Nursing Managers' Coronary Care Unit Management Experience

The Coronary Care Unit (CCU) requires effective managers to consider- the patient's acute condition. Studies have indicated that nursing managers of such units face many challenges. The purpose of the study is to explain nursing managers' CCU management experience.

The current study has been conducted with a qualitative approach from November 2017 to February 2020 in the CCU of Al Zahra Heart Hospital in Shiraz, Iran. The participants consisted of 18 individuals out of nursing managers and Coronary Care Unit Nurses in Charge selected as purposeful. The data has been collected using unstructured interviews, focus groups, and field notes. The researchers used content analysis proposed by Graneheim and Lundman for interpreting the content of textual data using regular classification.

Data analysis led to the emergence of 3 themes and 8 subcategories. The theme of Inadequate Interaction by the Nursing Managers has been derived from the conceptualization of three subcategories "Senior Managers Insufficiently Supporting the Nursing Manager", "Nonempathetic Communication by Nursing Manager" and "Nursing Manager, not Providing Ground for Motivating and Promoting Staff". The main theme "Impaired Control and Supervision" includes two subcategories "Lack of Sufficient Supervision on Nursing Care Performance", "Lack of Suitable Instrument to Monitor Unit's Equipment and Nursing Staff's Performance", and the main theme, " Incapability to Organize Performance", is made up of three Subcategories "Nursing Managers Being Incapable to Manage Time", "Inappropriately Organizing Activities", and "Nursing Managers' Limited Power in Planning Managerial Activities."

The current study-derived findings present a realistic image of nursing managers participating in CCU management, so the resulting themes indicate nursing managers' perception of CCU management as ineffective. Thus, it is imperative to focus on promoting CCU nursing managers' managerial performance.