An Exploration of Nurse Manager Work Activities in Acute Care Settings
Amanda Stefancyk Oberlies
Dissertation under the direction of Professor Ann F. Minnick
The nurse manager has been described as one of the most important assets to a hospital success and is believed to be critical to inpatient unit operations. The purpose of this study was to explore nurse manager work activities including where, and with whom the work activities take place. There is a scarcity of literature about nurse manager work activities, and what has been published is flawed methodologically. This study examined the work activities of eight nurse managers at two academic medical centers in the Midwest. Work activity data were collected using non-participant observation and each nurse manager was observed for two, eight-hour work days. Twelve observations were recorded each hour and included at least one activity, one location, and one person. Interview, self-report, and artifact collection were used to capture additional data about the nurse manager, the unit, and the nurse managerâs work activities.
During four months of data collection 1,518 observations were made. Nurse managers were observed most frequently conducting desk work, schedule meetings, and personal activities. The nurse managerâs office and meeting room were the most frequently observed locations. The nurse manager was observed performing work activities most frequently alone and with a subordinate nurse. Nurse managers reported spending the most time in desk work and scheduled meeting activities. The absolute difference was calculated for the observed and self-reported activities. There were statistically significant differences between observed and self-reported clinical and personal activities (p = .002 and p = .001, respectively). Intraclass correlation statistics were generated and statistically significant agreements were observed for scheduled meetings, unscheduled meetings, desk work, telephone and rounds (ric = 0.72-0.83, p <.01).
With this foundational work completed, future research may build upon the knowledge generated including the linkage of nurse manager activities to patient and staff outcomes. This study added to the knowledge that self-report is an acceptable research method for certain activities.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VANDERBILT/oai:VANDERBILTETD:etd-03282016-113900 |
| Date | 11 April 2016 |
| Creators | Stefancyk Oberlies, Amanda Lynn |
| Contributors | Ann Minnick, Mary Dietrich, Peter Buerhaus, Christine Kovner |
| Publisher | VANDERBILT |
| Source Sets | Vanderbilt University Theses |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.library.vanderbilt.edu/available/etd-03282016-113900/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to Vanderbilt University or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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