Developing clinical leadership skills in student nurses

A number of policy documents in recent years have identified the need for strong leadership within the NHS. The NHS Plan (2000) states that nurses need to take a lead role in the running of local health services. It also suggests that strong leadership is needed at a clinical level. The literature identifies a number of skills deemed to be essential for clinical leadership, some of these are difficult to achieve through pre-registration nurse education as they relate to an awareness of the structures and processes of the NHS and the ability to visualise or predict the future. Other skills relate to personal traits and qualities and it is these skills that are discussed. Four skills are identified for discussion; self-knowledge, communication skills, risk taking, and keeping informed. This paper analyses the way these skills are currently developed in one University's pre-registration nursing curriculum and concludes that although many opportunities are available to develop these skills in the classroom environment, there are many pressures that prevent use of these skills in a practice environment.