North Carolina Nurse Leader Project: A Replication Study to Assess Nurse Leadership Capacity.

Objectives: The study examined nurse leader roles, barriers, and the need for nurse leader succession planning in North Carolina (NC).
Background: This study was conducted to assess leadership capacity in NC and further the efforts of the Future of Nursing report, which calls for nurses to lead change and advance health.
Methods: This study employed an exploratory research design using the Florida Action Coalition 56-item survey of active RNs and advanced practice RNs in NC.
Results: Key findings include nurse leader demographics, roles, barriers, retirement and succession plans, and development needs of current leaders in NC. NC nurse leaders are predominately female, white, non-Hispanic, and older than 50 years; plan to retire within the next 10 years; and report that their organizations do not have succession plans for nursing leadership.
Conclusions: Attention toward assessing nurse leadership capacity should be a priority to meet workforce needs.