Making a Case for Shared Accountability

Abstract

Nurse managers are expected to be accountable for staff nurse job satisfaction, including providing cohesive work groups 1,2 and explaining nurses’ organizational roles and helping them to find purpose and meaning in their work. 3 If staff nurses fail to achieve these satisfiers, have nurse managers failed to do their jobs? Is it more appropriate for staff nurses and managers to share the accountability for job satisfaction? The purpose of this article is to present the case for shared accountability. The contrasting (and prevailing) view is the continued burden of staff nurse satisfaction being on managers, with an attendant misguided entitlement of staff nurses.