizations, systems and health-care policy, research and education. Leadership practices that help create a healthy work environment can ultimately improve patient and client experiences and outcomes. Even point-of-care nurses, who may not see themselves as leaders, can adopt these practices in their informal leadership role and significantly improve their work environment and in turn, patient outcomes.

The guideline is relevant to nurses in: 

  • all roles including point-of-care nurses, administrators, educators, researchers and those engaged in policy work, and also to nursing students, 
  • all domains of nursing (clinical practice, administration, education, research and policy), and 
  • all practice settings.

The guideline will also be helpful for: 

  • inter-professional team members, 
  • non-nursing administrators at the unit, organizational and system level, 
  • policy makers and governments,
  • professional organizations, employers and labour groups, and 
  • federal, provincial and territorial standard-setting bodies.

Reference

Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario (2013). Developing and Sustaining Nursing Leadership, (2nd ed.). Toronto, ON: Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario. 

Recommendations

Do you want to learn about and implement the most- up-to-date evidence-based recommendations on this topic with your colleagues? Download and share the full best practice guideline (BPG), Developing and Sustaining Nursing Leadership.
See below for a snapshot of the recommendations from this BPG. We strongly suggest you review the full BPG before implementing the recommendations and good practice statements. The BPG also includes further resources to support implementation and evaluation.  

Disclaimer: These guidelines are not binding for nurses, other health providers or the organizations that employ them. The use of these guidelines should be flexible and based on individual needs and local circumstances. They constitute neither a liability nor discharge from liability. While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the contents at the time of publication, neither the authors nor the Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario (RNAO) gives any guarantee as to the accuracy of the information contained in them or accepts any liability with respect to loss, damage, injury or expense arising from any such errors or omission in the contents of this work.

Methodology documents
pdf file format Download

Revision status

Current edition published 2013.

This BPG replaces the RNAO BPG Developing and Sustaining Nursing Leadership (2006).

Contact

Contact us for any questions.