The current study had as objectives: to analyze the understanding of Nursing interns on leadership; to check the difficulties encountered by academics in performing leadership activities; to understand the contributions of Nursing internship for students in the construction of leadership competence. The study is an exploratory and descriptive nature with qualitative approach, developed with Nursing students in the final semester of the course, in a sample of 10 students. Data collection was obtained by means of a focal group during the month of August / 2008. The results were presented in categorized speech manner. The information showed the knowledge held by the participants on leadership; the importance of this learning in nurses' training; the emphasis of essential competences for head-nurses' performance; the difficulties encountered in leadership activities during graduation and contributions from the internship in the final year for leadership learning.
Leadership; Learning; Education, Nursing