CHALLENGES FACED BY NURSE-MANAGERS AT WORK IN BRAZILIAN AND PORTUGUESE HOSPITALS: A MIXED-METHODS STUDY

Abstract

Objective: to analyze the challenges found in nurse-managers’ work in the Brazilian and Portuguese hospital contexts. Method: a mixed-methods research study with a sequential explanatory approach, carried out between March 2019 and March 2020 with nurse-managers from four hospitals. The study was initiated with the quantitative stage, applying a survey to 143 participants and analyzing the data by means of analytical and inferential statistics. The qualitative stage was carried out with 71 of these participants using interviews, in order to understand the challenges inherent to this job, and the data were submitted to content analysis. Integration of the findings was performed through data connection. Results: in the quantitative stage, the results evidenced that the managerial activities carried out by nurses by scenario included planning, people management, management of care processes, management of materials, quality management and leadership, with higher mean values for the first four. The qualitative stage allowed deepening the previous findings, contrasting invisibility of the planning, confirming people management as the common challenge to the realities, explaining the mean values in the national and Portuguese scopes. Integration of the findings detailed the relevance of the conflicts and the deficit of professionals in people management and leadership. Conclusion: managing people, care processes and materials are challenges for nurses in hospital management in both countries. Nurses lack structural support and ongoing training for better management and improvement of planning and leadership.