The position of a leader nurse

Traditionally, nursing's leading role is considered as an indirect function, i.e. the professional function, which is aimed at nurse development rather than the patient. In contemporary medicine both therapeutic as well as nursing tasks are performed by a team rather than an individual, being it a doctor or a nurse, respectively. No teamwork can be effective without a leader; this is also true for good nursing in which the leadership is of a very special nature. The paper particularly concentrates on these characteristics of the nurse's leading role, which are related to the fact that the patient, according to the autonomy principle, is recognized as a central person in the therapeutic/nursing team.