Abstract
Unit nurse managers in Malawi experience many challenges in the course of performing their roles. This affects their performance and service delivery including the quality of nursing care to patients. This study was conducted to determine the factors that hindered performance of unit managers in relation to expected quality of nursing services at two referral facilities (Kamuzu and Queen Elizabeth Central hospitals) in Malawi. These two central hospitals have the same structural settings and both offer specialized tertiary health services. A quantitative descriptive design was used to guide the planning and implementation of the study. Purposive sampling was used to select the two major hospitals in Malawi and all available 37 unit nurse managers during the time of the study at the two hospitals participated in the study. Data were collected using semi-structured questionnaires after seeking consent from the participants and were analyzed using SPSS version 16.0. The major roles identified by the unit managers were supervision (75.6%, n = 28) and coordination (70.3%, n = 26). Other roles such as team leader, liaison officer, research allocator, monitor and facilitator were rated by very few participants. Findings of the study showed that performance of unit nurse managers was affected by inadequate material (86.4%, n = 32) and human resources (94.5%, n = 35) and lack of managerial skills (5.4%, n = 2). In addition, the unit managers perceived their role to be stressful (38.9%, n = 14) and challenging (47.2%, n = 17). Therefore, there is a need to provide adequate material and human resources to the wards of the two central hospitals to enable the unit managers perform their duties efficiently.
Highlights
Effective nursing management and leadership are essential for the provision of desired patient care that will contribute to the improvement of any country’s health indicators
The nursing service department globally and in Malawi is one of the disciplines that form a bigger part of the health care delivery system in a hospital where nurses constitute more than half of the health service work force [1]
The results indicated that coordinating unit activities was identified as one of the major roles played by unit nurse managers
Summary
Effective nursing management and leadership are essential for the provision of desired patient care that will contribute to the improvement of any country’s health indicators. The nurse manager is the key individual whose leadership can directly influence functions of the nursing service department and ensure that desired quality of nursing services is achieved. The nursing service department globally and in Malawi is one of the disciplines that form a bigger part of the health care delivery system in a hospital where nurses constitute more than half of the health service work force [1]. To perform the duties and activities associated with the managerial roles, the unit manager must possess a comprehensive set of skills and competencies and be able to deal effectively with the forces which represent opportunities and threats to the organization [2]
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