Leadership
Principle H of the Principles of Nursing Practice is: "Nurses and nursing staff lead by example, develop themselves and other staff, and influence the way care is given in a manner that is open and responds to individual needs" (RCN, 2010, Principles of Nursing Practice). Use this guide to find information resources about leadership including books, reports, journal articles and videos.
Last updated:
17/06/2022
Key Resources
Kapadia D, Zhang J, Salway S, Nazroo J and Booth A (2022) Ethnic inequalities in healthcare: a rapid evidence review. NHS Race and Health Observatory.
The King’s Fund (2021) Integrated care systems: how will they work under the Health and Care Bill?
Royal College of Nursing: Our international work
NHS England (2020) NHS people plan.
NHS England: NHS Workforce Race Equality Standard (WRES)
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Includes the 2020 WRES report, previous reports, and details of phase two.
View page
West M, Bailey S and Williams E (2020) The courage of compassion. Supporting nurses and midwives to deliver high quality care. London: King’s Fund.
Royal College of Nursing (2021) Royal College of Nursing response to NHS England and NHS Improvement consultation on 'Building a strong, integrated care system across England'. London: RCN.
Charles A (2021) Integrated care systems explained: making sense of systems, places and neighbourhoods. London: The Kings Fund.
RCN Nurses in Management and Leadership Forum
McMahon A and Sin CH (2015) A guide to economic assessment in nursing. Harrow: RCNi.
RCN Clinical topic: Quality improvement
Health Education England (2015) Understanding and maximising leadership in pre-registration healthcare curricula: research report. London: HEE.
IntraHealth International, Nursing Now and Johnson and Johnson (2019) Investing in the power of nurse leadership: what will it take?
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This report provides an in-depth analysis of the gender-related barriers to and facilitators of nurse leadership and makes recommendations for policymakers and implementers.
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Kolyva K, Butt N and Eames J (2018) #150 leaders evaluation: fostering student leadership. London: Council of Deans.
NHS Leadership Academy (2013) The healthcare leadership model: the nine dimensions of leadership behaviour. Leeds: NHS Leadership Academy.
Steward K (2014) Exploring CQC's well-led domain. London: Kings Fund.
Timmins N (2015) The practice of system leadership: being comfortable with chaos. London: Kings Fund.
West M, Eckert R, Steward K and Passmore B (2014) Delivering collective leadership for health care. London: The Kings Fund.
We would like to thank the RCN Nursing in Management and Leadership member community for their input into the development of this subject guide.
Books
Ashton D, Ripman J, and Williams P (2017) How to be a nurse or midwife leader. Chichester: Wiley Blackwell.
Covey S R (2015) The 7 habits of highly effective people. (no place): Mango Media.
Dolan B and Overend A (2019) Leadership and management on the ward. 3rd edn. (no place): Elsevier.
Frost S and Alidina R-K (2019) Building an inclusive organization: leveraging the power of a diverse workforce. London: Kogan Page.
Kotter J (2012) Leading change. 2nd edn. Boston: Harvard Business Review Press.
Kouzes J and Posner B (2017) The leadership challenge: how to make extraordinary things happen in organizations. Hoboken: Wiley.
Marson N (2019) Leading by coaching: how to deliver impactful change one conversation at a time. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan.
Patterson K, Grenny J, McMillan R and Switzler A (2011) Crucial conversations: tools for talking when stakes are high. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Peters S (2012) The chimp paradox. Vermilion, London.
Stanley D (ed.) (2016) Clinical leadership in nursing and healthcare: values into action. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.
Stanley D (2019) Values-based leadership in healthcare: congruent leadership explored. London: Sage.
Swanwick T and McKimm J (2017) ABC of clinical leadership. 2nd edn. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.
Taylor R and Webster-Henderson B (2017) The essentials of nursing leadership. Los Angeles: SAGE.
Traynor M (2017) Critical resilience for nurses: an evidence-based guide to survival and change in the modern NHS. London: Taylor and Francis.
Yoder-Wise P (2019) Leading and managing in nursing. 7th edn. St Louis: Elsevier.
Book subject searches
Use these links to see details of books the RCN libraries hold on each topic.
Journal articles
Use these links to see details of journal articles on each topic.
Journals
Journals of interest for leadership. Use these links to see details of availability.
Databases
HMIC
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Search for details of publications, journal articles and grey literature related to health service policy, management and administration.
Open HMIC
How to search the HMIC database (health management database)
RCN Podcasts
Why WRES, Why now?
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Vinice Thomas and Ian Jackson discuss the WRES (NHS Workforce Race Equality Standard).
Listen to Podcast (Soundcloud)
RCN Events video on demand
Supporting nurses to lead from day one of registration. RCN Nurses in Management and Leadership Forum masterclass. RCN Education Forum National Conference 2019. Kate Wells-McCulloch.
Diversity leadership: A question of care, quality and safety. RCN Education Forum National Conference 2019.
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Professor Laura Serrant OBE speaks powerfully about diversity leadership putting forward the case that it is more than a moral question of right and wrong. Register online for free access to this video.
Open RCNevents.tv
Leadership for changing organisational culture. RCN Education Forum National Conference 2019.
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This presentation looks at how Dame Jackie Daniel has, through her leadership and leadership style, changed organisational culture within a wide variety of organisations and to varying degrees using the same methodology for each one. Register online for free access to this video.
Open RCNevents.tv
Videos
Simon Sinek: YouTube videos
TED Talks
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What makes a great leader? These TED Talks offer surprising, nuanced approaches on how to inspire and empower others to do their very best.
How to be a great leader -
These TED Talks - from soldiers and psychologists, athletes and entrepreneurs - share hard-won wisdom on leadership.
Leadership
Publications
Kings Fund publications
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Caroline Lynch
Editor of this guide
RCN Library and Archive Service
Page last updated - 17/06/2022
