DIMENSIONS OF THE HEAD NURSE ROLE (TERTIARY HEALTH CARE).
Contributors: Temple University.
Published: 1987
Number of pages: 156
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.
Description: This survey was designed to determine the dimensions of the role of the head nurse in tertiary health care institutions in the Delaware Valley, as revealed by the importance assigned to representative activities by practicing head nurses. In addition to the dimensions or components of the role, the relative importance of commonly performed tasks of head nurses was assessed. The study also examined the experimential and educational qualifications of head nurses.

The target population consisted of 225 head nurses working in 11 tertiary institutions in the Delaware Valley. Of this group 193 (85.7%) returned usable questionnaires and thus comprised the study group.

Questionnaires were distributed variously, through the mail, in meetings attended by head nurses, and in meetings with individual head nurses. All respondents were informed of the voluntary nature of their participation and the fact that their responses would be held in confidence.

The educational preparation of head nurses was represented largely in diploma (33%), bachelor's degree (36%) and master's degree (24%) education. One-fifth of the head nurses were certified in a specialty. Master's prepared nurses were most strongly represented in this group. The overwhelming number of master's prepared nurses had a clinical specialty as the focus of their role preparation. Head nurses of all educational backgrounds acknowledged that further knowledge in the area of management would be helpful to them in their work. The most highly rated activities were those concerned with the stimulation of staff to accomplish the work of the unit.

Factor analysis was carried out using the SPSS program FACTOR and subprogram PA2 (Common Factor Analysis) with orthogonal rotation on the rating of the importance of the 50 items representative of the head nurse's work. Initially, 13 factors were produced accounting for 65.6% of the variance. This number was reduced to five by using commonly applied criteria. Careful examination of the items loading on five factors prompted the following titles: Promoter of Patient Well-being, Entrepreneur, Clinical Expert, Negotiator in Conflict, and Stimulator of Staff. These designations reflect the broad areas of functioning that comprised the role of the head nurse.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 48-05, Section: B, page: 1301.

Thesis (ED.D.)--TEMPLE UNIVERSITY, 1987.

School code: 0225.