Nurses’ performance in health management macro-functions

Given interest in identifying nurses as subjects involved in health management, this exploratory, qualitative study was designed to analyze nurses’ performance in health management macro-functions. For this case study, a town in Bahia State, Brazil, was selected as a representative case of successful introduction of the national health system (SUS) and with nurses occupying various management macro-functions. Semi-structured interviews were held with fifteen manager-nurses and the municipal board of health minutes for 2006 were examined. The data was analyzed using thematic content analysis. The findings show that nurses’ activities are constained by the State’s vertical policy decision-making and the lack of technical-political engagement by manager-nurses. Nurses, despite being SUS managers and occupying senior local health management positions, have acted predominantly as executors of management macro-functions.