ArticleJournal of nursing management2026
Nurse Leaders' Perceptions of Existing Leadership Practices and Development Needs: A Descriptive Qualitative Study.
Article in Journal of nursing management, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
aimTo explore nurse leaders' perceptions of leadership practices and development needs.
backgroundNursing leadership has gained increasing attention due to the growing complexity of healthcare systems and the need to ensure high-quality patient care, staff retention and job satisfaction. However, recently many nurses assume leadership roles with limited preparation, highlighting the need to strengthen leadership development, education and training. Despite growing interest in nursing leadership, limited research has explored how nurse leaders perceive their roles, competencies and educational needs across different organisational contexts.
methodsAn explorative, descriptive, qualitative design was adopted. Data were collected through face-to-face interviews from 28 nurse leaders working in hospital and primary care settings and analysed using reflexive thematic analysis following Braun and Clarke's approach.
resultsFour themes emerged: perceptions and meaning of the nurse leader role; leadership and management practices and competencies; leadership development pathways; and the role of leadership in care delivery and organisational processes. Across these themes, participants highlighted significant gaps in preparation for managerial and leadership responsibilities, particularly in areas such as communication, team motivation and staff development. These gaps were perceived as affecting job satisfaction, staff retention and the delivery of high-quality patient-centred care.
conclusionsThe findings suggest that nurse leaders perceive leadership as a complex relational and organisational practice that extends beyond operational management. However, the predominance of experiential learning and perceived gaps in formal education indicate that current educational and organisational structures may not adequately prepare nurses for leadership responsibilities. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT: Nursing organisations and educational institutions should implement structured leadership development programmes, mentoring initiatives and competency-based leadership training within undergraduate and continuing professional education to better prepare nurses for leadership responsibilities.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.