Is shared governance still relevant?

Is shared governance still relevant in this era of significant changes in healthcare? Requisites to support nurses and others are more important now than ever before. Shared decision-making is not only relevant, it is essential. The road to empowerment is not easy. Many patterns of organization and relationship must be changed forever through commitment and leadership today.

Collective bargaining: the union as partner. Part 3.

Here, learn success strategies for leading positively in a collective bargaining environment.

Beyond the walls: nursing in the entrepreneurial world.

Nursing is a dynamic and exciting profession. The future of practice is built on the shoulders of those who have gone before and laid firm foundations upon which to construct the future. One person's career is simply a small part of the complex of variables that contribute to the growth and success of the profession. However, it is precisely this commitment, energy, and contribution that assure a viable and meaningful future and every nurse is called to add his or her individual gifts to its creation.

Shared Governance within the market-oriented health care system of New Zealand.

The New Zealand health reforms, announced in 1991 and implemented over the 3-year period 1992-1994, were market-oriented, following a competitive model that had been applied across New Zealand's public sector. Consideration is given to the effects of the health reforms on nursing and midwifery at Capital Coast Health Limited (CCHL), with the introduction of a market/economic model of health care and its accompanying managerialism. The market model, or the economic era of health care, as some describe it, created an environment where nurses felt powerless. All the directors of nursing and on-going hospital educational programs were disestablished in the public sector; nurses were disheartened, confused and lacked representation at senior management. Integral to, and accompanying, corporatization is managerialism. With corporatization, came managers from the non-health care sector who had no understanding of the complexities of health care. Accompanying managerialism is the notion that any able manager was capable of managing any agency, whether public or private. Naturally, there was an underlying conflict between the caring relationships and their related work in the clinical environment, and the desire for efficiency and economy. It seemed that we were dealing with contrasting themes of 'the market' and 'humanity' This led to further confusion and disempowerment, as the dollar gained prominence, for nursing has always been grounded in the 'humanities'. It was into this environment, after 5 years of the health reforms, that a Nurse Executive was appointed and the concept of Shared Governance was introduced. This article describes why Shared Governance was considered an appropriate model to introduce at CCHL, and identifies some of the tangible benefits being realized 18 months post implementation. Discovering that membership in cross-organizational teams provides a mechanism for networking and creating a broader understanding of the organization has been but one of the major benefits.

Nursing leaders predict top trends for 2000.

Nursing Management's Editorial Advisory Board predicts the top 10 trends that will impact nurse leaders in 2000. Use them to lead in the new millennium.

Visions for the 21st century: new horizons, new health care.

The millennium brings with it an opportunity to see the world within the terms of reference into which it is going. The demand for leadership is to be able to see and translate the future of health care within the framework of the new age. The obligation of leadership is to be able to embrace the challenges a new age brings to health service and to embrace what it requires the leader and the provider to become.