This Integrative Literature Review, sought to evidence and discuss the main characteristics of the concept of leadership and of the nurse leader, as well as their contributions to the practice of nursing and health from nursing scientific publications indexed in the database Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System Online (MEDLINE) and published between 1998 and 2008. Following the inclusion criteria, a total of 36 studies were selected for analysis, of these 89% (33 articles) were published in foreign journals and 11% (3) published in national journals. The profiles of nursing leaders encountered were the authentic and the authoritative, with the leadership evidenced as an organizational tool that combines communication, interpersonal relationships, planning, the commitment to success and the resolvability of conflicts. Education is presented as fundamental for the formation of leaders, relating directly the valorization of academic titles with the improvement of this competence.
Leadership; Nursing; Nursing Administration Research
