Recognition and Participation Behaviors of Nurse Managers in Nurse Administrators Meetings

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine nurse managers' perceptions and participation behaviors in meetings, characteristics of meetings as influencing factors, acceptance of meeting results, and whether these factors were related. A nationwide anonymous self-administered questionnaire survey was conducted among directors of nursing and nurse managers working at 112 facilities having over 300 beds. In total, 97 nurse department managers (response rate 86.6%) and 1010 nurse managers (response rate: 55.4%) returned the completed questionnaire. Eighty-one percent of the respondents replied that nurse administrator meeting was a place for decision-making by the nursing department while 44.6% recognized it as an "atmosphere that makes it easy to express opinions". Almost 99% replied that "the decisions taken in the nurse administrators' meeting should be communicated to the staff" and 51.7% replied that they would not speak much about the meetings' decisions. More than 78% of the nurse managers had a meeting experience that was difficult to communicate with others. Over 82% of nurse managers were satisfied with the decisions of the meeting and 97.5% informed about their intention to practice. The average participation rate score of the group who replied positively for "experience to say their opinion" was 2.88 points higher than the group replied negatively (t=13.34, p<.001). Recognitions such as "a place for exchanging opinions", "speech is well-received by the director of nursing", and "speech is well-received by nurses" were associated with "decision convenience" (P<.001).