Managing health care under New Public Management

Abstract

The drive to reform the public health care system became a common feature of Australia’s political and economic landscape from the early 1980s. Health care reform in Australia has been underpinned by New Public Management (NPM) which was promoted as providing more transparent policy and empowering managers to manage service delivery. However, these claims are a fallacy and nursing and nursing care have been affected adversely and severely. General (generic) management structures have replaced established nursing management structures and the distance between politics (politicians) and health service managers has narrowed to the extent that there is now an unprecedented level of political interference in the daily management of health services, in direct contrast to the tenets of NPM. This article reports on the ‘reformed’ health care environment as experienced by nurse managers. They reported that their ability to manage nursing services and provide professional and clinical leadership has been seriously diminished, as has their work satisfaction, motivation and commitment. They also report uncertainty about their future as well as the future of nursing itself.