Role of compassionate leadership in emergency department nursing

Abstract

Aim This research study aimed to explore the role of compassionate leadership in improving staff well-being and patient care outcomes within the environment of emergency department nursing. The study focused on how leadership behaviours impact nursing performance, job satisfaction, and emotional resilience, with an additional objective of identifying effective strategies to enhance leadership practices in the emergency department. Research Design An exploratory and inductive research approach was employed, utilizing the interpretivism research philosophy and implementing a qualitative scoping review research design that combined interviews with emergency department nurses and quantitative survey data from multiple healthcare institutions. A sample of nine empirical journal articles identified from literature review is collected from EBSCOhost and the ProQuest research databases. Findings The findings revealed that compassionate leadership significantly enhances job satisfaction, psychological empowerment, and emotional resilience among emergency department nurses. The study found that the leadership characteristics of high emotional intelligence, empathy, and active support played a positive role in developing a supportive work environment which in turn led to decreasing stress and greater job satisfaction. On the other hand, the study also found that compassion fatigue leads to greater stress while self-care can prevent stress; and structural empowerment of emergency nursing staff can enable not only effective leadership but also a positive improvement in nursing and patient outcomes. Additionally, cultural variations in the perception and application of compassionate leadership were noted, suggesting the need for tailored approaches in diverse healthcare settings. Hence, the study implicates that in order to enhance nurse well-being as well as patient outcomes, both compassionate leadership as well as supportive organisational structures are required.