Independence and status--two different work methods.

This paper describes a study to establish whether there were hidden benefits from the changes occurring in nursing work methods. Of particular interest were the feelings of independence and status of qualified nursing staff operating within two discrete work environments, namely a) primary nursing, b) task allocation nursing. A nine item questionnaire with Likert scale was used as the measure. It was hypothesised that those nurses working with primary nursing would 1) feel more independence and, 2) have a higher sense of status than their counterparts in the traditional task-centred environment.