Reflection on clinical leadership behaviours

Recognizing and defining clinical nurse leaders

This article addresses the issue of clinical leadership and how it is defined. The concepts and definitions of clinical leadership are considered as well as the results of new research that suggests that clinical leaders can be seen as experts in their field, and because they are approachable and are effective communicators, are empowered to act as a role model, motivating others by matching their values and beliefs about nursing and care to their practice. This is supported by a new leadership theory, congruent leadership, proposed as the most appropriate leadership theory to support an understanding of clinical leadership. Congruent leaders (clinical nurse leaders) are followed because there is a match between the leader's values and beliefs and their actions.

The concept of clinical leadership

This paper examines the concept of clinical leadership and finds that the concept has been used in a number of ways within the nursing literature. The paper argues that in a nursing practice setting the concept of clinical leadership is an appropriate one. In the clinical setting the nurse leader often has followers in the health care team, patients and their relatives. Thus it is argued that clinical leadership can be defined as the expert nurse who leads patients to better health care.