Background : Charge nurses are frontline nursing leaders who coordinate clinical care and influence patient safety and team functioning; however, their managerial competence is overshadowed by clinical expertise. This study assessed and ranked the dimensions of charge nurses’ managerial competence from clinical nurses’ perspectives.
Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in 2025 across eight teaching hospitals affiliated with Mashhad University of Medical Sciences. A multistage stratified proportional sampling was used. 215 charge nurses were evaluated by 430 clinical nurses (two independent raters per charge nurse) using the Nursing Manager Competency Scale. Data were analyzed using a linear mixed-effects model with Bonferroni adjustment and the nonparametric Friedman test in Stata version 19.5. The level of significance was considered to be 0.05.
Results: The overall managerial competency score was 70.96±15.59, indicating performance above the midpoint. The five dimensions differed significantly (p<0.001). Personal mastery had the highest score (73.68±0.82) and was significantly higher than all other dimensions (p<0.001). Change and resource management had the lowest score (68.27±0.82) and was significantly lower than all other dimensions (p<0.01).
Conclusion: Findings showed “Personal Mastery” as a relative strength and “Change and Resource Management” as a priority for improvement. Given that charge nurses, especially in large hospitals and evening/night shifts, must actively engage in change processes, resource management, and staff training, targeting these competencies in transition-to-practice programs can enhance their managerial performance