Paper
Friday, July 23, 2004
Comparing U.S. Home Care and New Zealand District Nurses on Valued Organizational Traits
Linda Flynn, PhD, RN, BC1, Jenny Carryer, PhD, FCNA, MNZM2, and Claire Budge, PhD2. (1) College of Nursing, Rutgers University, Newark, NJ, USA, (2) Nursing & Midwifery, MidCentral Health, Palmerston North, New Zealand
| Learning Objective #1: List organizational traits associated with Magnet hospitals |
| Learning Objective #2: Identify organizational traits that transcend national boundaries and are valued by both home care and district nurses |
Objective: The Nursing Work Index (NWI), a tool measuring the hospital practice environment, facilitated a decade of magnet hospital research highlighting the impact of organizational traits on nurse and patient outcomes. Little is known, however, regarding the degree to which this instrument reflects organizational traits valued by community-based nurses around the globe. The objective of this international study, funded by grants from the American Nurses Foundation and the New Zealand Ministry of Health, was to compare the responses of U.S. home care nurses with those of district nurses in New Zealand regarding the value of organizational traits, as depicted by the NWI, to their practice. Design: Cross-sectional mailed survey. Sample: The total sample of 723 community-based nurses comprised of 403 home care nurses from 48 states, and 320 New Zealand district nurses representing all 15 national regions. Variables: Organizational traits associated with a professional practice environment as measured by the "importance" scale of the NWI. Methods: Using the "importance" scale of the NWI, respondents rated the importance of each organizational trait to their professional practice. Analytic techniques included frequency distributions and one-way analysis of variance. Findings: A minimum of 90% of all U.S. home care and 90% of all New Zealand district nurses agreed that 44 of the 50 organizational traits depicted by the NWI were either somewhat or very important to the support of their professional practice. District nurses had significantly higher mean importance scores on the total NWI than did home care nurses. Conclusions: These 44 items may represent a core set of organizational traits important to community-based nurses from two different countries and health care systems. Implications: Overall, the NWI appears to reflect organizational traits important to both home care nurses and district nurses, suggesting a common professional value system may transcend practice settings and national boundaries.
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Sigma Theta Tau International
July 22-24, 2004