THE EFFECT OF AN INTRODUCTORY MANAGEMENT INSERVICE PROGRAM ON THE KNOWLEDGE OF MANAGEMENT SKILLS OF ASSISTANT HEAD NURSES AT A UNIVERSITY TEACHING HOSPITAL

Currently, there are increasing numbers of nurses being promoted to managerial positions in the health care industry. Leaders in the nursing profession view this trend as a positive step in maintaining quality health care and cost effective management. The purpose of this study was to determine if a management inservice program increased the knowledge of management skills of assistant head nurses in a large southwestern United States university teaching hospital. The participants were randomly selected from two inpatient nursing service departments. The subjects were randomly assigned to a control or experimental group. Both groups received a pre-test and post-test which measured management knowledge. The experimental group attended a management inservice training program. The data obtained from the pre-test and post-test were analyzed using analysis of variance. A statistically significant difference was found between the pre-test and post-test scores of both groups.