[Is it necessary to promote leadership in nursing for the advancement of teaching-inservice programs?]

The author provides some material for reflection on the issue of developing leadership in the health sector; in this case, in the specific area of nursing. Within this context, her proposition is that leadership is a process which comprises different levels of development, having an individual and collective dimension as well as conceptual, methodological and operational aspects. She proposes the adoption of policies which would point to the need of encouraging nurses to play an effective role in the processes that lead to the making of important decisions in the sector; she advocates that nurses participate in drawing up national health plans and in the management of community health services. It is pointed out that "the power of nursing as a profession lies in its practice"; this entails the need for basic changes, both in services and in the area of education, if the leadership position that has emerged in several countries during the last decade is to be strengthened. Lastly, the article suggests that in order to strengthen nurses' potential leadership and managerial skills, they should begin to receive leadership training at the undergraduate level, thus awakening in the students the greatest possible interest in the scientific method and in the epidemiological method for the analysis of health and related problems.