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Finding the right direction: The importance of open communication in a governance model of nurse management
Suzi Robertson-Malt
Director, Nursing Practice & Research, King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Ysanne Chapman
Associate Professor, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences, Monash University, Gippsland Campus, Churchill VIC
Abstract
Change and its management is a widely researched and documented activity. Yet amidst this plethora of literature there is little that looks at the central tenets of the change process: exemplar setting; communication and executive guidance.
The nursing management system at King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre agreed to change direction and embrace the concept of shared governance to bring about equality and parity in decision making. This process demanded that the nursing executive gave direction by providing an example of how shared governance could be actuated.
This paper argues how shared governance is a viable alternative management structure for nursing practice and details how the organisation implemented it through open and honest communication.
Keywords
shared governance, nursing practice, communication, decision making, management systems
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