Nurse executives are responsible for upholding the humanistic values of their profession and for achieving goals that are necessary to maintain organizational viability. This dual role challenges nurse executives to promote the welfare of clients and nurses as well as to meet obligations to their institutions. Managing these roles may require reconciliation of opposing alliances.
When divergent goals and ideals exist, values often facilitate decision making. However, nurse executives may be compelled to respond to both nursing and organizational value structures. Exploration of nurse executive’s perceptions regarding the importance of fundamental nursing and corporate health care values may assist in the understanding of how nurse executives respond to such potentially diverse influences.
A review of the nurse’s role within the health care system may help to illustrate this dilemma. Describing the essence of professional nursing practice is a complex task. Central to “what nurses do” is a desire to assist individuals in improving, coping with, or adapting to altered states of health. Often, investigators reconcile this complexity by describing the technical skills employed by nurses. However, technical expertise is only one attribute of nursing practice.
Nurses frequently rely on their ability to offer intangible support through the humanistic skills they possess. Nursing care is distinct. The underlying the essence of nurse-patient interactions are the fundamental nursing values brought by each nurse to professional practice. These values typically reflect a desire to provide individualized nursing care by responding to the distinct psychological and physiological needs of each patient. Although values are unique to individuals, professional nursing organizations such as the American Association of Colleges of Nursing and the National League of Nursing have identified several essential values to guide nursing practice. As nurse executives attain administrative positions they bring with them many of these fundamental nursing values. In the clinical setting these values serve as guides to assist in solving complex issues of practice. However, in top level executive positions, fundamental nursing values may be perceived to be in conflict with existing corporate values and beliefs.
The future of our health care industry will be shaped byte values of those working within its organizations. Vital insight may be gained by describing how nurse executives respond to the dilemma of a profession ordered and amenable to care in a society that does not value caring.
Research describing the significance of values congruence in the workplace is found in both the business and behavioral science literature. Values congruence, a sense of shared personal and organizational values appears to enhance motivation, communication, commitment, and productivity. The significance of values congruence between professional and organizational values has not been well described in the literature.
