Management Practices of Nurse Managers in the Greater Accra Region, Ghana

Abstract

Nurses have a major role in providing high-quality care to patients. The nurse manager has 24-hour responsibility and accountability and is ‘pivotal’ to the delivery of effective, efficient and quality health care. However, many of the nurse managers play their roles without adequate formal preparation and have to battle with shortage of resources, especially staff as well as challenges from other health professionals in an effort to manage the unit. The study examined the perceived and preferred management practices of nurse managers at the unit level. Quantitative data was collected from 552 nurses who were randomly selected from district and regional hospitals of Ghana Health Service and the Accra Psychiatric hospital all in the Greater Accra region. There was generally weak satisfaction of the practice of management and significant difference between perceived and preferred management practices. Nurses would prefer adequate formal preparation to the position of a nurse manager to ensure assertiveness, proactiveness, confidence, commitment and competence. Even though all the nurse manager variables played significant roles in predicting nurse managers’ practice of management, experience as nurse has the most significant effect. The practice of management does not depend just on knowledge and skills in management and leadership but also experience. It is hoped that nurses would be given the requisite formal preparation before ascending to this challenging position considering the demands of the unit. The position of the nurse manager should also be competitive based on established performance contract