Challenges in municipality healthcare services—The nurse leaders' perspective

AIM: To examine perceptions of key challenges that nursing leadership face when organizing healthcare services in the municipality. DESIGN: A qualitative study involving community nurse leaders (N = 9) in two focus group interviews. METHODS: The material has been processed and interpreted in accordance with the phenomenological‐hermeneutical tradition, and this process was inspired by Graneheim and Lundman. RESULTS: Three themes were identified in this study: (a) Tension between organizing the daily work and future challenges; (b) Challenges with recruiting enough registered nurse (RNs) in municipal healthcare services; and (c) Competence development plan—a strategic tool for nursing leadership. The municipal healthcare services need a better knowledge base with better knowledge of both the content and quality of services, organization, leadership and management, thus improving new forms of work and professional approaches.