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The purpose of the study: This study explores the relationships between personal brain dominance cognitive styles and leadership styles based on the idea that focusing on brain dominance one can have the ability of enforcing less dominant functions. This might be important in the development of nurse leadership, which will include brain functions influence nurses knowledge and dispositions for management styles. Knowledge gained may help to focus energies, improve processes and assist nurse managers in setting standards that are realistic, effective and efficient. Hopefully, in the future, results will be used as a tool, helping to focus on the positive factors recommended in purpose to increase staff satisfaction and organisational commitment. Increased insight into relationships may lead to improvements in nursing education. Instrumentation: The full range of leadership styles applying the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire 5x (MLQ); transformational leadership, transactional leadership and outcomes and the Herrmann Brain Dominance Instrument (HBDI) as perceived by nurses – First Line Mangers. Method: The study was conducted at a major metropolitan teaching hospital in Israel affiliated to a major medical school with a long history of medical and nursing education. Procedure: The questionnaires were handed to 80 First Line Nurse Managers that filled them use self-rating technique. Data analysis: Statistical analysis procedures were testing the hypothesis using descriptive statistics, t tests, analysis of variance, correlations and regressions. Results: 1. The findings strengthen the correlation between Brain Dominance and leadership styles. 2. It may be possible to predict leadership styles and outcomes. 3. The study sample used part of the transactional leadership styles sub-scales which are the active styles among the transactional leadership style sub-scales and the transformational leadership styles. .4. .The study sample is characterised as identifying right brain population as being predominant than the left brain population. Checking the main leadership styles group and outcomes reveal that the right brain population, are using more transformational leadership style and attain greater amounts of outcome measures. 5. First line managers are highly dominant in quadrant B and C and close to those quadrants, most of the remainder are located in quadrant D. There quadrant sections and their significance will be analysed in Chapter IV.

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The present thesis report research on the role of leadership style related to the quality of nurses' working lives in Taiwanese hospitals. It begins by focusing on the mental health of nursing work forces and questions the applicability of leadership styles employed in different ownership of health care organisations. There is very little literature on this issue and knowledge of how such hospitals function is not clear. The thesis addresses the influences of nursing leadership style at both the individual and organisational levels examining the perception of nurses and developing a research model using Structural Equation Model (SEM). Both the leader's perspective and subordinate's viewpoint were measured. Two studies were conducted which illustrated the perception of leadership style in Taiwanese healthcare settings. The first study was designed as the qualitative study which used in depth interviews with 21 representatives to explore the current organisation status of hospitals and attitudes towards and interpretation of leadership. Study Two was a quantitative study which was informed by the results of Study One and 651 employees participated in a questionnaire survey. This thesis proposed a model of the relationships among the key variables. Analysis of the data based on this model revealed that transformational leadership style contributed significantly to supervisor support. Supervisor support was an important mediator variable that explained the relationship between transformational leadership and job satisfaction and organisational commitment. In addition, the effects of transformational leadership style on the general health well-being of nurses were buffered by job satisfaction and organisational commitment. Organisational commitment was the strongest factor related to the general health well-being of Taiwanese nurses than job satisfaction. The study highlighted the influences of certain aspects of leadership such as mental health outcomes. Leadership is a complex process and may diffuse throughout an organisation. This thesis makes a useful contribution to the literature on the mental health well-being of nurses and provides a comprehensive background of a Taiwanese approach to nursing leadership research.

Staff scheduling is a complex combinatorial optimisation problem concerning allocation of staff to duty rosters in a wide range of industries and settings. This thesis presents a novel approach to solving staff scheduling problems, and in particular nurse scheduling, by simplifying the problem space through information granulation. The complexity of the problem is due to a large solution space and the many constraints that need to be satisfied. Published research indicates that methods based on random searches of the solution space did not produce good-quality results consistently. In this study, we have avoided random searching and proposed a systematic hierarchical method of granulation of the problem domain through pre-processing of constraints. The approach is general and can be applied to a wide range of staff scheduling problems. The novel approach proposed here involves a simplification of the original problem by a judicious grouping of shift types and a grouping of individual shifts into weekly sequences. The schedule construction is done systematically, while assuring its feasibility and minimising the cost of the solution in the reduced problem space of weekly sequences. Subsequently, the schedules from the reduced problem space are translated into the original problem space by taking into account the constraints that could not be represented in the reduced space. This two-stage approach to solving the scheduling problem is referred to here as a domain-transformation approach. The thesis reports computational results on both standard benchmark problems and a specific scheduling problem from Kajang Hospital in Malaysia. The results confirm that the proposed method delivers high-quality results consistently and is computationally efficient.

Before the availability of antibiotics minor infections could become life threatening. Nurses working in voluntary and public hospitals in Britain were exposed to such risks. This thesis uses both oral testimonies and published sources in order to examine their practices concerning the management of infection risks. The detail of nursing work in this period has been generally hidden in nursing histories of the 1930s and 1940s which have addressed mainly political, recruitment, educational, registration and status issues. Whilst these histories may comment about menial duties, and the culture and discipline in clinical areas, they lack detailed exploration of the day-to-day work of the nurse. This novel study contributes to redressing the balance by examining nursing practice between the discovery of penicillin in 1929 and its widespread availability in Britain in 1948. Data analysis, including the oral testimonies of nineteen former nurses who worked between 1929 and 1948, suggests that nursing practice during this period placed enormous emphasis on cleanliness and hygiene. It is argued that this was linked to sanitarianism which influenced nursing practice before its replacement by germ theory. Probationer nurses learnt their skills in managing infection risks to themselves and their patients in a disciplined and safe way. This was achieved through the exercise of strict routines and a hierarchy of tasks that provided a graduated exposure to the patient and infection risks. This thesis draws on debates in the literature about purity, vocation and status to explore, and add weight to this argument. The analysis also identifies that the introduction of sulphonamide drugs and antibiotics altered nursing practices in the management of both infection risks and patients with infection. Whilst the full effects of these changes are not examined in this thesis, it is argued that the significant impact of these drugs was such that the emphasis on cleaning and hygiene became diminished in importance and nursing had to redefine its role. It suggests that more prominence needs to be given to changes in clinical practice in the history of nursing. This study breaks new ground by suggesting the rigorous training of nurses in cleaning and hygiene tasks was needed in order to manage the infection risks faced by nurses before the availability of antibiotics.

