Leadership Needs To Revist Being A Staff Nurse

Have you ever watched Undercover Boss on television?  It is a show where the CEO of a corporation goes undercover and visits several of their franchises as a new employee in various capacities within their company.  The employees genuinely think he is a new employee and their job is to orient them in what their job is.  It is amazing what is revealed to this CEO by the already staff member.  The staff member feels free to talk about issues thar the real CEO might ask as they truely think he is a new employee.  What comes out of this, though, in most cases, is a rude awakening and drastic changes are made because of this information.  Usually the CEO is totally unaware of all of the issues and feelings and in some cases is reduced to tears to hear about how the employees feel and are effected.

Now of course this probably would not work in a hospital or other medical facility as most nurses know who the administration is and what they look like, but wouldn’t it be great if it could happen?  I think it really needs to happen.  Administrative staff needs to go back to when they were staff nurses and relive the realities that staff nurses experience.  Maybe the administrative nurse could

What are some of the needs of the staff nurse.  What are some of the complaints and stresses that the nurse experiences daily.  There are many, but lets come up with a few.

One of the needs that the nurse needs but does not have is flexibility.  Their schedules are horrendous and there is no room for any flexibility.  In fact if the nurse calls in on off hours or on her weekend off she is forced to work an extra one.  Even if she is legitimately ill and has a doctors note or is her child is ill, she has to make it up.  If she wants a weekend off for a wedding is practically impossible to get it off.  If she does not have a babysitter for a particular day she is threatened with disciplinary action.  Any idea how all of this effects her work.   Do you think she wants to go above and beyond.  She probably does but noht as cheerfully as she might if she felt better about things with the hospital.  When people are treated with dignity she has a much better feeling about her work and wants to go above and beyond.

Nurses, also, want to be recognized and appreciated for what they do.  As mentioned in another article, not only are they not appreciated, but they are just taken for granted and what they do, even if it is above and beyond,  is simply expected of them.  No one likes to be treated like this.  Sometimes, they are even put down and someone else gets the credit if it happens at all.  Again, do you think nurses feel like giving and giving when this happens.

Administration makes nurses feel like they are not trusted and as though they don’t know anything.  There is a theory in psychology and the basic premise is that every living organism moves in a forward, positive direction.  What if administration believed this?  Would there be more trust in the nurses?  Would they allow the nurses to function more independently and have confidence that the nurse will do her best to care for the  patient in the best way possible.

Anyway these only a few of the stresses that nurses would probably express if the incognito scenario were possible.  In addition to this are all of the patient related stresses that the administrative nurse would revisit and be made aware of how much it effects the staff nurse.  Wow, what a lot of stress.  Don’t you agree that this should happen.  Maybe then there would be support for the nurse.  Can this be taught to administration via seminars or workshops.  This is probably the second best method, but first the administrative nurses need to want to do something about it.  This might be a start to keep nurses happier and make them want to continue in the traditional nurse role.  Don’t wait until it is too late.