Summary
This module has focused on ethical behaviours in leadership that can help guide outcomes, and influence the behaviour of others, both for the good and the bad. The tools and resources provided can help you self-reflect and assess your ethical practice as a leader, and help you move forward with strategies that promote ethical practice and leadership, while also building moral resilience.
This module has concluded with identifying strategies of self-care as a nursing leader and strategies to develop moral resilience. Nursing leaders need courage to face the complexity of issues and pressures within health care. Sometimes that courage can be hard to find or leave you feeling vulnerable in your role. The on-going process of self-reflection helps you develop as a nurse and leader and identify supports that can help you.
Want to learn more? There are many resources related to ethical leadership. Although not healthcare and nursing specific, we can learn from examples in other industries and find similarities. The McCombs School of Business (2021), University of Texas at Austin, provides a course called, Ethics Unwrapped. The course focuses on behavioural ethics and offers many videos, case studies, teaching notes and additional resources, including two lessons focused on Ethical Leadership.
Confused with the different styles of leadership and terms, and how leadership relates to other core nursing concepts such as caring? There are many resources that provide insight into definitions, theories, and practices. Here are some additional references to consider.
- Eva, N., Robin, M., Sendjaya, S., van Dierendonck, D., Liden, R. C. (2019). Servant leadership: A systematic review and call for future research. The Leadership Quarterly, 30(1), 111-132.
- Solbakken, R., Bergdahl, E., Rudolfsson, G., Bondas, T. (2018). Caring in nursing leadership – A meta-ethnography from the nurse leader’s perspective. International Nursing, Nursing Administration Quarterly, 42(4). E1-E19.
