Developing nursing leadership talent—Views from the NHS nursing leadership for south‐east England

Aim: This article explores the views of current National Health Service (NHS) nursing leaders on actions and resources required to develop and maintain nursing leadership talent. Background: Although there is considerable talent and expertise within the nursing leadership community, there are numerous unfilled vacancies and identified gaps in competence and capability, with national analysis (Janjua, 2014) indicating nearly a third of NHS Directorial posts filled by interim appointments or vacant. Nursing Director posts are amongst those vacant for the longest. Method: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with NHS Directors of Nursing, Chief Nurses, Directors of Quality and their deputies in South East England to explore the characteristics of their roles, development needs, barriers to applying or staying in post, future talent identification and support networks. Results: Nursing leadership roles are perceived as demanding, poorly remunerated, isolating and representing a major increase in responsibility and career risk. Too much development is currently informal. Conclusions: Talent identification and support needs to be timely, structured, based experientially and focused on building resilience and confidence. Coaching, mentoring and support networks are considered crucial. Implications: Nursing leadership talent needs to be formally identified, developed and supported within organisations and networks should be maintained to reduce professional isolation and counter negative perceptions.