NURSING ORGANIZATIONAL PRACTICE AND ITS RELATIONSHIP WITH OTHER FEATURES OF WARD ORGANIZATION AND JOB-SATISFACTION

This paper describes a new classification of ward organizational pract ice in nursing. Data related to aspects of ward nursing practice were collected by postal survey from a nationally representative sample of 74 acute hospital wards, and subjected to hierarchical cluster analysi s. The model which was deemed to best 'fit' the data, provided three t ypes of ward practices, which have been named: 'devolved', 'two tier' and 'centralized' nursing. The distinguishing features of the three cl assifications are similar but not identical to accepted 'ideal types' of primary, team and functional systems. The relationships between war ds in each of the three identified categories and other ward organizat ional practice processes of nursing care and job satisfaction are desc ribed.