Factors related to administrative abilities of nurse administrators – focusing on confidence in nursing

Abstract

Purpose: This study aims to identify factors related to the administrative abilities of nurses in education programs for nurse administrators. Methods: We distributed a selfrating questionnaire survey to 1291 nurse administrators in positions equivalent to head nurse in 69 participating hospitals among the 172 hospitals with 300 beds or more in the Kanto and Tokai regions of Japan. The surveyed items are ability in nurse administration, demographic characteristics, and workplace environment. Results: We received 984 (76.2%) responses. Excluding responses that included two or more choices to a question and where there was no response to questions of gender and administrative abilities, this left 880 (68.2%) responses which were considered valid and these were included in the further analysis. We performed a multiple regression analysis with the focus on confidence in nursing. Here, the nurse administrators who showed better administrative abilities reported that ‘I am decisive’, ‘My judgment in nursing is appropriate’, ‘I read books about new nursing and medical care developments’, ‘I can demonstrate my ability in this job’, ‘I fulfill my responsibilities to achieve goals in accordance with my beliefs’, ‘The present ward (department) has an active atmosphere that makes work enjoyable’, and ‘I work with an awareness of work-life balance (WLB)’. Nurse administrators who showed poorer administrative abilities reported that ‘I became less kind to people since I became a nurse’. Conclusion: The findings suggest that nurse administrators who are confident in themselves and their decision making abilities, who fulfill their responsibilities in accordance with their beliefs, who think their workplace culture is good, and who work with an awareness of WLB may have better administrative abilities. In addition, nurse administrators with low cynicism (developing negative attitudes) scores, a subscale of the burnout score, appear to have better administrative abilities. Education programs for nurse administrators need to
Vol.4 No.1, May-2019
include support that enables nurse administrators to work reliably with an awareness of WLB, in the efforts to improve the workplace environment, and ensure that they are prevented from developing cynical attitudes