Exploring the Role of Climate for Innovation on the Relationship between Leadership Style and Nurses’ Perception of Patient Safety

Harm to patients remains high in US hospitals despite significant progress to improve the quality of care in our health systems. Leadership, a culture of patient safety, and a climate conducive to innovation in patient care are necessary to advance positive patient safety outcomes. Yet, little is known about how leadership can impact patient safety within a climate of innovation. This study examines the effects of transformational and transactional leadership (singularly and with transactional augmenting transformational leadership) as related to nurses’ perception of patient safety, how communication elements of a culture of patient safety may strengthen that relationship, and how the mediating role of team innovation climate may help explain the relationship between transformational and transactional leadership and nurses’ perception of patient safety. The variables were measured using three validated and reliable survey instruments: The Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ Form 5X), the Team Climate Inventory-short (TCI), the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture. A convenience sample of all staff registered nurses (N=952) from the single academic medical center with direct patient care responsibility was surveyed via e-mail for this research. A total of 210 surveys were returned, 157 met inclusion criteria for a response rate of 16%. Transformational leadership had a statistically significant relationship with patient safety perception, while the relationship of transactional leadership with patient safety perceptions was not significant. The results of the regression analysis that tested the effect of communication elements of a culture of patient safety on the relationship between transactional and transformational leadership and patient safety perception were not significant. Transformational leadership was significantly related with team innovation climate after controlling the effect of transactional leadership supporting the augmentation effect. Mediation analysis showed that team innovation climate had a significant mediating effect on the relationship between transformational leadership and patient safety perception. Team innovation climate had a significant mediating effect on the relationship between managers’ transformational leadership and patient safety perception after controlling for transactional leadership supporting the augmentation effect. This is the first study known to test the augmentation of transformational leadership related to patient safety and the role of team innovation climate.