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Redefining Nursing Leadership: A Multilevel Competency Framework for Future Healthcare Challenges
Aleix Fontanals-Jimenez1,2,3, Marta Trapero-Bertran2,4, Montserrat Gea-Sánchez1,2,5
1Society, Health, Education and Culture Research Group (GESEC), Department of Nursing and Physiotherapy, University of Lleida, Lleida, Spain.
Aim:
To examine the conceptual ambiguity of nursing leadership, particularly in relation to management roles, and to propose a multilevel competency framework that redefines leadership as a core dimension of nursing practice. The paper introduces an innovative hybrid Iceberg-Alles model that integrates observable competencies with deeper motivational, ethical and personality-based attributes.
Design:
Integrative review.
Methods:
Two-stage evidence identification process informed by theoretical reflection and existing evidence on nursing leadership and management.
Data Sources:
A literature search was conducted in targeted databases such as PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, CINAHL and extended to Google Scholar and grey literature.
Implications For Nursing:
Current understandings of nursing leadership are fragmented and often limited to managerial skills, overlooking crucial aspects such as ethical commitment, personal values, interpersonal skills and relational capacities. The hybrid Iceberg-Alles model reconceptualizes leadership as a multidimensional construct that balances visible skills with underlying drivers such as motivation, self-awareness and value alignment, offering a more comprehensive basis for leadership development.
Conclusions:
Nursing leadership should be understood as a relational and value-based process embedded across all levels of practice, not confined to formal administrative positions. The proposed model enhances conceptual clarity and provides a transferable framework that can be adapted across diverse health systems, roles and organisational structures.
Impact:
Broadening the scope of nursing leadership can reduce role ambiguity, highlight the unique contribution of nurses to healthcare systems, and strengthen the profession's influence in policy and decision-making. The hybrid model provides concrete guidance for educational programmes, competency-based curricula and organisational strategies aimed at preparing future nurse leaders to manage complexity, promote collaboration and improve patient care.
Reporting Method:
This manuscript followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews guidelines (PRISMA-ScR).
Patient Or Public Contribution:
This study did not include patient or public involvement in its design, conduct or reporting.
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