Differentiating nursing leadership and management competencies.

As the foundation of evaluating content for nursing leadership and administration courses, leadership and management competencies were identified from a literature review of 140 articles published between 2000-2004. Similarities and differences among the competencies were assessed. A large intersection of common competencies was discovered, indicating a lack of discrimination between leadership and management competencies. Arguably, this fusion ignores the different purposes served by leadership and management. Alternately, the convergence of leadership and management competencies might reflect that traditional distinctions have narrowed. Nevertheless, ambiguity persists regarding essential leadership and management competencies and the way they are reflected in nursing curricula. If concerns about the work environment are to be remedied for patients and staff, nurse educators are urged to act quickly to identify requisite competencies and better align course content with them. This will better prepare nurse administrators to succeed in their arduous work.