[Nursing: management with a bound to values].

Abstract

Management is an activity that crosses every area of a hospital. Bioethics gives health care management the basic criteria to promote the common good, to respect everyone and to overcome the economistic paradigm. This article is based on an ongoing study in hospitals in the northern zone, within the PhD in Bioethics. It aims to disseminate the results obtained in the socio-professional group of nurses who perform management functions, regardless of the implemented management model or level of performance. We aim to understand if the system of human values and the ethics of hospital managers influence the decision on health care, while contributing to the identification of a "Profile of ethical skills to manage health units". Methodologically, this research is identified as an exploratory-descriptive and transversal study with a quantitative approach. When collecting data, we used the Ethicality Questionnaire of Hospital Management, developed and validated, with a good level of internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha = .74). It's a self-report instrument consisting of six dimensions (costs and ethics; weighting ethics; ethical decision, responsibility and quality; economic constraint and ethics, and ways to limit costs) and a total of 37 items, with a 5-point Likert-type scale response. We focused solely on the results of the group of professional nurses, given its predominance in the study (191 elements corresponding to 45,4%). The results that reveal the nurses' opinion suggest that there is an integration of values such as responsibility, respect for human dignity and equity, among others, highlighting the consideration of ethical issues in management practices in nursing. The ethical intentionality to manage with binding to values will have as a final and visible result the expression of a holistic care to the person.