Followership in healthcare

Followership, often overshadowed by the extensive focus on leadership, is an integral aspect of organisational dynamics. In healthcare, the scarcity of followership studies is evident, with most attention directed towards leadership. 

Modern followers are no longer passive but actively engaged, educated, and self-reliant, especially in complex industries like healthcare. With four times as many followers as leaders in most organisations, the success of an organisation depends not only on leadership but also on effective followership.

Effective followership is crucial in healthcare to enhance clinical team dynamics, communication, patient safety, and care quality. However, achieving effective followership can be challenging in hierarchical healthcare structures with unequal power distribution. Excessive power distance can hinder communication, potentially jeopardising patient safety due to errors and miscommunication.

Understanding followership is essential to encourage effective follower behaviour in healthcare, ultimately improving service delivery, safety, and quality. However, this area of study is still evolving, with scholars recognising its importance and calling for further research. 

​

A scoping review maps the literature on followership among healthcare clinicians to identify aspects of followership in healthcare that have been addressed, and the gaps in clinician practice research on followership. 

The scoping review is available in the September issue of JBI Evidence Synthesis

Followership in health care clinicians: a scoping review

Alanazi, Sulaiman; Wiechula, Richard; Foley, David

JBI Evidence Synthesis 21(9):p 1764-1793, September 2023. | DOI: 10.11124/JBIES-22-00310