What perioperative and emerging workforce nurses want in a manager

AORN Journal,  August, 2003  by Julia Thompson,  K. Lynn Wieck,  Ann Warner

• E-mail
• Print
• Link

The world is experiencing a critical nursing shortage. The number of nurses in the United States is expected to be 20% lower than what is needed by the year 2020. (1) As the number decreases, it is unclear what types of job situations new nurses will choose and how already vulnerable specialty areas, such as perioperative nursing, will be affected by the choices they make.

Large, urban facilities are reporting difficulties filling vacancies and increased use of temporary or free-agent nurses. (2) A shortage of nurses in mental health services, rural health promotion, long-term care, and inner-city health clinics alludes to a future of continuing competition for nurses. It is unclear whether future nurses will be attracted to specialty areas. Today's new nurses can choose from many opportunities when selecting a job. Will young nurses whose motives for work appear to differ from their predecessors' be motivated to select high-intensity clinical areas like the OR when they launch their careers?

Perioperative nursing is in a crisis because of difficulty in recruiting a sufficient number of nurses. Three factors credited with creating the crisis include fewer perioperatively educated graduates, (3) a diminished supply of nurses and people interested in becoming nurses, (1) and the cultural influences of the emerging workforce. (4) This article explores the traits that perioperative nurses desire in a manager or supervisor and compares them to the traits that senior nursing students desire in a manager or supervisor. If there are basic differences between what the two groups want in a manager, it might help explain the type of environment necessary for recruiting and retaining nurses in perioperative services.

PURPOSE AND SIGNIFICANCE

This study was undertaken to describe the traits nursing students about to embark upon nursing careers desire in a manager. The natural manager development model in most businesses has been to promote successful employees into management positions; therefore, an assessment of the traits seasoned perioperative nurses desire in a manager was conducted so the results could be compared to the results of a student assessment. The study questions were as follows.

* What are the top 10 desired traits in a manager as expressed by nursing students?

* What are the top 10 desired traits in a manager as expressed by perioperative nurses?

* Is there a relationship between career status (ie, student or nurse) and ranking of traits?

The significance of this study lies in its potential to identify generational similarities and differences, which may have applicability to other specialty areas. The nursing shortage is not limited to one geographic or specialty area. (1) If nursing is not considered a desirable career option, where will tomorrow's nurses be found? Although recruitment is vitally important, retention is equally challenging. After new nurses come to a hospital setting, what can be done to keep them? Managers play a significant role in employee retention (5); therefore, this study explored what nurses, current and future, want in a manager.

RATIONALE FOR THE STUDY

Although the nursing shortage affects all areas of nursing practice, perioperative nursing is experiencing a greater shortage because fewer nurses opt to enter the perioperative setting. (3) Additionally, all nurses, particularly those in the perioperative arena, are getting older. The average age of perioperative nurses is 47 years, (6) which is greater than the average age (ie, 44.3) of nurses in general. (1)

Although many reasons exist for the shortage in the perioperative environment, a prominent reason is lack of student education and exposure to perioperative nursing because of over-crowded curricula. (3) Limited exposure is believed to decrease students' interest in pursuing perioperative nursing careers after graduation.

Much of the research on perioperative nursing recruitment and retention was conducted in the 1980s when the last nursing shortage occurred; however, the education and practice environments do not appear to have changed much during the past 15 years. Most contemporary nursing curricula provide only a one- or two-day observation experience in specialty care areas. Students, therefore, get very little exposure to the realities of specialty nursing practice. In the perioperative area, for example, there traditionally has been only one OR follow-through experience with only one patient. (7) A study of 1,118 nursing programs conducted during the 1980s reveals that OR techniques were not taught in the majority of programs studied. (8) This limited involvement with the perioperative setting makes it difficult for students to perceive the challenges of perioperative nursing practice. (9,10) As a result, students often lack perioperative nursing skills and are reluctant and unlikely to choose careers in perioperative nursing.

In 1995, a group of researchers conducted a historical study identifying the sociocultural and economic influences that have contributed to the decline of educational perioperative clinical experiences. (11) Three themes emerged--the professional versus technical role of perioperative nurses, generalist versus specialist, and the apparent lack of control nursing has over its professional future. To increase the demand for opportunities in perioperative nursing among students, the researchers recommended promoting stronger affiliations between nursing academia and practice settings.