National Delphi Study to Determine Competencies for Nursing Leadership in Public Health

Purpose: To identify competencies needed by nurse leaders in public health programs.

Design: Five-round national Delphi.

Sample: Convenience sample of members of major public health nursing associations and nurse and non-nurse public health leaders in the USA.

Methods: Mailed survey in 1994-1995 using a modified snowball technique based on a modification of the Pew Foundation health professions' competencies for Round 1. Four additional rounds produced consensus.

Findings: Initially, 62 competencies were identified. Factor analysis resulted in four factors: political competencies, business acumen, program leadership, and management capabilities; 57 competencies were clustered in the four groupings and accounted for 91.4% of the variance.

Conclusions: Graduate schools in nursing and public health must prepare students with broad-based competencies from a variety of disciplines. Findings of this national survey provide a database for curriculum development and evaluation of programs to prepare nurse leaders for roles in public health-based delivery systems.