Abstract: Objective: To analyze the leadership of head nurses in tertiary grade A hospitals in Zhejiang province by using latent category analysis. Methods: Head nurses who met the inclusion and exclusion criteria in 11 tertiary grade A hospitals in Zhejiang province were selected from October 2017 to December 2017 by cluster convenient sampling method. The demographic questionnaire and the Chinese version of MAS were used in the investigation. Results: The latent category model showed that 736 head nurses were divided into high leadership category (12.64%), medium leadership category (55.84%) and low leadership category (31.52%). The three latent categories of head nurses had significant statistical differences (P<0.05) in the number of hospital beds, years of work, age and participation in management training, while there were no statistical differences (P>0.05) in the departments, length of service as head nurse, academic degree or professional title. Conclusion: By the category analysis of the head nurses’ leadership, it was found that there are three types of leadership in the head nurse in tertiary hospitals, which are irrelevant to the length of service as head nurse, professional title and education background, and years of work, the number of beds and participation in management training and other professional experiences has a significant relationship, providing a reference for further development of the head nurses' tiered management training.

Key words: head nurses; leadership; latent class analysis