Objective: mapping necessary competencies in managerial nursing training. Method : a cross-sectional study conducted between March and June 2013 with 258 students from three Higher Education Institutions of a municipality in the South of Brazil. Results: mapping made it possible to identify necessary competencies for managerial nursing training, including those acquired and gaps. The relative majority of the students considered having the right attitude to act as a nurse in the managerial dimension; however, significant gaps during their training were identified in managerial competencies of supervision, auditing and change processes. Conclusion: this mapping provides subsidies for pedagogical planning, seeking to promote the acquisition of managerial competencies during undergraduate course training.