Abstract
D.Cur.
With the current expanding privatisation of health services in South Africa, the establishing of quality assurance mechanisms is not only essential but is becoming a prerequisite for further privatisation. Privatisation of health care services, together with economical problems, are causing the role fulfilment and accountability structure of
the nurse administrator to become much more complex and greater demands are continually made.
A profile of the nurse administrator in private hospitals in South Africa, was compiled by means of an explorative descriptive study. This was done to ascertain their preparedness for the formalisation of quality assurance in nursing. The conclusion which was ultimately reached conceded that the nurse administrator in South African private hospitals, is not adequately prepared for her managerial responsibilities. She is, however, according to the registered qualifications, adequately qualified;.. to exercise
effective quality control and assurance in the various nursing disciplines.
Consequently national nursing service standards for private hospitals were formulated. These standards were validated bya representative group of national experts. The validation process consisted of a two-stage research technique.
The statistical validity was calculated by means of a content validity index for each standard. Fourteen (N=275) of these standards (5%) were rejected by the whole group
and 25 (9%) require reformulation. The respondents from the private sector rejected three more standards.
Standards form the basis of the quality assurance process. These standards should equip the nurse administrator with valuable guidelines to promote a high standard of nursing service management in private hospitals. It is recommended that these standards should serve as optimum standards for nurse administrators in private hospitals.