The purpose of this study was to establish if, and to what extent, management of nursing colleges enhanced personnel development with regard to the professional and personal development of nurse educators and clinical preceptors. From the literature survey, it was concluded that an effective personnel development programme that included all nursing personnel involved in the education and training of student nurses, was imperative for the rendering of continuous quality nursing education. The importance of co-operation between management of nursing colleges and nursing management of clinical facilities regarding the development of personnel involved in the education and training of student nurses, was emphasised. A programme for personnel development in nursing colleges was developed. The programme included suggestions for the educational development of both nurse educators and clinical preceptors/ registered nurses involved in the education and training of student nurses. It was suggested that nursing colleges should initiate the programme. Research consisted of an in-depth literature review about the management of personnel development in the educational milieu and a survey with regard to the management of the development of personnel involved in the education and training of student nurses. Principals of nursing schools, nursing educators, nursing directors of health services and clinical preceptors in clinical settings formed the population for the study. The theoretical framework used in this research with regard to personnel development in nursing schools, was Donabedian's theory on structural, process and outcomes standards as applied to quality improvement, as well as Alspach's theoretical foundation of nursing staff development. The focus of this study was to use data generated through research to develop a personnel development programme for all registered nurses involved in the education and training of student nurses. The most important conclusions of this research were as follows:  Personnel development was provided for nurse educators and clinical preceptors/ registered nurses involved in the education and training of student nurses in the clinical setting, but it did not necessarily meet the personal and professional developmental needs of these professionals.  The specific developmental needs of nurse educators and clinical preceptors/ registered nurses were related to educational skills, higher cognitive skill and skills related to research.  Available resources at nursing colleges did not facilitate and support the development of nurse educators and clinical preceptors involved in the education and training of student nurses. The main conclusion was that the establishment of a Department of Personnel Development at nursing colleges could provide for the educational needs of both nurse educators and clinical preceptors/ registered nurses, would benefit the personal and professional development of all learners involved and, ulitmately, would enhance the quality of patient care rendered by student nurses. / Advanced Nursing Sciences / D.Litt. et Phil. (Advanced Nursing Sciences)

The purpose of this study was to establish if, and to what extent, management of nursing colleges enhanced personnel development with regard to the professional and personal development of nurse educators and clinical preceptors. From the literature survey, it was concluded that an effective personnel development programme that included all nursing personnel involved in the education and training of student nurses, was imperative for the rendering of continuous quality nursing education. The importance of co-operation between management of nursing colleges and nursing management of clinical facilities regarding the development of personnel involved in the education and training of student nurses, was emphasised. A programme for personnel development in nursing colleges was developed. The programme included suggestions for the educational development of both nurse educators and clinical preceptors/ registered nurses involved in the education and training of student nurses. It was suggested that nursing colleges should initiate the programme. Research consisted of an in-depth literature review about the management of personnel development in the educational milieu and a survey with regard to the management of the development of personnel involved in the education and training of student nurses. Principals of nursing schools, nursing educators, nursing directors of health services and clinical preceptors in clinical settings formed the population for the study. The theoretical framework used in this research with regard to personnel development in nursing schools, was Donabedian's theory on structural, process and outcomes standards as applied to quality improvement, as well as Alspach's theoretical foundation of nursing staff development. The focus of this study was to use data generated through research to develop a personnel development programme for all registered nurses involved in the education and training of student nurses. The most important conclusions of this research were as follows:  Personnel development was provided for nurse educators and clinical preceptors/ registered nurses involved in the education and training of student nurses in the clinical setting, but it did not necessarily meet the personal and professional developmental needs of these professionals.  The specific developmental needs of nurse educators and clinical preceptors/ registered nurses were related to educational skills, higher cognitive skill and skills related to research.  Available resources at nursing colleges did not facilitate and support the development of nurse educators and clinical preceptors involved in the education and training of student nurses. The main conclusion was that the establishment of a Department of Personnel Development at nursing colleges could provide for the educational needs of both nurse educators and clinical preceptors/ registered nurses, would benefit the personal and professional development of all learners involved and, ulitmately, would enhance the quality of patient care rendered by student nurses. / Advanced Nursing Sciences / D.Litt. et Phil. (Advanced Nursing Sciences)

The purpose of this study was to determine the contribution of nursing auxiliaries towards health care services against their scope of practice. Nursing auxiliaries practising within the Elim, Letaba, Malamulele, Nkhensani, Shiluvana and Tintswalo hospitals in the Gazankulu Health Administration, in the Northern Transvaal Province, constituted the target population. The findings revealed that nursing auxiliaries are not functioning strictly according to their scope of practice. They are an essential component of nursing services in Gazankulu by rendering a major contribution towards health care services in fulfilling their scope of practice-role. Apart from their prescribed practice-role, they are also engaged in activities that should be performed by enrolled and professional nurses as well as doctors and general assistants. There appears to be a need for education for all categories of nursing staff regarding the scope of practice of nursing auxiliaries for improving the effective utilisation of this category of nursing personnel / M.A. (Nursing Science) / Health Studies