Existing Nursing Education Leadership Competencies in South Africa: Resources for Resilience?

Introduction and background: Numerous multifaceted issues continue to threaten the success of nursing education and training worldwide. In South Africa, the unique circumstances, such as transitioning to a unified higher education system, add to the problems facing nursing education leaders. To address these difficulties,  a strengths-based approach was taken, and in this regard the views of nursing education leadership experts in the country were deemed significant.Purpose: To explore and describe existing leadership competencies in a challenged and transforming South African nursing education context.Method: As part of a larger study a modified Delphi, embedded in social constructionism, was conducted with purposefully selected nursing education leadership experts in the country. Qualitative, descriptive, and contextual data yielded by the ten participants were analysed by means of a thematic content analysis.Findings: Four main themes emerged namely, leadership competencies; governance, leadership, legislation, and policy; staff development as well as community engagement .Conclusion: In response to a need for a new-found resilience necessitated by the challenges of the 21 st century including the COVID-19 pandemic, the authors recommend that the existing nursing education leadership competencies be considered as resources to navigate emergent challenges in wider contexts.