以護理人員角度，評價護理長決策能力

The aim of this study was to examine head nurses' decision making competence. Furthermore, to explore possible associations between staff nurses' demographic characteristics and the decision making competence of their head nurses. A self-developed decision making competence questionnaire was used to understand head nurses decision making competence from nurses' viewpoints. The questionnaire is a 5 point Likert's scale, from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (5). Participants of this study included nursing staff of 62 units from 3 hospitals that consented via phone invitation. Of the 876 questionnaires sent out, 836 were replied. The response rate was 95.4%. Results were as follows. 1) Nurses perception of head nurses' decision making competence was between strong agreement and agreement (M=4.12; SD=.70); 2). Nurses' perception of the best decision making competence trait of head nurses was decision participation (M=4.16; SD=.74), followed by decision thinking (M=4.l2; SD=.69); and assessing the scheme of decision-making (M=4.09; SD=.74); 3). The amount of time nurses have worked with head nurses has a significant correlation to their viewpoints about head nurses’ decision making competence. Our study revealed that head nurses tend to be more conservative about decision making. Training programs are recommended to help head nurses excluding personal bias and thus make effective decisions.