The Impact of Ethical Leadership on the Nursing Profession in Iran: A Systematic Review

Introduction: Ethical leadership plays a key role in professional settings. Nurses play an essential role in care provision and health promotion. The present study aimed to determine the impact of ethical leadership on the nursing profession in Iran. The objective of this study was the assessment of the relationship between ethical leadership and the improvement of clinical services by nurses. Methods: Terms defined as MESH keywords were searched in PubMed, Scopus, ProQuest, SID, and Magiran up to October 2022. In this study, only observational and qualitative studies were selected and included. Results: A total of 16 studies met the inclusion criteria. The results showed the association of ethical leadership with moral courage, self-efficacy, turnover, general health, errors, organizational citizenship, moral distress, job satisfaction, stress, risk management, and psychological empowerment. It was shown that ethical leadership is in direct association with nursing performance. Conclusions: The present study confirmed the positive effect of nursing ethical leadership on the nursing profession. Further studies are needed to examine the association between ethical leadership and clinical outcomes in patients.