ABSTRACT
Objective The study aimed to investigate the influence of head nurse's transformational leadership style on emotional labor and psychological empowerment of nurses.Methods Totally 851 staff nurses from four 3A hospitals were investigated with the Transformational Leadership Style Sub Scale of Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire,Psychological Empowerment Scale and Emotional Labor Scale.Results The head nurse's transformational leadership style scored (2.41±0.81).The psychological empowerment of nurses scored (3.27±0.47),its autonomy dimension scored (3.81±0.50),staying at medium level.The emotional labor of nurses scored (3.68±0.61),its deep acting dimension scored (4.67±0.76),which was above medium level.The indirect correlation coefficient between head nurse's transformational leadership style and emotional labor (r=-0.13) was far higher than direct correlation coefficient (r=-0.04).The psychological empowerment was the full mediation variable by which head nurse's transformational leadership style influence emotional labor of nurses.Conclusions Head nurse's transformational leadership style can enhance nurse's selfefficacy,cognition of work significance and work autonomy,so that nurse's deep acting and positive perception of emotional display can be increased,and nurse's emotional exhaustion and job burnout can be decreased to retain nurses.