ERA+ Clinical Leadership in Nursing Education

Clinical leadership is essential for nurses to ensure safe and high-quality care, delivered efficiently within the current complex healthcare system with diminishing resources. However, clinical leadership is not well defined in nursing education curricula in Europe. Additionally, it is not well integrated into these curricula. Furthermore, clinical leadership remains a vague concept for many nurses in the field and nursing students. Leadership is often associated with hierarchical leadership rather than bedside leadership, which is essential for direct patient care and improving outcomes at the clinical level.

This project aims to enhance understanding and implementation of clinical leadership in nursing education (CLNE) across Europe. The key expected outcomes include: a conceptual framework for bedside clinical leadership, a gap analysis tool to identify discrepancies between nursing education curricula and the competencies required for clinical leadership, an open access clinical leadership library with educational and training materials. The project seeks to better prepare nursing students for their future roles and strengthen clinical leadership across all partner countries and more broadly in Europe.

This Erasmus+ KA220-HED project, “Clinical Leadership in Nursing Education,” has been funded with support from the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union. It is a two-year KA2 Partnership in higher education project on clinical leadership in nursing education, involving partners from Finland, Portugal, and Belgium.

Clinical leadership involves a healthcare provider using their personal influence to impact individuals or groups, with the goal of improving patient outcomes and strengthening the broader healthcare environment. They recognize their influence and their professional and ethical responsibilities. They are clinical experts who provide direct patient care. In their actions, they demonstrate emotional intelligence, challenge ineffective work processes, and inspire others to take action. From this position, they participate in decision-making within an interprofessional practice setting based on clinical autonomy.

Definition used by ERA+ consortium based on Grindel, C. G. (2016). Clinical Leadership: A Call to Action. Medsurg Nurs, 25(1), 9-16

ERA+ Clinical Leadership in Nursing Education Competency Framework

This ERA+ clinical leadership in nursing education framework was developed through a literature review, expert validation across partner countries, and feedback from workshops with practitioners, educators, and nursing students.

It provides a shared conceptual basis for clinical leadership in nursing and supports the identification of competency gaps and the development of a clinical leadership library.

The framework has been published in the Laurea Journal (Alastalo et al., 2025).

How well is clinical leadership integrated into your nursing programme?

This GAP Analysis Tool helps you reflect on current practices and compare them with the ERA+ clinical leadership in nursing education framework. By exploring strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and challenges, you gain insight into where your curriculum is already strong and where further development is needed. These insights can support you in refining or reshaping your curriculum.

The guidelines are available in four languages: English, Dutch, Finnish, and Portuguese.

The Clinical Leadership Library, aims to enhance nursing education and foster effective clinical leadership by bridging gaps in current practices and equipping nursing professionals with essential skills. The primary objectives include integrating our innovative framework into contemporary nursing education, developing comprehensive teaching materials, and establishing a clinical leadership library. This library will provide educators, students, and practitioners with curated resources to enhance their understanding and proficiency in clinical leadership.

We will also conduct targeted workshops for stakeholders, integrating clinical leadership into simulation cases, communication exercises, and internship assessments. Partner-hosted events will raise awareness and provide practical tools for implementing clinical leadership.

Additionally, we aim to disseminate project outcomes through workshops, blog publications, and online platforms, sharing findings and resources with stakeholders beyond the project's scope.

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Do you have any questions, comments or suggestions?

Please contact An Vandervoort (an.vandervoort@ucll.be), project leader of this study or Valerie Heymans (valerie.heymans@ucll.be), responsible of communication.

Contact Sandra Martin (Sandra.martin@ucll.be), responsible of the center of expertise Health Innovation.

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ERA+ Clinical Leadership in Nursing Education

Project overview

What is clinical leadership?

Clinical Leadership Framework in Nursing Education

GAP identification between the clinical leadership framework and nursing curricula

Open-access Clinical Leadership Library to bridge the gap between the framework and nursing curricula

Blogpost Belgium.pdf

Blogpost Finland.pdf

Blogpost Portugal.pdf

General blogpost.pdf

Contact information

Dissemination