Paper
Wednesday, July 21, 2004
9:30 AM - 10:00 AM
Wednesday, July 21, 2004
2:30 PM - 3:00 PM
This presentation is part of : Posters
Investing Relational Energy: Toward a Theory of How Resonant Leadership Mitigates the Effects of Hospital Restructuring
Greta G. Cummings, RN, PhD, Faculty of Nursing, Faculty of Nursing, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada
Learning Objective #1: The learner will be able to identify how nursing leadership influences the negative effects reported by nurses who experience adverse events in the workplace.
Learning Objective #2: The learner will be able to describe a beginning theoretical framework of how emotionally intelligent nursing leadership mitigates the negative effects of adverse events (such as hospital restructuring) on nurses.
Relevant Research Findings: A systematic literature review confirmed that nurses’ emotional exhaustion and fatigue increased significantly after hospital restructuring while their job satisfaction and emotional health decreased (Cummings & Estabrooks, 2003). Recent research has shown that emotionally intelligent leadership mitigated many of the negative effects of hospital restructuring on nurses. The degree to which nurses experienced these effects varied depending on the leadership in their workplace (Cummings, Hayduk & Estabrooks, in review). When nurses experienced hospital restructuring while working for pacesetting and commanding leaders, they reported greater frequency of emotional exhaustion that led to greater patient care needs being left unattended. Nurses who worked for emotionally intelligent leaders were actually able to attend to more patient care needs despite being emotionally exhausted.

Conclusions: Research into the effects of hospital restructuring is still relatively new, and theory surrounding how nursing leaders can mitigate the effects of hospital restructuring on their nurses is in its infancy.

Theory Development: Early theorizing led to a model reflecting a mitigation process based on the degree of relational energy invested by emotionally intelligent leaders in order to build and maintain active, dynamic and supportive relationships with their nursing staff. Relational energy acts as an adjuvant to stimulate the nurse’s coping response in the face of external forces of change. Emotionally intelligent leader-nurse relationships allow nurses to develop new meanings from their chaotic environments and to continue to have the emotional health and well being to provide quality care to their patients.

Cummings, G. & Estabrooks, C. (2003). The effects of hospital restructuring that included layoffs on nurses who remained employed: A systematic review of impact. Int J. of Soc. & Soc. Pol. (8/9): 8-53.

Cummings, G. Hayduk, L, & Estabrooks, C. (in review). How emotionally intelligent leadership mitigates the effects of hospital restructuring on nurses.

Back to Posters
Back to Evidence-Based Nursing: Strategies for Improving Practice
Sigma Theta Tau International
July 21, 2004