{"title":"Impact of Leadership Style and Structural Empowerment on Nursing Group Power in ICU Settings: A Cross-Sectional Study.","authors":"Elizabeta Kadosh, Violetta Rozani","doi":"10.1111/nicc.70140","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Power is an essential resource for nursing teams, especially in the complex high-risk environment in intensive care units (ICUs), where effective collaboration, prompt intervention and comprehensive patient care are vital. However, the factors influencing nursing group power in ICUs remain largely unexplored.</p><p><strong>Aims: </strong>To examine the association between head nurse leadership styles, structural empowerment and nursing group power among nurses employed in ICU settings.</p><p><strong>Study design: </strong>This cross-sectional study employed a convenience sample of 120 registered nurses from various ICUs within a general hospital (response rate of 89.5%). Data were collected between July and August 2024 through self-administered questionnaires.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Unlike other leadership styles examined, transformational leadership uniquely demonstrated consistent positive relationships with all six components of structural empowerment and nursing group power. Moreover, transformational leadership by the head nurse (β = 0.262, p = 0.004), access to opportunities (β = 0.184, p = 0.021), access to information (β = 0.244, p = 0.004) and levels of informal power (β = 0.160, p = 0.047) were all positively associated with nursing group power, collectively explaining 48.3% of the variance.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>Our results emphasise the importance of transformational leadership, access to opportunities and information and informal power as contributors to nursing group power.</p><p><strong>Relevance to clinical practice: </strong>Healthcare organisations should prioritise fostering transformational leadership skills among ICU head nurses and strengthening structural empowerment frameworks. This involves implementing targeted leadership training programmes, enhancing access to professional development opportunities and information resources and fostering informal power networks. These actions can enhance nurses' collective power, improve collaboration and optimise team dynamics in ICUs, ultimately contributing to better patient care and organisational goal achievement.</p>","PeriodicalId":51264,"journal":{"name":"Nursing in Critical Care","volume":"30 5","pages":"e70140"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6000,"publicationDate":"2025-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12344751/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Nursing in Critical Care","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1111/nicc.70140","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"NURSING","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Background: Power is an essential resource for nursing teams, especially in the complex high-risk environment in intensive care units (ICUs), where effective collaboration, prompt intervention and comprehensive patient care are vital. However, the factors influencing nursing group power in ICUs remain largely unexplored.
Aims: To examine the association between head nurse leadership styles, structural empowerment and nursing group power among nurses employed in ICU settings.
Study design: This cross-sectional study employed a convenience sample of 120 registered nurses from various ICUs within a general hospital (response rate of 89.5%). Data were collected between July and August 2024 through self-administered questionnaires.
Results: Unlike other leadership styles examined, transformational leadership uniquely demonstrated consistent positive relationships with all six components of structural empowerment and nursing group power. Moreover, transformational leadership by the head nurse (β = 0.262, p = 0.004), access to opportunities (β = 0.184, p = 0.021), access to information (β = 0.244, p = 0.004) and levels of informal power (β = 0.160, p = 0.047) were all positively associated with nursing group power, collectively explaining 48.3% of the variance.
Conclusion: Our results emphasise the importance of transformational leadership, access to opportunities and information and informal power as contributors to nursing group power.
Relevance to clinical practice: Healthcare organisations should prioritise fostering transformational leadership skills among ICU head nurses and strengthening structural empowerment frameworks. This involves implementing targeted leadership training programmes, enhancing access to professional development opportunities and information resources and fostering informal power networks. These actions can enhance nurses' collective power, improve collaboration and optimise team dynamics in ICUs, ultimately contributing to better patient care and organisational goal achievement.
期刊介绍：
Nursing in Critical Care is an international peer-reviewed journal covering any aspect of critical care nursing practice, research, education or management. Critical care nursing is defined as the whole spectrum of skills, knowledge and attitudes utilised by practitioners in any setting where adults or children, and their families, are experiencing acute and critical illness. Such settings encompass general and specialist hospitals, and the community. Nursing in Critical Care covers the diverse specialities of critical care nursing including surgery, medicine, cardiac, renal, neurosciences, haematology, obstetrics, accident and emergency, neonatal nursing and paediatrics.
Papers published in the journal normally fall into one of the following categories:
-research reports
-literature reviews
-developments in practice, education or management
-reflections on practice
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