The implication of environmental turbulence for nursing-unit design in effective nursing homes.

In this study of 14 effective nursing homes, patterns of participation were found to be different from those proposed by traditional organizational theories; environmental turbulence was positively correlated with participation in decision making by RNs and negatively correlated with participation by LVNs. The findings suggest that RNs are the focus of information processing when environmental turbulence is high. Information processing and decision-making theories are used to explain the results describing the theoretical implications of relevant characteristics of nursing practice settings.