Background: Transformational leadership fosters trusting relationships; new visions; and personal, professional, and cultural growth. Effective leaders support their team’s motivational growth and organizational goals. This study aims to underscore the importance of transformational leadership and its various dimensions, focusing on its impact on job satisfaction and personal mastery among nursing leaders in healthcare organizations. Method: A cross-sectional design with convenience sampling was used. The evaluation tools included the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ-6S), the Satisfaction of Employees in Health Care (SEHC) questionnaire, and the Personal Mastery Scale (PMS). Results: The findings indicate that job satisfaction is influenced by transformational leadership, emphasizing the importance of tailored leadership development strategies within healthcare organizations. The laissez-faire leadership style was the only one showing no correlation with nurses’ job satisfaction. Other leadership styles showed significant positive or negative correlations with the analyzed variables. Conclusions: Transformational leaders are essential for fostering trust and enhancing job satisfaction in healthcare settings. Positive leadership styles contribute to higher levels of job satisfaction and personal mastery among nursing leaders. Conversely, laissez-faire and autocratic leadership styles can negatively impact performance and staff satisfaction. These findings highlight the critical role of leaders in creating positive work environments and supporting employee development and well-being in healthcare.

Clinical or care pathways are developed by a multidisciplinary team of healthcare practitioners, based on clinical evidence, and standardized processes. The evaluation of their framework/content quality is unclear. The aim of this study was to describe which tools and domains are able to critically evaluate the quality of clinical/care pathways. An overview of systematic reviews was conducted, according to Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses, using Medline, Embase, Science Citation Index, PsychInfo, CINAHL, and Cochrane Library, from 2015 to 2020, and with snowballing methods. The quality of the reviews was assessed with Assessment the Methodology of Systematic Review (AMSTAR-2) and categorized with The Leuven Clinical Pathway Compass for the definition of the five domains: processes, service, clinical, team, and financial. We found nine reviews. Three achieved a high level of quality with AMSTAR-2. The areas classified according to The Leuven Clinical Pathway Compass were: 9.7% team multidisciplinary involvement, 13.2% clinical (morbidity/mortality), 44.3% process (continuity-clinical integration, transitional), 5.6% financial (length of stay), and 27.0% service (patient-/family-centered care). Overall, none of the 300 instruments retrieved could be considered a gold standard mainly because they did not cover all the critical pathway domains outlined by Leuven and Health Technology Assessment. This overview shows important insights for the definition of a multiprinciple framework of core domains for assessing the quality of pathways. The core domains should consider general critical aspects common to all pathways, but it is necessary to define specific domains for specific diseases, fast pathways, and adapting the tool to the cultural and organizational characteristics of the health system of each country.

Upper extremity lymphedema is a complication that often occurs in women with breast cancer as a result of surgery and/or radiotherapy. Some studies report that a boating activity known as the “dragon boat” sport can benefit these women. The aim of this study was to assess whether this type of sport prevents or reduces lymphedema, its impact on quality of life (QoL), and the possible predictors of this condition. This was an observational study of 2 groups: group A (women who participated in dragon boat racing for at least 6 months) and group B (women who participated in other forms of physical exercise biweekly). Data were collected at the National Cancer Institute of Rome and the lake of Castel Gandolfo from June to October 2016. The instruments used were a questionnaire created for sociodemographic and clinical data, the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer Core Questionnaire for evaluating QoL, and a tape measure applied to estimate the local lymphedema. One hundred women participated in the study. Lymphedema incidence in group A was 4.0% (2 of 50), whereas in group B it was 26.0% (13 of 50). Women who participated in dragon boat racing also reported a healthier lifestyle, lower body mass index, and a better QoL (set point: 61.8 group B vs 80.0 group A). The dragon boat sport participants had more positive clinical and QoL outcomes than did the women who did not participate in that sporting activity. It would be important to make women with breast cancer aware of the practice of dragon boat racing.

In oncology, adherence to oral antineoplastic medication is a key element of treatment, on which the success of any therapeutic intervention depends. Given their widespread use in clinical practice, it is important to identify tools that can facilitate the monitoring and self-management of the patient at home, to avoid the consequences of employing ineffective treatment. One of the tools available today to take action on this phenomenon is mobile health technology. The aim of this review is to describe published studies relating to the use of mobile health to promote adherence to oral antineoplastic medication. This scoping review was conducted using the framework proposed by Arksey and O'Malley, adapted according to Levac et al. Of 1320 articles identified, only seven met the eligibility criteria and therefore were included in the review. All seven articles involved the use of digital means to measure adherence to treatment, patient satisfaction, acceptability and feasibility of the digital means used, and presence of symptoms, but not the effectiveness of the digital instrument used. In conclusion, the use of digital means to assist adherence of cancer patients to oral antineoplastic medication is widely recognized, but its effectiveness in clinical practice is poorly supported by the nature of the published studies.