BETWEEN CARING AND MANAGING: NURSING LEADERSHIP FROM A HUMANISTIC AND EDUCATIONAL PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

This study analyzes nursing leadership from a humanistic and educational perspective, highlighting its historical evolution and contemporary challenges faced in Brazilian healthcare institutions. The research, qualitative and bibliographic in nature, reviewed scientific articles published between 2000 and 2025, as well as relevant classical works. The findings show that nursing leadership was consolidated in contexts of war, pandemics, and endemic diseases, expanding from hospital settings to community health. The COVID-19 pandemic reinforced the need for sensitive and humanized leadership practices, while also exposing vulnerabilities such as burnout, which compromises both professional well-being and the quality of care. It is concluded that nursing leadership is a field under continuous construction, marked by dilemmas between caring and managing, requiring educational and institutional strategies to strengthen humanization and lifelong learning.