Nursing personnel administration within a hospital

Abstract

The nurse qualified in the area of administration occupies a position with immense scope and potential in the profession and society. The task of senior nursing management is a matter of balancing and reconciling the values and aims of the organization with the values, aims, and professional aspirations of the nursing staff, and of related and interdependent groups of health professionals, while creating and gaining commitment to a wider concept of the service and the nurses' role in it. The balancing and reconciling of organizational, occupational, service, and educational demands with individual aspirations and expectations are delicate but essential if all available resources are to be optimally deployed. Success in the latter marks out an effective manager though it is difficult to measure this success. I believe this many-sided accomplishment is vital, for surely all philosophy, education, and research within nursing is valid ultimately only in its actual application to clinical practice. Professional nurses, fulfilling various degrees of administrative functions, are to be found in all areas and levels of nursing. It is the role of the upper echelons of Nurse Administrators (Matrons) in large, general teaching hospitals that this thesis will be focused on.