Similarities and Differences between Nurses' and Physicians' Clinical Leadership Behaviours: A Quantitative Cross-Sectional Study

Background. Being a nurse or physician in today's complex healthcare practice involves more than just responsibility for one aspect of care during one episode in a patient's care trajectory. Both professionals are expected to take on a clinical leadership role and contribute positively to the reduction of care fragmentation and help in spanning professional boundaries. Although nurses may be well placed to identify the needs for integration, they may lack the position and status (compared to physicians) to address those needs as leaders. The aim of this study is to analyse similarities and differences between nurses and physicians in clinical leadership roles within a hospital context and explore how this relates to their interdisciplinary collaborative behaviours and perception on their job. Method. A cross-sectional survey among physicians and nurses was conducted to measure clinical leadership, job satisfaction, workload, and interdisciplinary collaborative behaviours. Results. Our results suggest that nurses (n = 329) and physicians (n = 100) show similar clinical leadership behaviours, based on equivalent scores on the clinical leadership scale. However, physicians score higher on the global leadership scale indicating they are more likely to perceive themselves as leaders than nurses. As clinical leaders, both nurses and physicians are more likely to express interdisciplinary collaborative behaviours. Furthermore, physicians who scored higher on the clinical leadership scale reported higher satisfaction with their job, whereas, for nurses, their score on the clinical leadership scale did not relate to their job satisfaction. Conclusion. As nurses in hospitals have the most frequent and direct involvement with patients, it seems inevitable for them to act as clinical leaders to promote patient-centred care. However, nurses less often perceived themselves as clinical leaders while showing suitable behaviours. Future studies should focus on the strategies nurses use to exert their clinical leadership, and for example, if nurses require the use of more dominant strategies to effect change.