Social Identity and Interrole Conflict for Hospital Superintendents in the Early 1900s

Abstract

PURPOSE. This research explores interrole conflict for nurse hospital superintendents in the early decades of the twentieth century. METHODS. An extensive review of nursing, medical, and administrative journals published in the early decades of the twentieth century. FINDINGS. Throughout the early decades of the twentieth century, hospital administration was dominated by nurses who were responsible for the hospital's administrative functions, participated in patient care, and oversaw the nursing school. The multiple roles were highly integrated, and the superintendent moved easily among them. This role integration was challenged as the nursing leadership worked towards professionalizing nursing and as the American Hospital Association leadership worked towards professionalizing hospital administration as a separate and male occupation. CONCLUSION/DISCUSSION. The work of the nursing leadership and of the American Hospital Association represented boundary work that made it harder to move between roles and created interrole conflict for the nurse superintendent. The conflict abated as the occupation masculinized, because the new administrator focused entirely on administrative functions, and as a man fit the recast image of the hospital executive as a business leader. The discussion links the work of today's nurse managers to this past.