3 Findings
3.1 Demographic and context-related data
The age of the nurse leaders (see Table 1) ranged from 28 to 61 years (mean = 48 years). All of them, except three who
worked in community care, were 40 years old or more. Their legislation as nurses was from 1972 - 2006. Seventeen of 236 them had a Diploma degree, and seven had an academic degree (six a Bachelor degree and one a Master degree), of whom
five were found in the Swedish contexts. Fifty per cent of the leaders (no difference in the contexts) were specialist nurses,
and seven Swedish leaders had academic courses in topics related to medicine or nursing. Such courses were not reported
by the Norwegian leaders. Eight leaders reported courses in administration and leadership, of whom four were working in
Norwegian community care. Two leaders had no further education after the nursing exam. Most of the leaders had a solid
grounding of clinical work experience as nurses (mean variation 16-21 years). The leaders with the lowest work
experience worked in community care in both countries (3-5 years of work experience). The experiences of nursing
leadership were highest in Swedish hospitals and Norwegian community care. The leaders with the lowest leader
experience were also found in these contexts (see Table 1).