As more and more hospitals strive to be Magnet or to create Magnet-like work environments, nurse leaders are focusing on transformational leadership. The American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN) has identified authentic leadership as a key standard for a Healthy Work Environment. Are transformational leadership and authentic leadership the same? Are they different? What are the similarities? As organizations strive to be the best they can be and to do what they can to improve the work environment, leadership is important; leaders need to demonstrate the appropriate competencies to ensure nurse retention and patient safety. This column will evaluate the similarities and differences between transformational and authentic leadership and focus on what is essential to creating a healthy work environment.

Introduced in the late 1970s by Burns and further refined by Bass in the mid-1980s,transformational leadership is identified as one of the Magnet model components.1...

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