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.

Aim

To explore older people's experiences of registered nurses? leadership close to them in community home care.

Introduction

In Sweden and throughout the world, the number of people 65 years and older is increasing. While older people are living for more years, living longer can bring more diseases and disabilities, which might lead to the need for home care. Registered nurses are responsible for older people's care needs in their leadership in community home care; this is a part of their professional role as registered nurses, and it implies that they must be multi-artists.

Design

An explorative and inductive design was used in two communities in western Sweden.

Methods

Individual interviews were conducted with older people (n = 12) with at least one year of experience with community home care. Data were analysed using qualitative content analysis. Results The results are presented in the theme "my registered nurse", including five categories - relationship, professional competence, nursing interventions, coordination and collaboration and organisation - and 15 sub-categories.

Conclusions

These findings are based on older people's own experiences. This is specific, as the phenomenon of the RNs leadership is rarely explored from the perspective of older people.

Implications for practice

There is a need for organisations to create more opportunities for older people to have their own registered nurses leading close to them. This is because registered nurses have specific competences for meeting older people's individual needs and involving them as competent partners in satisfying their care needs.

Background: Next of kin to older adults over 65 years in municipal home care are concerned whether their older adults’ needs are being met. In municipal home care, the registered nurses’ leadership is important and complex, entailing multi-artist skills involving the older adults and their next of kin. Yet, little is known about next of kin’s experiences of registered nurses’ leadership. Thus, the aim of this study was to explore next of kin’s experiences of registered nurses’ leadership close to older adults in municipal home care. Methods: Individual telephone interviews were conducted with next of kin (n = 11) of older adults from April to September 2020 in two municipalities in western Sweden. Data were analysed using qualitative content analysis. Results: The results are presented with the theme, registered nurses do what they can, including two categories, interaction and competence, and the subcategories, relationship, communication, availability, responsibility, team leadership and cooperation. Registered nurses’ leadership was experienced as a balancing act between their commitments and what they were able to achieve. Conclusions: Next of kin’s experiences of registered nurses’ leadership can contribute knowledge that will strengthen and prepare registered nurses for their leadership roles. This knowledge can support the development of policies for organisational preconditions that ensure quality and safe care to older adults in municipal home care. © 2021, The Author(s).