Background: Registered nurses are key figures in municipal home health care for older adults. Thus, registerednurses’ leadership is crucial to a successful and preventive care process as well as a supportive organization in orderto achieve safe care. However, there is limited research on what registered nurses’ leadership implies close to olderadults in municipal home health care. Thus, the aim is to compile and critically evaluate how international researchresults describe registered nurses’ leadership close to older adults in municipal home health care.
Methods: A systematic literature review was performed in accordance with a qualitative research study. The mainsearch was conducted on 20 April 2018. The review was reported according to the PRISMA guidelines and is registeredin the PROSPERO database (ID# CRD42019109206). Nine articles from PubMed and CINAHL meet the quality criteria. Asynthesis of data was performed in four stages according to qualitative research synthesis.
Results: Ten themes describe what registered nurses’ leadership close to older adults in municipal home health careentails: trust and control; continuous learning; competence through knowledge and ability; nursing responsibility on anorganizational level; application of skills; awareness of the individual’s needs and wholeness; mutual support; mutualrelationships; collaborating on organizational and interpersonal levels; and exposure to challenges.
Conclusions: Registered nurses leading close to older adults in municipal home health care implies being multi-artists.Nursing education, including specialist education for registered nurses, should prepare individuals for their unique andcomplex leadership role as a multi-artist. Municipal employers require knowledge about what registered nurses’leadership implies in order to create adequate conditions for their leadership objectives to achieve safe care. Furtherresearch is warranted to explore registered nurses’ leadership close to older adults in municipal home health care fromdifferent perspectives, such as older adults and next of kin.