A study of the position of supervising sister in a New Zealand hospital

Abstract

An interest of the writer in the organization of nursing services in the large general hospital was developed during a course in Medical Sociology which was part of the Sociology Honours Degree in 1968. The writer considered extending such an interest by conducting a piece of research for the Master of Arts Degree. At the suggestion of senior administrators in the Nursing Division of the Department of Health, a spokesman for the New Zealand Registered Nurses' Association and a senior nursing administrator at Wellington Hospital, the writer decided to take up the 'role of the Supervising Sister' as a general research focus. These 'middle level' managers were considered to have certain problems associated with the enactment of their work but the nature of the problems, and the reasons why they arose were not clear.