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The clinical content of NHS trust board meetings: an initial exploration
Author(s) -
WATKINS MARY,
JONES RAY,
LINDSEY LAURA,
SHEAFF ROD
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
journal of nursing management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.925
H-Index - 76
eISSN - 1365-2834
pISSN - 0966-0429
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2834.2008.00928.x
Subject(s) - content analysis , sample (material) , focus group , psychology , medical education , medicine , public relations , business , political science , sociology , marketing , social science , chemistry , chromatography
Objectives To differentiate between English NHS trust board meetings according to the percentage of clinical content and to explore which characteristics of board meetings might explain this. Methods Definition of scoring system for clinical content. Scoring of minutes for a random sample of 60 trusts. Qualitative analysis of a sub‐sample, generated hypotheses about factors leading to higher percentage of clinical items was undertaken; testing of hypotheses in a longitudinal sample of minutes from 24 trusts over 1 year. Results Clinical content varied from 2% to 30%. Boards with a more clinical focus tended to link other issues including finance to clinical issues; have non‐executive directors able to question board executives openly; make less use of acronyms in minutes; had more liaison with social services; and accepted questions from the public. Conclusions Counting items in board minutes has prima facie validity as a means of defining how clinically focussed board meetings are, although more research is required to refine the method. The present method of analysing board minutes may provide one way of assessing board culture. Implications for nursing management Directors of nursing can help focus trust board meetings on clinical matters. Further research is required to determine whether greater clinical content in trust board meetings has impacts on clinical practice or organizational performance.