Factors influencing early career nurses to adopt leadership roles: a literature review
Intended for healthcare professionals
Evidence and practice    

Factors influencing early career nurses to adopt leadership roles: a literature review

Steve Robertson Research programme director, School of Allied Health Professions, Nursing and Midwifery, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, England
Tony Ryan Professor, School of Allied Health Professions, Nursing and Midwifery, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, England
Ashfaque Talpur Research fellow, School of Allied Health Professions, Nursing and Midwifery, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, England

Why you should read this article:
  • To recognise the importance of effective nursing leadership in clinical practice

  • To understand the factors that affect early career nurses’ motivation to develop leadership skills

  • To consider the approaches that organisations could use to encourage nurses to adopt leadership roles

Effective nursing leadership has been shown to improve patient outcomes, but there has been little exploration of the factors that influence early career nurses to develop their leadership skills and adopt leadership roles. This article presents a rapid review of the literature on these factors, integrating data from 25 articles. Findings suggest that improving leadership confidence and self-efficacy, particularly in relation to system leadership, can increase nurses’ motivation for adopting leadership roles. Supportive organisations that value leadership and give nurses opportunities to exercise it are equally important. Training and education, preceptorship, peer-to-peer shadowing, modelling and mentoring can all be useful in improving leadership skills and inspiring the next generation of nurse leaders.

Nursing Management. doi: 10.7748/nm.2023.e2105

Peer review

This article has been subject to external double-blind peer review and checked for plagiarism using automated software

Correspondence

s.robertson@sheffield.ac.uk

Conflict of interest

None declared

Robertson S, Ryan T, Talpur A (2023) Factors influencing early career nurses to adopt leadership roles: a literature review. Nursing Management. doi: 10.7748/nm.2023.e2105

Published online: 25 October 2023

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