Promoting transformational leadership in learning disability nursing

Learning disability nurses work across a variety of settings in roles that often require leadership skills. In learning disability services there is an emphasis on providing high-quality care, ensuring the safety of service users and reducing restrictive practices, with effective leadership considered vital to achieving these. Therefore, it is important that nurses adopt a leadership style which can galvanise their teams and colleagues and bring about change. One such style of leadership is transformational leadership, which uses emotional intelligence, open communication, role modelling and empowerment to motivate team members to ‘rally around’ a shared vision. This article explains how nurses can apply transformational leadership to their practice and encourage team members and colleagues to aim towards improved outcomes for people with learning disabilities and their carers.