MANAGEMENT COMPETENCIES DESIRED OF HEAD NURSES.
Contributors: University of Mississippi.
Published: 1984
Number of pages: 328
Subjects: Education, Higher.
Description: Head nurses of wards or units are one of the largest components of management in the health care system in the United States. They manage immense resources of personnel, supplies, and equipment at a time when the health care industry accounts for more than 10 percent of the gross national product and the price tag is rising. The objective of this study was to identify a list of management competencies which will define the role of the head nurse.

To accomplish the purpose of this study the sample was confined to Type 1A hospitals that were members of the Alabama Hospital Association. From the literature and job descriptions a questionnaire was developed that contained 205 management competencies under the headings of the four major functions of management: planning, organizing, directing, and controlling or evaluating. This questionnaire was submitted to a panel of authorities including two hospital administrators, two nurse supervisors, and two head nurses. They rated each competency and the top eighty, twenty for each major management function, were selected for the final questionnaire.

A total of 272 questionnaires was mailed and 203 were returned for a rate of 74.6 percent. The data were coded and statistically manipulated to obtain arithmetic means, analyses of variance, and results from the Scheffe post-hoc comparison test.

While the findings indicated that there were significant differences on eighteen of the eighty head nurse management competencies when analysis of variance was used, the Scheffe post-hoc comparison test and the arithmetic mean indicated that the hypothesis could be accepted for all eighty competencies. There are no significant differences in the ratings of competencies needed by head nurses among hospital administrators, nurse supervisors, and head nurses in fourteen Alabama hospitals.

It was concluded that management competencies of head nurses can be identified and codified under the primary management functions of planning, organizing, directing, and controlling (evaluating). They can be used for educational preparation, recruitment, selection, placement, and development of professional nurses for head nurse positions.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 45-04, Section: A, page: 1057.

Thesis (PH.D.)--THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSISSIPPI, 1984.

School code: 0131.