Leadership in the NHS (BMJ Leader, 20 December 2019)

Summary

In healthcare, leadership has a big influence on quality of care and the performance of hospitals. How staff are treated significantly influences care provision and organisational performance, so understanding how leaders can help ensure staff are cared for, valued, supported and respected is important. Research suggests ‘inclusion’ is a critical part of the answer.

In this article, Roger Kline looks at how creating a compassionate, inclusive culture improves patient safety—and by contrast, how a culture of fear and bullying has a negative effect. He examines why toxic leadership cultures develop and what can be done to transform leadership in NHS organisations.