Determine the sufficiency levels of the service head nurses in Turkey community hospitals

ABSTRACTThe current definitive study was conducted in order to determine the sufficiency levels of the service head nurses in Turkey community hospitals, and whether the managerial competency level and personal characteristics are related or not. The universe of the research was composed of university and college hospitals in Turkey; based on seven different geographical regions of our country. The one with the highest bed capacity in each region was chosen, both from university and community hospitals. To gather the information, a question form related to personal characteristics and ?Service Head Nurse Performance Rating Scale? were used. In the research, it was found that 47.7 % of the nurses responsible for services were pre- license graduates and their executive experiences were in between 1- 5 years and most of them (65 %) were found not to attend executive education program before. They were also found competent in Performance Rating Scale subdimensions, most being in general unit management and the least being in care management; but insufficient in planning the future assignment/career of their employees. When considering the factors associated with competencies of the service head nurse; significant statistical differences between all personal characteristics (except professional experience, former training for executive competency and the willing for execution training and competency) and competency were established (p< 0.05). In this context the areas in which service head nurses are incompetent should be carefully and their developmental needs should be met through in service training programmes.Keywords: Nursing Management, Service Head Nurse, First-Line Manager, Managerial Competence