Perceção dos enfermeiros sobre a liderança exercida pelos seus gestores: um estudo observacional

Introduction: Effective leadership practices in nursing are critical for fostering positive work environments, motivation, and professional satisfaction. They are particularly relevant in increasingly complex and demanding organizational contexts, with a direct impact on the quality and safety of care. Objective: To characterize nurses’ perceptions of nurse managers’ leadership roles and to analyze their relationship with sociodemographic and professional variables. Methods: An observational, descriptive, quantitative, cross-sectional study was conducted with a sample of 338 nurses, obtained through non-probabilistic sampling. A leadership questionnaire adapted for Portugal was used. Descriptive and inferential analyses were performed using IBM SPSS Statistics, with a significance level set at 5%. Results: Nurses reported overall positive perceptions of their managers’ leadership, with scores above the cutoff point. Roles related to support, guidance, organization, and results orientation stood out. In contrast, roles linked to innovation and external mediation showed lower scores. Significant associations were found between leadership roles and sociodemographic and professional variables, with higher perceptions among older nurses, females, widowed/divorced individuals, specialists, and those working in primary health care. Conclusion: The findings highlight the importance of leadership styles focused on support, planning, and organization, reinforcing the need for strategies tailored to professional maturity and different organizational contexts. There is also a clear need to invest in the development of leadership competencies related to innovation and strategic mediation, with potential impact on improving work environments and quality of care.