Goal-setting documents did not facilitate nurses’ work at an operating department – a descriptive qualitative study

• Both effectiveness and good care is demanded of nurses in a complex environment. The aim of the study was to describe how nurse managers and nurses interpret and are guided by stated goals in their health-care organisation, their own influence over work and obstacles to carry out work in an operating department. A qualitative study, consisting of interviews with nurse managers and nurses, and a description of goal documents and the workplace, were conducted in an operating department in Sweden. The interviews were analysed with manifest content analysis. Work was guided by daily goals for the nurses: to meet the operating schedule and to ensure good-quality patient care. The organisational goals were little known and used. The nurse managers and nurses had limited influence over their work, changes in assignments and in the operating schedule, and unsuitable environmental premises created obstacles in their work. If organisational goals are to guide work there is a need for nurse managers to transform them into understandable, applicable goals and incorporate them into nurses’ daily work. Letting the nurses influence the operating schedule could be one way to overcome obstacles in work. The study also highlights the importance of a functional physical work environment.

Ämnesord

MEDICIN OCH HÄLSOVETENSKAP  -- Hälsovetenskap -- Hälso- och sjukvårdsorganisation, hälsopolitik och hälsoekonomi (hsv//swe)

MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES  -- Health Sciences -- Health Care Service and Management, Health Policy and Services and Health Economy (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

organizational objectives; operating rooms; case study; nurse practitioners; job satisfaction

Publikations- och innehållstyp

vet (ämneskategori)

ovr (ämneskategori)