Abstract
Objective:
To identify challenges to the development of entrepreneurial behaviors, from the perspective of nurses in a strategic position of leadership.
Methods:
This was a qualitative, descriptive, and exploratory study. Participants were twelve female nurses, working in a strategic leadership position in different health organizations and services of a municipality in southern Brazil. A semi-structured interview was administered between September and November of 2017. Analysis of the thematic content was conducted using the steps of pre-analysis, material exploration, treatment of results, and interpretation.
Results:
It was revealed that nurses in a strategic leadership position presented important challenges in the development of entrepreneurial behaviors, represented by the structures described in the thematic categories: movements of entrepreneurial actions by nurses in strategic positions of leadership; being an entrepreneur in a strategic leadership position: (im)mobilizing situations; learning to be an entrepreneur: challenges of advanced responsibility.
Conclusion:
In the context of the study, the position occupied by nurses represents an unparalleled opportunity for the dissemination of an entrepreneurial culture in diverse professional settings, both in terms of strategic potential for management of people and processes, as well as in stimulating the development of entrepreneurial actions in care management, and management of health and nursing services. The study awakens the need to search for means and possibilities to allow for management of the paradoxes that permeate the reality of being a female nurse in a strategic position of leadership in healthcare and teaching institutions, which is not always a favorable situation.
Keywords
Leadership; Organization and administration; Women, working