Nursing Leadership, Missing Questions, and the Elephant(s) in the Room: Problematizing the Discourse on Nursing Leadership

Abstract

To expose inconsistencies and contradictions in the nurse leadership literature (“text”), this article adopts a deconstructive approach and draws upon the work of Derrida in examining the text or discourse. What is almost entirely missing in the literature are articles that ask difficult, searching questions that challenge some of the taken-for-granted truths or maxims about nursing leadership. The current examination of the literature, described in this article, shows: (a) a lack of convergence of the literature and health care/nursing organizations concerning leadership, (b) a conflation of nursing leadership with managerial or administrative positions, and (c) a possible lack of understanding about the complexity of nursing leadership coupled with an unwillingness to raise these issues.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The authors extend their thanks to the reviewers of the initial submission and acknowledge the helpful suggestions for improving the second iteration of the paper.

Declaration of Interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the article.