Beyond the Ward: Investigating Nurse Managers’ Leadership Dynamics in COVID-19 Crisis

Effective leadership plays a crucial role in nursing, shaping the vision for optimal practice, inspiring and supporting personnel, and addressing professional interests and concerns. This quantitative research employed a descriptive correlational design to explore the relationship between various challenges experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic and the perceived leadership styles of nurse managers. The study revealed that all nurse managers faced challenges related to staff safety and infection risk during the pandemic. The majority reported changes in staff shortage, absenteeism, turnover, stress, fear, anxiety, work overload, duty assignments, conflict management, crisis handling, collaboration, resource and personal protective equipment shortages, regulatory complexities, changing instructions, information overload, and ambiguity in performing duties. Nurse Managers perceived these challenges to be predominantly high, with few being moderate or low. Transformational and transactional leadership styles were reported as high, while passive avoidance was low. Transformational leadership was influenced by staff shortage, absenteeism, and turnover, increasing with higher challenges in these areas. Transactional leadership correlated with staff turnover and information overload, increasing as challenges in these aspects intensified. Passive avoidance leadership style was associated with staff turnover, stress, fear, and anxiety, escalating with higher challenges in these areas. Leadership outcomes were influenced by staff shortage, absenteeism, and turnover, exhibiting a substantial increase with heightened challenges. Despite the degree of challenges, diverse leadership styles were observed, emphasizing the adaptability of leadership approaches to different situations. The study concludes with the development of a leadership enhancement plan.