Effects of Being A Poor Nurse Manager

Being a Nurse Manager means that your abilities and disabilities will have a great impact on the staff you lead. Staff look to you as a role model. You must be a positive role model for these nurses. They will look to you for guidance in their performance as well.

You can begin your endeavor to be effective.

1. Be knowledgeable: Make it a routine to review all policies affecting nursing roles within your facility. It will not be possible to memorize all policies, especially in large facility, but you should have the knowledge to reach the resources needed to direct staff as issues arise. KNOW YOUR FACILITY'S POLICIES.

As new services are added to the roles of nurses you supervise, make sure you are on the front line of gaining knowledge of these roles. Do your research, using evidenced based practice.

2. Inform: Keep staff informed of changes. Speak to them in person and also listen to feedback.

3. Involve: Involve staff in decisions for changes to meet goals of the unit. The nursing staff that are intimate with the processes of the unit often have great remedies and suggestions. Staffing suggestions are vital, in that, the nurses work with the clinical issues on a regular basis and have also thought about how things can be better maintained. As a Nurse Manager, your role requires you to address many issues and you loose the closeness you once had, when you were a staff nurse. Involving staff can be an advantage in solving issues on your unit.

Involvement also develops staff and provides them with ownership of improvements.

4. Collaborate: Bring the team together to brainstorm ideas.

5. Communicate: Always communicate with your staff and follow-up to ensure communication is successful and instruction is understood. Once I received a message that there was a new requirement of the staff being enacted. My hands were full that day and the new requirement included a deadline. I quickly sent out a email message to all of the nursing staff, informing them of the new task and the deadline. When to deadline arrived, I found myself with no compliance.

What happened? What went wrong? I thought my message was clear.

For one thing, numerous staff members, did not have a chance to read the email. Those that did, were uncertain to some degree, of what exactly needed to be done. I struggled the whole day to meet the deadline, which was by COB(close of business). The staff were frustrated with me because they felt pushed now to be complaint in a short time. I loss some credibility in this instance. You do not want to do this.

Communicate changes in person.

6. Coach: Ensure you are coaching your staff in their performance. Give feedback for improvements and give staff time to make improvements in their performance.

7. Respect: Truly a key element. Demonstrate respect for all staff. You will work with a variety of personalities, cultures, beliefs, etc. Showing all respect will yield respect.

As a Nurse Manager, you do have great responsibilities and numerous tasks, but you do not have to do it all alone. A poor Nurse Manager neglects to include staff in appropriate levels of improvement, do not develop their staff, poorly communicates, demonstrates a lack of respect, and does not coach staff to improve in thier performance. Results: poor staff morale, more work for you, and a negative impact on patient care.

The Decision To Become a Nurse Manager

Did you ever think of the specific reason or reasons you decided to become a Nurse Manager? My reason, I thought was simple. I felt I would have the opportunity to make positive changes for my organization, implement improvements in patient care, and lead people. This was my vision.

To be a Nurse Manager you must have the interest to share and develop ideas. You must demonstrate emotional intelligence while working with people and be excited about developing staff under your supervision. You would be a mentor and educator.

What I did not visualize as I decided to become a Nurse Manager, was the challenges and obstacles that being a leader would offer. You must be able to accept the challenges and obstacles as a common reality of the Nurse Manager role and use them as tremendous opportunities for professional growth. As you meet these challenges and obstacles, your demonstration of accomplishment will inspire staff under your supervision to succeed as well. Consider these issues when making the decision to pursue a Nurse Manager position. All people are not meant to lead.

Nurse Manager Skills

Skills that will assist you in managing the progress and accomplishments of your clinical team will also be an asset to your success in carrying out quality customer service. Adopting a good skill set is key.

Critical Thinking Skills will help you think clearly and purposefully to address the many complex problems faced in the world of patient care. You will need to quickly create solutions to problems impeding health care delivery, such as staffing issues, customer concerns, advances in technology and skill requirements of nurses under your supervision, etc.

Interpersonal Skills allows you to relate and communicate with others. During your day to day routine, you will relate and communicate with internal/external customers, patients, patients families, vendors, affiliates, and your colleagues.

Technical Skills addresses the proficient use technology to do work. In the Nurse Manager role, you will need to use e-mail for communication and computer programs for various projects and data collection. Procedural skills are assessing the progress or outcomes of work, implementing process improvements and best practices, facilitating staff development and increased knowledge in the field of nursing, and instigating shared governance.

Behavioral skills include organization and time management. Meeting deadlines will be a challenge but a requirement in the Nurse Manager role. Performing work with accuracy is another behavioral skill along with seeking out opportunities to improve and maintain knowledge and skills. This can be done through continuing education, using resources such as current health care journals, and through practice in this chosen profession. The Nurse Manager must also be responsible for maintaining safety in the workplace.

5 Core Nurse Manager Responsibilites

The Nurse Manager has many roles and responsibilities. There are 5 responsibilities, however, that the Nurse Manager must develop and strengthen.

1. Planning: With this responsibility, the manager will set objectives for the health care department they are responsible for.

2. Organizing: Directing and guiding an identified plan for the department and its service to the customer.

3. Leading: Communicating a clear direction for the team and demonstrating a good example of work ethic.

4. Controlling: Initiating process improvements through new policy and procedure, specific to providing exceptional patient care.

5. Coordinating: Understanding the value of the team and its obligation in the organization.

The Nurse Manager Role

As a Nurse Manager, you will function in a leadership capacity within an organization that employs nurses; Registered Nurses, Licensed Practical Nurses, and Nursing Assistants. As a leader in this profession you will guide nursing staff in the delivery of quality patient care, through sound decision making and shared governance, and staff development. Many other skills of the Nurse Manager are vital for success in our time of financial consciousness, fast paste medical technological advances, and advances in communication technology.

Nurse Managers need to understand the role and how this leadership position will impact those who work under their supervision and alternately impact patient care.

Rule of thumb. Think about all of the bosses, supervisors, and managers, you have had, over the years of your nursing career. Which ones did you admire and why. Which ones did you hate to see coming, why. Emulate the qualitites you admired and avoid duplicating those qualities of the most undesirable leaders.

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