The Leadership of Florence Wald: Listening to the Voices of the Early Hospice Founders and Colleagues

Abstract

This qualitative study investigated the transformational leadership of Florence Wald who brought hospice care to the United States in the 1970s using the constructs of the transformational leadership model of Burns (1978). A single case study design was chosen to conduct an in-depth exploration of Florence Wald's transformational leadership and the perceptions of the group of founders organized to conceptualize, build, and open the first hospice in the United States. This research also examined documents from The Florence and Henry Wald Archives in the Yale University Library. The findings showed that Florence Wald based her leadership on strong values and a shared vision. To encourage a high level of participation, Wald demonstrated a caring component in her leadership and engaged in mentoring. A conclusion of this study is that Wald was successful in creating a culture of inquiry among the Founders which served to drive evidence-based decision making to improve the quality of palliative care in the United States.