[Guidelines for professional responsibilities of the head nurse in South African state hospitals].

This is a follow-up article on a functional analysis of the post responsibilities of the Chief Professional Nurse in South African State hospitals. The purpose of this study is to formulate guidelines for the Chief Professional Nurse's post responsibilities in State hospitals. The final statements, on which the conceptual framework is based, are inferred from the previous justified objectives: the exploration and description of the existing job/post descriptions of the Chief Professional Nurse, an exploration and description of the different role-players' expectations regarding the post/job responsibilities of the Chief Professional Nurse, followed by a literature control. The guidelines are formulated and it is recommended that they be implemented, followed by the testing of various hypotheses to confirm the value of these guidelines.