Frontline nurse managers' visions for their units: A qualitative study

Area of Science:

• Nursing Management
• Healthcare Leadership
• Organizational Vision

Background:

• Frontline nurse managers play a crucial role in shaping unit culture and performance.
• Effective unit management relies on clear and shared visions.
• Managers possess the potential to conceptualize and communicate future unit goals.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore and understand the visions of frontline nurse managers for their inpatient units.
• To identify the components and characteristics of nurse managers' unit visions.
• To investigate challenges faced by nurse managers in articulating their visions.

Main Methods:

• Qualitative study employing semi-structured interviews with 12 frontline nurse managers.
• Conducted in inpatient units across two hospitals between 2016 and 2017.
• Data analyzed using an inductive approach, focusing on participants' intents and descriptions of actual cases.

Main Results:

• Participants encountered challenges in directly verbalizing their unit visions.
• Analysis revealed five common categories and 18 subcategories reflecting managers' visions: excellent patient care, broadening patient futures, fostering better practice, continuous staff development, and adapting to external changes.
• These categories were interconnected and formed the basis of each manager's vision.

Conclusions:

• Frontline nurse managers can articulate their visions through descriptions of specific experiences and cases.
• The identified vision categories provide a framework for understanding nurse managers' future-oriented thinking.
• Developing strategies to help managers verbalize their visions can enhance leadership effectiveness and unit development.