Professional nursing governance in a large Australian health service.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Professional nursing governance refers to the processes and structures that influence nursing practice within an organisation. This study measured the effect of structured meeting communication processes on nurses' perceptions of professional governance. METHOD: The intervention was implemented in eight hospital wards. After 3 months, nurses on the intervention wards and eight matched-control wards completed the Index of Professional Nursing Governance (N = 225). Data were compared with a sample of Magnet(®) (N = 3) and non-Magnet (N = 46) hospitals. RESULTS: There was substantial variation in nurses' perceptions of governance across the 16 wards, irrespective of the intervention. Compared to non-Magnet hospitals, the overall score and three of the six subscales scores were higher in this study. Magnet hospitals scores, however, were typically higher suggesting greater progress towards shared governance. CONCLUSIONS: Professional nursing governance can be highly variable across individual wards and tailored interventions should be considered.