Feature
NURSING MANAGEMENT April 2009 | Volume 16 | Number 1 21
Here's looking at you
A survey of Nursing Management readers finds that the majority of them have
been in nursing for more than 16 years and half of them spend most of their
working hours in clinical practice. Christian Duffin discusses the overall results
Do nurse managers have more formal qualifications
than other nurses? The answer, according to a major
survey of almost 2,000 nurses across the uK who
read rCn Publishing's eight specialist journals,
is yes and no.
The survey shows that almost 16 per cent of the
215 readers of Nursing Management who responded
have a master's qualification, more than double the
proportion of respondents overall.
one reader explained that she undertook a
master's because all high-ranking nursing jobs
being advertised seem to require one.
The survey also reveals that some nurses who
responded have doctorates, although there was none
among the Nursing Management respondents.
Commenting on the findings, Jim Deacon, a nurse
and assistant director of emergency planning for
nHs Hull, said: `The qualifications that are needed
for many health service jobs seem to be getting
higher all the time.'
Amanda Howarth, a senior nurse lecturer
at sheffield Hallam university and an expert
in pain management, argues that most nurses
attain master's qualifications that relate to their
specialties rather than to healthcare management
skills generally.
unsurprisingly, the highest proportion of band 7
and 8 earners, at 71 per cent, were found among
Nursing Management respondents. The lowest
proportion, at about 6 per cent, were found among
readers of Paediatric Nursing.
Benefits
When asked what changes in their working lives
would benefit them most over the next five years,
only 12 per cent of Nursing Management readers
said `better pay', which compares with 18 per cent
of respondents to all journals.
The most common answer to this question was
`extra resources'. one disgruntled manager called
for `better training for the idiot managers above me',
while another wanted `to get out before the foulness
of this regime poisons me'.
Claudette Lyons, a nurse and manager of
BuPA's Monmouth Court nursing home, in
Ipswich, said that nurses can improve their use of
resources by working closer with partners such
as social care providers.
one Nursing Management respondent hoped
for better relationships with the doctors in her
working life. she said: `We need to ensure that
all doctors work together with nursing staff to
achieve the same goals within teams. At the
moment, the doctors are working as individuals,
not team players.'
summary
In December 2008, readers of RCN Publishing's
eight specialist nursing journals were surveyed about
their careers and asked for their opinions on the
state of nursing in the UK. This article examines the
responses of readers of Nursing Management and
compares these with the overall survey results.
Keywords
Management, resources, good practice
Box 1 Responses to the survey: career choice
Nursing Management readers were asked their
main reason for choosing nursing as a career.
Responses included:
`I always wanted to be a nurse', 35 per cent.
`I wanted to feel I made a difference to people's
lives', 26 per cent.
`I wanted to help care for people', 16 per cent.
`I thought I would be good at it', 8 per cent.
`I was encouraged to do so', 5 per cent.
`I wanted to feel needed', 0.5 per cent.

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