Background: Although research findings support
that the nurse manager has a pivotal role in
influencing all aspects of the nursing environment,
recruiting talented staff into these nursing leadership
positions has become increasingly more difficult.
There is a need to better understand the
competencies needed by contemporary nurse managers
and the challenges in the role.
Objective: The purpose of this research was to
explore the viewpoints of 120 nurse manager study
participants on the contemporary nurse manager
role and to gain perspective on the critical leadership
skills and competencies to build a nursing
leadership competency model.
Design: A grounded theory methodology was used
in this study to capture the perspectives of the nurse
managers interviewed about their role.
Results: Six competency categories emerged from the
research findings to form a nursing leadership competencymodel.
Two major themes identified from the
data included the nurse manager role as a career
choice and the stressors and challenges in the role.
Conclusion: The results of this study led to the design
of a nursing leadership competency model and
confirmed that there is a need to formally develop
and mentor our next generation of nurse leaders.