1. INTRODUCTION Although attention in the literature has been given to the critical state of nursing leadership development, there is a need to identify effective ways to sustain and develop nursing leaders. The concept of mentoring has been identified as a way to address this need. Mc- Cloughen, O’Brien, and Jackson [1] identified men- torship and leadership as an “integrated phenomena” (p. 97). However, the understanding of the concept of mentoring in nursing is limited [2]. The purpose of this paper is to examine the concept of mentoring, and its relevance to nursing leaders. This concept analysis will be guided by the framework outlined by Walker and Avant [3] which includes