JOB REDESIGN FOR NURSES IN GENERAL SURGICAL AND MEDICAL UNITS AT ALEXANDRIA MAIN UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL

Abstract

Job design became one of the important topics during the past 15 years m U.S.A due to the rapid and complex innovations in the health care industry. These rapid innovations have put the nursing care delivery systems at high risk of being out of context with other components of health care delivery and •challenging nursing services to re-examine both the practice of professional nursing and the structure of nursing care delivery systems.(1. l)

Job design can be defined as" laying out job responsibilities, duties and describing how they are to be perfonned ,(J) It focuses on the work itself and the tasks or activities that individuals complete in their organization on a daily basis. It mainly involves observation, recording, and analysis of current jobs to make work more efficient and to provide incentives for the workers, thereby reducing costs and improving job satisfaction(4.5)

Two maJor approaches are used for description of job design : task inventory and the psychological aspects of workers. Task inventory is based on the scientific school of management, which developed an engineering approach to study and design or the work to most el'liciently utilize technology and minimize wasted human efforts. This is done through examination of joh activities by time and motion studies. The success of this approach depends

on ensuring that people perform the job as designed.1

The psychological

approach assumes that individuals perform work to meet their needs for growth and when jobs themselves are intrinsically rewarding, substantial motivation results. Also it focuses on the psychological aspects of the worker and on

designing jobs to enhance motivation,

productivity of the work groupY• R) j

perfom1ance and increase the