title: Agency nursing work in acute care settings: perceptions of hospital nursing managers and agency nurse providers.
abstract: There is a paucity of research in investigating agency nursing work from the perspectives of hospital nursing managers and agency nurse providers. This exploratory paper examines the hospital nursing managers' and agency nurse providers' perceptions and experiences of agency nursing work. Individual, in-depth interviews were conducted with three agency nurse providers and eight hospital nursing managers. Because of the lack of previous research in this area, an exploratory, semi-structured interviewing technique was deemed appropriate. Three major themes emerged from interview data: planning for ward allocation, communication and professionalism. In planning for ward allocation, hospital managers were primarily concerned with maintaining adequate numbers of nursing staff in the ward settings. A major concern for agency nurse providers was inappropriate allocation of temporary staff. Communication was valued in different ways. While hospital managers focused on communication between the agency nurse and other permanent members of the health care team, agency providers were concerned with exchanges between agencies and hospital organizations, and between the agencies and agency nurses. For both groups, responsibility for professional development and the status of agency nursing as a career choice for graduate and experienced nurses were the focal aspects for consideration. A limitation of this study is the small number of individual interviews conducted with hospital nursing managers and agency nurse providers. Nevertheless, the findings represent the views of 11 individuals in senior managerial roles. The findings reinforce the need to enhance collaboration between hospitals and nursing agencies, and to examine how divergent views of agency nursing work could be reconciled--with the aim of providing quality patient care.
authors.affiliation: School of Postgraduate Nursing, Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences, University of Melbourne, Level 1, 723 Swanston Street, Carlton, 3053 Victoria, Australia. emanias@unimelb.edu.au
authors.forename: Elizabeth
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Manias
authors.forename: Robyn
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Aitken
authors.forename: Anita
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Peerson
authors.forename: Judith
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Parker
authors.forename: Kitty
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Wong
mesh_terms: D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D001315:Australia; D002983:Clinical Competence; D003422:Critical Care / Q000592:standards*; D005260:Female; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D006801:Humans; D033183:Interdisciplinary Communication; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D007588:Job Satisfaction; D009718:Nurse Administrators / Q000523:psychology*; D015401:Nursing Administration Research; D009741:Nursing Staff, Hospital / Q000592:standards*; D010348:Patient Care Team; D010561:Personnel Staffing and Scheduling / Q000639:trends*; D017009:Professional Autonomy; D012042:Registries; D017749:Total Quality Management; D000078329:Workforce