Nurse managers' work content: development of the questionnaire and results of the pilot study

Abstract

Aim: To develop the Nurse Managers' Work Content Questionnaire (NMWCQ) and to describe nurse managers' work content.

Background: Restructuring within health care has expanded the nurse manager's role to include organisational, patient and staff demands.

Methods: The pilot study employed a cross-sectional study design. Based on a literature review, the NMWCQ with 102 items was developed and pretested for this study. Data were collected in 2017 from three Finnish acute care central hospitals that provide specialised health care. A total of 61 nurse managers participated, which represents a response rate of 59%. Principal component analysis was used to test the construct validity of the instrument. Cronbach's alpha values were used to analyse the internal consistency of the instrument. In addition, descriptive and nonparametric analysis was used.

Results: Ultimately, 13 components with 87 items were identified in the questionnaire. The construct validity and internal consistency of the questionnaire were at acceptable levels. Cronbach's alpha rates of the components were 0.554 - 0.890. The most frequently performed daily work of nurse managers was in the component of organising, and the most infrequently performed daily work was in the component of clinical nursing.

Conclusions: The study shows that the Nurse Managers' Work Content Questionnaire (NMWCQ) is suitable for measuring the current content of nurse managers' work. However, the questionnaire is new and needs additional testing such as confirmatory factor analysis with larger amounts of data.

Keywords: hospital; leadership; management; nurse manager; questionnaire; questionnaire development; work content.