Nurses’ organizational roles – Stakeholders’ expectations

Abstract

In this study, we analysed stakeholders’ organizational role expectations for nurses. We defined organizational role expectations as a set of informal expectations in behavioural patterns and formal expectations in work tasks related to a certain position in the organization. A qualitative study was conducted, and content analysis was applied to 150 articles published in a Finnish nursing trade journal. We identified five general organizational role expectations of patients and their relatives, physicians and other healthcare professionals, the work community, the nursing association, and legislators in our analysis: “the alongside stroller,” “the patients’ advocate,” “the reliable colleague and team member,” “the expert and skills developer,” and “the organizational underdog.” This study explores these nursing roles and links stakeholder perspective to the organizational role expectations in professional services.