Commentary: Comparison of managerial competence of Indonesian first-line nurse managers: A two-generational analysis.

The authors address an important topic in relation to the evolution of the demography of nursing professionals and to the management of nursing teams. Based on a complete review of the literature focused on the problem studied, they explore the reality of local management in Indonesia against the differences between generational groups of first-line nurse managers. Cultural differences in attitudes and changes are mentioned between the four groups: Silent generation (73–79 years old), Baby boomers (54–72 years old), X Generation (38–53 years old) and Y Generation (18–37 years old). Only the last two groups, X Generation and Y Generation, are included in the study. The issue investigated is interesting for professional practice, especially on career paths and retention of nurses’ perspectives. The authors describe the characteristics and specificities of Indonesian islands, the health system, the training and curriculum of firstline nurse managers and the hospital organisation (private hospitals and a large proportion of public hospitals where the study took place). These elements allow readers to contextualise the research and provide the foreign reader with keys to better understand the realities of Indonesia, a very complex country (large population and large number of languages, different religious components, many islands). Methodologically, this is a large study conducted in 25 randomly selected hospitals in the main islands of the country with the aim of representing the diversity of the health system. The paper describes in detail how the survey was administered using the Indonesian First Line Nurse Manager Managerial Competence Scale. Interestingly, the statistical analysis conducted on the collected data (descriptive analysis and independence t-test; N1⁄4 254) highlights the fact that the two groups of first-line managers are not so different.