Interview Assignment on Nursing Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Interview on Nursing - Assignment Example Two nurse managers were interviewed for this purpose. The interviews showed that the main challenges faced by managers are shortage of trained staff, inadequate training opportunities, lack of motivation, budget constraints and lack of team spirit. Detailed analysis of the interviews revealed that the experienced managers face more issues related to budget, maintaining the standard of patient delivery and implementing ethical code of conduct while dealing with patients while the relatively inexperienced managers face challenges like problem solving, authority issues and lack of efficient communication. 1. INTRODUCTION A nurse manager is responsible for conducting nursing programs in a large unit of a hospital; management related responsibilities of a nurse manager include: assisting in hiring employees, helping them in problem solving and goal setting, supervising the nursing quality in general, arranging for the training of personnel who need it and keeping a record of budget and su pplies/equipment etc (Health care position study, 1990). According to Hirschfeld (1992), the first challenge faced by nurse managers is lack of synchronization of theory and practice, thought nurses are educated and apparently trained, but most of them come with practical experience that is not adequate; secondly, a general lack of sharing the care giving responsibility among nurses is also a challenge for nurse managers; thirdly, managers face issues due to the lack of nurses familiarity with different cultures and inability to deal with cultural diversity in hospitals. A study by Tourish and Mulholland (1997) revealed that within NHS there are many communication barriers among the nurses and their managers. The study further reported that experienced managers seem to have less communication issues as compared to the relatively inexperienced or newly hired/promoted managers. Another study by Mathena (2002) attempted to identify the challenges faced by nurse managers. The researcher reported that the main challenge faced by nurse managers is that they are often required to assume roles beyond their education and prescribed responsibilities and that in such cases, the leadership skills and styles differ among the experienced and inexperience managers. 2. INTERVIEWS Two nurse managers from different units of a large hospital were purposively selected for interviews. One of the two was having a significant five years experience while the experience of the other interviewee was less than one year. This was done to enable a comparison of the challenges faced by both the mangers. Each interview lasted 15 minutes, and was based on semi structured interview schedule, constructed flexibly to allow for any questions that might help in obtaining more relevant information to the topic. 3. SUMMARY OF FINDINGS The main findings of the interviews are listed below: The duties of a nurse manager according to the nurse managers include: keeping track of the budget and supplies, assisting the administration in hiring new Personnel, arranging for or providing training of the hired nurses, supervising the general performance of nurses, ensuring and implementing quality patient care delivery programs and problem solving for nurses, counseling them if needed. The main challenges faced by nurse managers include: shortage of trained nurses, lack of adequate training facilities, constrained budget, lack of participation of nurses in patient care awareness programs, de-motivation among nurses due to low salaries and increasing cultural diversity in hospitals. The experienced manager was mainly concerned with issues like nurse motivation and ethical implementation of high quality patient c