Mapping Leadership in Undergraduate Nursing Regulator Standards and Requirements Across Eleven Countries.

Abstract

A significant body of evidence from a recent scoping review underscores the critical role of nurse leadership in education, research, and clinical practice, highlighting its direct impact on care quality, patient safety, nursing student education, workforce outcomes, morale, commitment, performance, and retention (Abdul-Rahim et al. 2025). Conversely, poor leadership practices have been linked to adverse patient and organisational outcomes, substandard learning experiences for nursing students, low patient satisfaction, diminished staff morale, and high turnover rates (Abawaji et al. 2024). In response to these challenges, efforts to develop leadership skills in graduate nurses have gained momentum, exemplified by the recent rollout of the International Council of Nurses (ICN) and the World Health Organisation (WHO) leadership programme (ICN 2024). Despite this progress, significant gaps remain in understanding how educational strategies can be effectively integrated into undergraduate nursing curricula to support leadership development. This underscores the urgent need to embed structured leadership education for nursing students, complete with defined competencies for practice, as an essential component of nursing programmes from the first year of study (Baron et al. 2024).