NURSES' PERCEPTIONS OF SHARED GOVERNANCE AS RELATED TO JOB SATISFACTION, LEADERSHIP SKILLS, AND NURSE RETENTION.
Contributors: University of Alabama.
Published: 1991
Number of pages: 169
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.; Health Sciences, Health Care Management.; Sociology, Industrial and Labor Relations.
Description: Recruitment and retention of nurses have been problems for hospitals for years. The purpose of this study was twofold: (a) to ascertain the perceptions of nurses practicing under shared governance as related to job satisfaction and leadership skills and (b) to ascertain effects of shared governance on retention of nurses practicing under shared governance.

Registered nurses (RNs) numbering 363 from three hospitals in the U.S. were surveyed using a Nurse Job Satisfaction Scale and a Self-Assessment Leadership Instrument. These RNs were divided into four groups: Group 1. Nurses without any formal introduction to shared governance (the control group), Group 2. Nurses from the same institution as those in Group 1 but who had less than 1 year of exposure to shared governance, Group 3. Nurses that had been practicing under shared governance for more than 5 years, and Group 4. Nurses who had been practicing under shared governance for more than 5 years within a unionized environment.

The instrument used was a three-part questionnaire including a 5-point forced-choice, Likert-type scale, summed to yield interval data. The Kruskal-Wallis nonparametric procedure was used to gauge statistical significance. A significant difference was found between groups in job satisfaction with an actual p value of $<$.0001. A review of mean ranks revealed Group 3 to be highest in job satisfaction, followed by Groups 4, 2, and 1, respectively. Even though the Kruskal-Wallis test showed no statistical difference between groups based on leadership skills, a trend in the data showed Group 1 to rank highest in leadership skills, followed by Groups 3, 4, and 2, respectively. An exact determination regarding nurse retention rates was difficult to make because statistics were recorded differently at each institution. Shared governance did not appear to affect retention of nurses in Groups 1 and 2. At the hospital where Group 3 practiced, RN-turnover rates dropped 30%, and RN vacancies dropped approximately 26% after implementing shared governance. The nurse recruiter believed this improvement could be due to shared governance. A determination could not be made regarding shared governance and nurse retention for Group 4 due to the unionization factor.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 52-07, Section: B, page: 3533.

Thesis (ED.D.)--THE UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA, 1991.

School code: 0004.