Concerns regarding nursing leadership: 1948 to 1998

This paper is based on some of the data and findings of a six-year research study into the roles, relationships and leadership styles of leaders of nursing. The study was carried out between April 1992 and June 1998, at a time when concerns were being expressed about a perceived lack of nursing leadership, and/or a decline in the effectiveness of nursing leaders. To examine possible causes for this situation it was decided that interviews with past nursing leaders would be carried out, with a view to obtaining from them the factors which had influenced them during their careers, especially when they reached leadership positions within the profession. As the people interviewed had retired from their leadership posts in nursing it was also considered of interest to explore with them their perceptions of the profession that they had helped to create and their influence on it. Arguments in this paper are supported by extracts from some of the interviews.