HUMAN CARE AND ECONOMICS: A NURSING STUDY.
Contributors: University of Colorado Health Sciences Center.
Published: 1989
Number of pages: 230
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.
Description: This study was designed to examine the theoretical content pertaining to nursing administration, and to study in depth two concepts which are central to nursing administration practice: Human Care and Economics. In the theoretical part of the study, a conceptual model was identified that defines a knowledge base for nursing administrators which includes philosophy, organizational theory, nursing theory, economics, and human care. A descriptive, exploratory, correlational study was conducted to investigate nurses' perceptions about these two concepts in the hospital setting.

Seven hospitals in the Western Region participated in the empirical part of the study. Fifty nurses from each hospital were sent questionnaires which described caring attributes and caring behaviors. The Nyberg caring attributes were derived from the literature and were judged as "very important" to the nurses and were used "often" in their practice. These attributes describe nursing practice as "about the same" as five years ago, and they are used less by supervisors than by nurses themselves. The caring behaviors (Larson's Care-Q) were utilized "often" in practice.

Reliability coefficients indicated strong reliability for the questionnaire ranging from.85 to.97 by subscale. A two-factor analysis of variance (ANOVA) procedure revealed that nurses ideals about caring are different than how caring is practiced now and five years ago. There was, however, little significant difference in caring scores among the seven hospitals. A factor analysis was performed to identify underlying constructs which indicated consistency among various authors' descriptions of caring (e.g., Watson's carative factors). Correlation studies indicate that Actual caring scores were positively correlated to the number of nursing hours per patient day utilized at the various hospitals. Open-ended questions suggested that nurses are extremely frustrated about the economic pressures of the past five years, but that human care was still very much present in nurses' day-to-day practice.

The conclusion was that today's economic environment constrains human care, but that nurses continue to utilize human care attributes and behaviors in their practice. Human care is viewed as the essence and hope of nursing in the past and for the future.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 50-12, Section: B, page: 5549.

Thesis (PH.D.)--UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO HEALTH SCIENCES CENTER, 1989.

School code: 0831.