Abstract
Background: Since early 2020 the world has grappled with Covid-19. From the beginning nursing and nursing leadership have been at the forefront of the Covid-19 pandemic. It was therefore timely to examine effective leadership strategies and attributes of contemporary nursing leaders who led during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Aim: The aim of this integrative review was to explore effective leadership strategies and attributes of contemporary nursing leaders who have led throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
Method: A literature review was undertaken utilising Whittemore and Knafl s (2005) integrative review five phase process. Twenty-four articles met the inclusion criteria and were analysed using Braun and Clarke s (2006) thematic analysis framework.
Results: Four themes were identified, one of which was comprised of four subthemes. Themes included: Attributes of an effective leader during crisis; Effective strategies in leading teams in crisis; Navigation of politics, culture, and equity in crisis; Maintaining safety of all in crisis.
Conclusion: The COVID-19 pandemic has imposed numerous challenges to the nursing profession with nursing leaders playing a crucial role in ensuring patients, team members, teams, organizations, and regions continue to excel during this tumultuous time. The four identified key themes illustrate effective strategies and attributes of nursing leaders during the COVID-19 pandemic. Many of the key strategies in this review illustrate similarities to other nursing and non-nursing crisis leadership literature, however, new understandings bespoke to the COVID-19 landscape were also established. Overall, the findings in this study will be beneficial to nursing leaders leading during crisis events, particularly, infectious disease crises such as endemics, epidemics, and pandemics.