Until the late 1990s, most nurse leadership research focused on the development of nursing practice; subsequent scholarly focus views nursing leadership as a vehicle through which both health policy and nursing practice can be influenced, with the aim of improving patient outcomes and further advancing the profession (Antrobus& Kitson, 1999; Callaghan, 2007). Nurse leaders possessknowledge of broader contemporary issues in nursing andan understanding of factors which may promote or inhibitthe future of nursing as a whole, and play a key role in