Background

Clinical leadership and the competencies associated with it are essential for nurses in ensuring safe, high-quality, and effective care. Developing clinical leadership competencies also helps make nurses’ expertise more visible in patient care, in interprofessional healthcare environments, and more broadly in society. Clinical leadership is reflected, for example, in clinical expertise, effective communication, collaboration, and coordination. However, the concept of clinical leadership remains partly undefined, and there is a need to describe the competencies associated with clinical leadership more clearly and to identify effective ways of developing these competencies during nursing education.

Aims

The Clinical Leadership in Nursing Education project aims to develop a conceptual framework for clinical leadership in nursing practice and to integrate clinical leadership more visibly into nursing education curricula. In addition, the project will develop learning methods and educational materials that can be used in nursing education across Europe.The ultimate goal is to strengthen nurses’ competencies and the nursing profession, while contributing to improved quality of care and better patient outcomes.

Methods

The Clinical Leadership in Nursing Education project will be implemented in three phases. First, an integrative literature review will be conducted to examine the competencies required for clinical leadership in nursing. Based on the findings, a conceptual framework for clinical leadership competencies in nursing practice will be developed.In the second phase, the extent to which clinical leadership competencies are reflected in nursing education curricula in Belgium, Portugal, and Finland will be analysed. In the final phase, evidence-based learning methods and educational materials will be identified from the existing literature and further co-developed on the basis of the project findings.