Nurses’ Implicit Medical Leadership Theories (IMLTs) during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Qualitative Study

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Faculty of Public Administration, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Ardakan University, Ardakan, Iran.

10.22111/ijop.2025.52452.1050

Abstract

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the endeavors made by effective medical leaders in healthcare systems were nothing short of extraordinary. However, nurses were privileged to be at the heart of healthcare provision to patients; therefore, plausibly, they have formed some schemas to identify medical leaders from non-leaders during the unprecedented health crisis of COVID-19. Eighteen frontline healthcare nurses who worked in different units treating COVID-19 patients in different Iranian hospitals in semi-structured interviews from July to September 2023. In semi-structured interviews, the participants were asked open-ended questions about the traits and behaviors that make an individual a medical leader from their perspectives during the COVID-19 pandemic. The author analyzed the interview transcripts employing thematic analysis. The implicit medical leadership theories (IMLTs) of nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic were categorized into four themes for the prototypes (i.e., charismatic, knowledgeable in both management and medicine, committed and accountable, an effective communicator) and two themes for the anti-prototypes (Narcissistic and authoritarian). The results of this study reveal several salient themes of implicit medical leadership theories during the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings also address the chasm in follower-centered perspectives about medical leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings can be incorporated into best preparations and practices to train future healthcare leaders.

Keywords

References

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Iranian Journal of Organizational psychology
Volume 3, Issue 1
January 2026
Pages 26-37

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