The aim of this study was to clarify the influence of different leadership styles on informed consent (oral or written) for nursing cares.

Subjects and Methods

The subjects were 1148 nurses in Fukui prefecture who agreed to participate in this study. A questionnaire was delivered to the subjects and returned anomalously to the researchers. The purpose and ethical considerations were explained on the face sheet of the questionnaire.

The questionnaire included 3 parts: a) demographic data, b) prevalence of informed consent, and c) nursing supervisor's leadership characteristics. The prevalence of informed consent was measured by 4 subcategories: knowledge, attitude, decisions, and performance of informed consent in nursing care. The supervisor's leadership characteristics were classified into 4 types based on degree of leadership functions: PM (strong performance and maintenance), Pm (strong performance and weak maintenance), mP (weak performance and strong maintenance), and pm (weak performance and maintenance). The nurses' prevalence of informed consent was compared among the 4 types of leadership.

Results

The average age of the subjects was 32.7Žm9.6 years, and the average clinical experience was 10.9Žm9.3 years. About 76 % of the subjects regularly conducted informed consent for nursing cares. The subjects under the PM leadership type showed more knowledge, positive attitude, positive decisions, and performance on informed consent than those who were under the pm types (p<0.001).

Discussion and Conclusions

This study demonstrated that it is important to strengthen both performance and maintenance leadership functions of nursing supervisors.