Important leadership characteristics are pivotal in the role of nurse leaders to effectively improve work conditions, increase the quality of care, and promote the profession. Nurse leaders are both clinicians and managers in their daily practice. They assume responsibility for both client care delivery and managing or coordinating client care amongst the various healthcare disciplines. As such, leadership and management principles are a part of the core competencies needed by nurse.

The purpose of this study was to identify important leadership characteristics of nurse leaders in 2010. Using a Delphi method, a panel of experts generated a list of important characteristics for successful nurse leaders. Eleven nurse executives and nursing program administrators comprised the panel of experts. Through individual interviews, 40 leadership characteristics were identified. In 3 rounds, panel members participated in an iterative process whereby they ranked each of the 40 items on a 10-point scale where a score of I indicated the item was most important and a score of 10 indicated the item was least important. The goal was to arrive at consensus by either attaining an Inter-Quartile Range of 1.0 or smaller on 2/3 of the items, or arriving at saturation after 4 rounds. Consensus was reached on 8 of the items after the first round and on 20 out of 40 items at the completion of the third round. The panel members' comments following Round-3 revealed that a majority of the panel members believed that their Round-3 rating represented their final rating of the instrument and saturation was achieved.

Analysis of the Round-3 ratings revealed that among the 20 items where consensus was reached, 14 received a median score of 1 or 2. The 20 items were grouped into 14 personal leadership and 6 organizational leadership skills.

The study revealed that successful nurse leadership requires both personal and organizational leadership skills. The findings of this Delphi study provide a research basis for hospital administrators, training organizations and nursing programs to use in designing leadership training courses. It also serves as a basis for further research in the areas of leadership characteristics for future nurse leaders.