Working toward an efficient and effective staff orientation

FACSIMILE

Working toward an efficient and effective staff orientation

Alexandre Barbosa de Oliveira^I

^IEnfermeiro, Membro da Diretoria Colegiada do Núcleo de Pesquisa de História da Enfermagem Brasileira. Rio de Janeiro - Brasil. [e-mail]

Presentation

In the words of Professor Celina Viegas, “the efficient guidance of the nursing staff is one of the most challenging tasks of the head nurse.” This idea serves as the leitmotif of the text “An Efficient Staff Orientation,” published in the third issue of the Anais de Enfermagem Journal (Annals of Nursing) in 1948.

The author, who at that time was director of the Hermanita Beraldo School of Nursing in the city of Juiz de Fora (State of Minas Gerais), sought to strengthen a number of qualities that are necessary for a better orientation of staff working on the nursing team. To achieve this, she used as a guide the book, “The Art of Leadership,” by Ted Ordway, an educator and an advocate of equal rights for women.

The text is full of recommendations: physical energy, enthusiasm, kindness, integrity, technical superiority, decision, and intelligence, among other qualities, which appear as desired - not mandatory - but essential for the proper performance of the work of the head nurse. In addition, the text is made up of the description of other meritorious characteristics which, if followed correctly, become essential factors in building a model to be followed by subordinates. This affords an excellent and inspiring example that serves to promote goodness and love towards the patients. At that time, nursing faced many barriers in the search for effective methods to fulfill its work. In addition, head nurses had to face complex challenges, mainly due to bureaucratic obstacles, as well as unfavorable conditions and lack of experience.

Viegas Celina, a key element in the recovery process of training and formation of professionals in nursing, was concerned with the amount and quality of human resources. She sought always to emphasize the need for an efficient administration within the hospital environment which would aim to achieve technical superiority and prestigious work thus ensuring trust and obedience of subordinates.

In this regard, we find that the text reveals a series of reflections at a moment that aimed to expand the opportunities for nursing. And analyzed today, under a new perspective, it provides us with a source of inspiration for efficiency in the work of nursing now. At the same time, while we remember the historical aspects - strategic aspects of a struggle to obtain a superior place for the nursing profession - we have to recognize that even though these elements are past history, they are still present, alive and noteworthy today.

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  11 June 2010
• Date of issue
  June 2009