Creating a Culture of Transformational Leadership Through Implementation of a Nursing Leadership Development Program

Nurse leaders are responsible for influencing frontline nurses in the delivery of high-quality, patient-centered care amid resource constraints and competing priorities. A growing body of evidence indicates that relation-based leadership styles, such as transformational leadership, improve quality and safety within the healthcare environment and positively impact patient, staff, and organizational outcomes. While a transformational leadership style has been proven to successfully drive all organization members to work together toward the organization’s vision, most organizations do not assess leadership style or provide formal training to promote growth in this important leadership facet. This scholarly project aimed to close the gap in relational competency development by implementing an evidence-based transformational leadership development program (TLDP) at two hospitals in a twelve-hospital healthcare system. The Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire™ (MLQ), the Leader Efficacy Questionnaire™ (LEQ), and a novel program evaluation survey were utilized to evaluate program’s success. Both participant and supervisor scores in the transformational leadership domain of the MLQ demonstrated a significant improvement post-program. All three efficacy domains in the LEQ demonstrated significant improvement in leader scores post-program. The study results for this scholarly project add to the body of evidence in support of transformational leadership development programs, and the TLDP met the overarching purpose of providing a framework to equip nurse leaders with the competencies to create healthy work environments, lead collective change, and positively impact organizational outcomes.