Health of Nurses with Leadership and Management Functions: An Integrative Review

The purpose of this paper is to present findings of an integrative literature re- view related to health and wellbeing of nurses with leadership and manage- ment functions and its associated factors, in order to provide the best availa- ble evidence on this topic. A large body of knowledge related to nursing health and well-being exists, but little we know about this topic in a nurse leadership and management role. It is a complex role in nursing that implies both clinical and leadership knowledge and abilities. A comprehensive search of electronic databases, focusing on articles published in English and Italian languages during 2009-2018, was completed. A three-step approach was used and from the original 1345 studies, 17 papers were included in this systematic literature review. Two independent reviewers analyzed these papers for criti- cal appraisal on methodological quality and their topics. Narrative synthesis of the empirical literature allowed highlighting the most important results re- lated to the topic investigated. This integrative review has shown that nurse leader and manager roles are stressful mainly for its specific functions and job demands. Directions for future high-quality research are suggested both to deepen the relative importance of the specific risk and protective health fac- tors in nursing leadership roles.