In order to increase the depth of understanding of the
context of nursing leadership about how to facilitate
provision of safe care as well as to verify the participants
perspectives (Mulhall 2003), the first author conducted
10 hours of structured observations as a non-participant
in medical and surgical wards. The author observed how
head nurses performed their daily tasks and how they
facilitated safe care provision based on what nurses
claimed about nurse leaders roles. Notes were taken of
the observations for the data analysis process