title: Nurse managers' perceptions related to their leadership styles, knowledge, and skills in these areas-a viewpoint: case of health centre wards in Finland.
abstract: The purpose of this study was to explore nurse managers' perceptions related to their leadership styles, knowledge, and their skills in these areas in health centre wards in Finland. The data were collected from nurse managers (n = 252) in health centre hospitals in Finland using a structured questionnaire (response rate 63%). Six leadership styles-visionary, coaching, affiliate, democratic, commanding, and isolating-were reflected on. Almost all respondents in every age group considered four leadership styles-visionary, coaching, affiliate, and democratic-to be very important or important. Nurse managers estimated their knowledge and skills in leadership styles to be essentially fairly sufficient or sufficient. Nurse managers' abilities to reflect, understand, and, if necessary, change their leadership style influence the work unit's success and employees' job satisfaction. Nurse managers, especially new nurse managers, need more theoretic, evidence-based education to cope with these expectations and to develop their professional abilities. Together with universities, health care organizations should start planning nurse manager education programmes that focus on strategic issues, leadership, job satisfaction, challenging situations in leadership, change management, work unit management (e.g., economy, efficiency, and resources), and how the nurse managers consider their own wellbeing.
authors.affiliation: Lapland Hospital District, P.O. Box 8041, 96101 Rovaniemi, Finland ; Department of Health Sciences, University of Oulu, P.O. Box 5000, 90014 University of Oulu, Finland.
authors.forename: Soili
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Vesterinen
authors.forename: Marjo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Suhonen
authors.forename: Arja
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Isola
authors.forename: Leena
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Paasivaara
authors.forename: Helena
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Laukkala