Project Materials

NURSES’ PERCEPTION OF THEIR NURSE MANAGERS’ DELEGATION OF RESPONSIBILITIES IN FOUR TERTIARY HOSPITALS

ABSTRACT

Delegation of responsibilities is the organised process of transferring tasks and power from an executive to subordinates. This study looked into nurses’ perceptions of their nurse managers’ delegation of responsibilities at four tertiary health institutions in Enugu state, Nigeria: University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, Ituku-Ozalla, Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT) Teaching Hospital, Federal Neuropsychiatry Hospital, and National Orthopaedic Hospital. Six objectives were established to lead the study. The investigation was conducted using a descriptive survey design. A sample of 300 nurses was chosen from a population of 943 nurses (nursing sisters and senior nursing sisters) at four tertiary health institutions. Data were collected using a pre-tested 54-item questionnaire designed by researchers. The Split half technique with Cronbatch alpha was used to test for dependability, yielding 0.895 and 0.959, respectively. The data acquired were subjected to descriptive statistics and analysed with SPSS version 20. The T-test and ANOVA were employed to evaluate the hypothesis. Tables were used to present the results, together with means and standard deviations. The study found that the average age of respondents was 38.44 (±6.77) years. Nurses in the study believed their managers followed established guidelines for delegating responsibilities (3.20 ± 1.21), used nursing job descriptions (3.00 ± 0.76), transferred authority (2.88 ± 1.03), practiced accountability (3.00 ± 1.32), and practiced supervision The hypothesis results show that there is no significant difference between the nurses’ ages and their nurse managers’ delegation of responsibilities (p-value > 0.05). There was no significant difference in nurses’ perceptions of their nurse supervisors’ delegation of responsibilities based on their rank (p-value = 0.391, > 0.05). There was also no significant difference between nurses’ years of experience and their view of their nurse managers’ delegation of tasks; the p-values of the F statistics were greater than the 0.05 level of significance for all of the items evaluated. These data, with P-values greater than the level of significance (0.05), show no difference in age, rank, or years of experience. However, there is a significant variation in nurses’ view of their nurse manager’s delegation of duty based on their institution (p-value < 0.05). The findings prompted suggestions for future research.

Chapter one

INTRODUCTION

Background of the study.

Delegation of responsibility is an important organisational activity that occurs naturally as a corporation expands and grows (Akrani, 2010). It is a management function that can be learnt and honed to perfection by anyone willing to put in the work and practice.

Delegation is not a new function in the nursing profession, but it is becoming increasingly vital as the field evolves rapidly. The modifications focus on skill mix, care delivery structure, and nurses’ expanding roles.

The ability of both the delegator and delegate to accurately perceive their roles and assignments is critical to the function’s performance.

Okoronkwo (2005) defined effective delegation as the organisational process that allows an executive to transmit responsibility and power to a subordinate. The author goes on to claim that it creates the subordinate’s responsibility, granting her the authority to act on behalf of the superior.

Responsibility is a duty or obligation to satisfactorily accomplish or complete a task (given by someone or formed by one’s own premise or circumstance) that must be met and has a penalty for failing.

Effective delegation of responsibilities is described as assigning a task from the delegator’s practice (Weydt, 2010). It could also be seen as delegating duty, authority, and power to someone for the performance of an action while remaining accountable for the outcome (Bylgia & Helga, 2012).