Components of the Magnet® model provide structure for the future vision of nurse managers’ work: A qualitative perspective of nurse managers

AIM: To describe nurse managers' views of their work in the future. BACKGROUND: Ongoing reformation of health care organisations includes profound changes to nurse managers' work practices. METHOD: A qualitative approach was applied to elicit views of nurse managers (n = 133) from eight Finnish specialized medical care hospitals through one open-ended question about their future work in November 2019. The acquired data were subjected to inductive thematic content analysis. RESULTS: Four themes were identified in the nurse managers' responses, indicating that they anticipated: 1) a shift from hierarchical leadership to shared governance, 2) an increasing focus on proactive and systematic work, 3) development of evidence-based practices and 4) improvement in the attractiveness and effectiveness of the organisation. CONCLUSIONS: Nurse managers envisage their future work will follow the transformational leadership model. Shared governance and multidisciplinary team leading, with a stronger focus on proactive strategic planning will extend their power to influence decision-making. Administrative supporting systems will free more time from their daily routine work for interactions with staff. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT: Clarification of the managers' job description along with administrative support systems is anticipated to strengthen leadership, facilitate management, enhance decision-making and increase the attractiveness and effectiveness of both health care organisations and nurse managers' work.