title: Does nursing leadership affect the quality of care in the community setting?
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To examine perceptions about how nursing leadership affects quality of care in the community setting.
  
  
  BACKGROUND
  Quality care is considered an essential component of nursing work and recent policy has emphasized the role of leadership in meeting the quality agenda. As shifting the balance of nursing care from the hospital to the community occurs in the UK, there is an imperative to confirm more effectively the quality of care that patients and families receive from nurses working in the community.
  
  
  METHODS
  A qualitative study involving community nurse leaders (n = 12) and community nurses (n = 27) in semi-structured individual interviews (n = 31) and three focus groups (n = 13).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Tensions exist between 'leading' for quality care and 'delivering' for quality care. Organisational decision making is challenged by limited measures of quality of care in the diverse roles of community nursing.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Frontline community nurses and nurse leaders need to articulate how they intend quality of nursing care to be appreciated and actively indicate ways to show this.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Mechanisms to monitor patient safety, a key aspect of the policy agenda for quality care and other technical aspects of care are important for nurse leaders to develop with frontline community nurses.
authors.affiliation: School of Health in Social Science, The University of Edinburgh, The Medical School, Teviot Place, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK. e.a.haycock-stuart@ed.ac.uk
authors.forename: Elaine
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Haycock-Stuart
authors.forename: Susanne
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kean
mesh_terms: D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D003152:Community Health Nursing / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000592:standards*; D017144:Focus Groups; D006291:Health Policy; D006801:Humans; D007857:Leadership; D009718:Nurse Administrators / Q000523:psychology*; D015401:Nursing Administration Research; D015403:Nursing Evaluation Research; D015404:Nursing Methodology Research; D009740:Nursing Staff / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000523:psychology*; D036301:Qualitative Research; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D006113:United Kingdom