Nursing leadership strategies to facilitate the constructive management of nurse related adverse events in a regional hospital in Gauteng

Ph.D. (Nursing Management)Abstract: Nurse related adverse events are reported in national and international media on a daily basis. These events occur not because nurses intentionally hurt their patients, but because the health care system is so complex that the outcomes for each patient depends on a range of factors and not just an individual nurse’s competence. Some hospitals are viewed as pathological services that have a culture of individual blame, denial, abuse and punishment of staff involved in nurse related adverse events. Leaders and peers in such work environments target individual nurses and simultaneously fail to question core beliefs, recognise systemic causes to the events or to implement system wide reforms. Reports suggest the need to understand the problems that face health-care workers regarding adverse events as well as to rethink the existing management approaches used by removing the focus from nurses when nurse related adverse events occur and placing the focus directly on the shoulders of the nursing leadership through the development of innovative strategies. The purpose of this study was to explore and describe the experiences of operational managers regarding the management of nurse related adverse events in a regional hospital in Gauteng in order to develop nursing leadership strategies to facilitate the constructive management of nurse related adverse events in this hospital. The objectives of the study were as follows: to explore and describe the experiences of operational managers regarding the management of nurse related adverse events in a regional hospital in Gauteng; to develop a conceptual framework as a frame of reference for the nursing leadership strategies to facilitate the constructive management of nurse related adverse events in this hospital; to develop nursing leadership strategies to facilitate the constructive management of nurse related adverse events in the regional hospital and to evaluate the nursing leadership strategies using a panel of experts in research methodology, nursing management and leadership experts from the Gauteng Department of Health..