Objectives: While the nursing profession recognizes the importance of leadership behaviors, limited evidence exists on essential clinical leadership behaviors that nursing students should exhibit upon graduation. The purpose of this study was to determine if there were common leadership behaviors exhibited by recently graduated baccalaureate clinical staff nurses in the United States and Australia.

Methods: A quantitative descriptive study with a comparative design was conducted using The Clinical Leadership Survey.

Results: Similar clinical leadership behaviors were reported by nurses from the two countries though there was a statistically significant difference in the overall frequency of behaviors between the two groups. Behaviors in the 'challenging the process' domain were less commonly practiced in both countries, identifying a clinical gap and opportunity for student development.

Conclusions: This study identifies the central behaviors that should be included in baccalaureate nursing education curriculum in order to prepare students for successful transition into practice.