Tension between ascribed meaning of perceived attributes of professional role of nurses and their potential realisation.
Abstract
The management of human resources in the field of nursing quality must be supported by enthusiastic and responsible attitude of nurses towards their own role on one hand, and it must create conditions for fulfilling this role on the other hand. Possible discrepancy between the importance nurses attribute to different aspects of their role and the perception of the possibility to put them into effect rise the risk of discontentment which is a signal for targeted interventions into quality management.
A quantitative research realised in April 2012 in a selected hospital focused on this discrepancy. The target group were nurses working on the wards of one hospital.
The used research method was a questionnaire of proper construction. The items of the questionnaire were created in accordance with the operationalization of the concept of the nurse’s role within two spheres.
The first group of items surveyed the opinions on the importance of the patient’s needs satisfaction and its approach in accordance with the method of the nursing process and the humanistic and altruistic values. The other group of items represented the importance of the professional attributes of the activities connected with nursing as a professional discipline.
Both groups of items were assessed from the point of view of their role for the work role of the respondent, and also from the point of view of the practise that permits them their realisation. According to stratified random choice, 411 questionnaires were distributed from which 81% returned.
The aspects of a nurse’s role defined as “direct contact of a nurse with a patient” showed to be statistically more relevant for the role of a nurse, and from the point of view of nurses which realisation in the practise is also a lot more difficult than the aspects called “professional role attributes”. During the division of the nurses into the sub files, according to the type of the expertise and work place, no big differences were noticed.