Background: No studies explore the career core of successful scientific leaders in nursing, a context where role models and career support would be desirable. To achieve a successful academic career, there is a need for an in-depth understanding of how successful scientific leaders in healthcare think in order to guide junior researchers through their early careers.
Aim: To explore the main concern of successful scientific leaders in nursing and their mind-set, motivators and strategies for dealing with it.
Methods: A strategic group of 24 scientific leaders in nursing (professors and associate professors) in the United States (US) (n=12) and Sweden (n=12) was interviewed. The transcribed text was analysed using grounded theory.
Results: The core category, fulfilment, summarizes a process where the generated grounded theory is presented through four main categories: create, struggle, interact and maintain, illustrating how the informants dealt with fulfilment, which was their main concern. The theoretical link between the strategies is professional dedication through reflection, characterized by a will to go beyond themselves to be clinically useful and implement their research.
Conclusion: Successful scientific leaders in nursing construct a foundation for professional fulfilment by doing good for patients and improving the healthcare system maintaining being creative and interacting with others, all of which involve a great deal of struggle.
Keywords: nursing, leadership, nursing science, grounded theory, qualitative research