Head Nurses’ Perception of Educational Needs for Acquiring Managerial Competence at Intensive Care Units: A Qualitative Study

Background: In dealing with the new challenges of the health system, the head nurses of intensive care units need continuing educational programs, and investigating the learning requirements is the infrastructure of developing human resources. Objectives: This study aimed to assess the educational needs of the head nurses of intensive care units. Materials and Methods: This qualitative study was conducted during year 2014. Data collection was done through semi-structured and in-depth face-to-face interviews with ten head nurses of the intensive care units of hospitals located in Mazandaran province. Data analysis was carried out with the conventional method of qualitative content analysis. Results: After data analysis and extraction of 300 primary codes, 21 categories and four main themes were identified. The themes included “scientific needs”, “artistic needs”, “technical needs” and “organizational needs”, which partially overlapped. Conclusions: The data of this study showed that for obtaining managerial competence in these units, the head nurses of intensive care units need some instructions to satisfy their scientific, artistic, technical and organizational needs. Proper planning and implementation of continuous in-service education based on these training requirements paves the way for providing hospitals with nurses competent for managing the intensive care units.