What did your manager do for you?

Nurses Relations

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I am moving from an inpatient nursing position as a charge nurse on a Pediatric oncology and bone marrow transplant floor to a supervisor/manager position in a Pediatric/NICU Stepdown unit. Making the move after getting my masters and the hospital I currently work at would not let me advance and use my new degree, so I am going to a hospital that will. I have been a charge nurse for 3 years now but this position will be a little different. Please tell me what your managers do that make a difference in your lives? What do they do to help? What do they do that brightens your day? I want to be a good manager and it's important to me to make my nurses I will be managing feel respected and feel that they are making a difference. Any suggestions would help!

Bottom line. Treat your staff the way you want to be treated and you will do fine. The fact that you are even asking for opinions about what would make you a good manager means that you care, which is a plus. Remain humble and you will go far. I work the night shift on my job and my previous supervisor on our shift retired. She was excellent. She didn't hound us, wasn't too good to get on the floor with us and help if needed even though we didn't have to call her often, she let us know what was going on, made sure we had everything we needed and even cooked for us out of the blue. Her replacement, the devil in scrubs. Her main goal since she has been there..look for reasons to write people up, pick at you about things that are out of your control, throw her work on others so that she has more time to harass the staff. She made up a lie on her first night about one of us taking her keys and going to the window and unlocking her car, put the keys back and then going to her car and stealing her credit cards. Everybody knows how these automatic locks work being that by the time somebody got downstairs and outside it would have already locked back, not to mention nobody even knew what kind of car she had. She has even started picking fights with security. She has been fired from everywhere else for this exact behavior and our DON knows it because she worked with her on her previous job but she still hired her because she feeds off confusion. I'm telling you, the lady is psycho. I now get headaches when it's time to go to work.

Specializes in LTC, med/surg, hospice.

I haven't had a great manager yet. They all either micro manage or are so hands off that nothing gets accomplished.

I would like a manager that is visible and with an open door policy. One that treats staff with respect. We are all adults and RNs so don't treat us like children. I have been reprimanded (as charge nurse) at the nurses station before for the lounge being untidy the following morning.

Be honest. We know that your hands are tied as managers on various things. Tell us instead of avoiding subjects or giving us BS excuses.

Please don't play favorites. Bob and Linda should not be the only ones that get away with lateness and absenteeism because they go to your church..

Be visible, not someone who sits in a office and only talks to doctors or administrators. None once has anyone in management asked me about my day or how things are going. It depends on who you are. If you work hard and show up all the time, you are treated like crap. If you do the opposite you are treated like a best friend. Go in and if you see something needing to be done. Do it. Listen to the CNA's and Medical Assistants. Talk to the patients and see how their care is going. Give Kudos every now and then when someone goes above and beyond as a lot of nurses do.

Specializes in ED. ICU, PICU, infection prevention, aeromedical e.

My best manager was always AVAIlble. I worked nights. She came in well before change of shift regularly and made her rounds to see the night shift people who usually get ignored. She had a true open door policy and always looked happy to hear from us - though I bet she really wasn't. Lol

listen to both sides of a problem before even speaking about solutions. Ask your team what they would suggest as solutions. Empower nurses to make necessary changes - through proper communication channels.

Specializes in Maternity.

Taking attendance of the COB society in another thread.

Specializes in NICU.

My manager is fake nice. She works 830-430 M-F and I laugh at the thought of her coming in on nights or weekends. She walks around in her business suit and stilettos and all she talks about is the damn budget. That seems to be all she cares about...the budget. She will say that she cares about staff, wants to make changes on the unit....but it all comes down to $$$$. So try to advocate for your staff regardless of the budget. And accommodate nurses wanted to further their education. I'm going back to get my BSN and was booked in every day I have school. I emailed her about it and she ignored my ema, but sent a mass email explaining how THRILLED she is that nurses are getting their degree but scheduling needs take priority and any conflicts you must figure it out yourself. She just doesn't seem to care.

Specializes in NICU.

Oh! And she was an icu nurse not too long ago, so you'd think she would remember the struggle of floor nurses. Sorry for all the typos, I'm on my phone :)

Specializes in TELE, CVU, ICU.

Congratulations. I just left my old manager for I a new job with a new manager. She is new to the job as well. My question to you is what shoud I do, how should I behave, with her?

Specializes in MICU - CCRN, IR, Vascular Surgery.

If you have staff members that want to transfer to another unit in the same hospital, don't block them from even trying. My old manager did this, and the only way to leave that floor was to leave the whole hospital system. As a result, almost all of the nurses I used to work (myself including) with have now left that system entirely.

My manager is very nice and I do not dislike her.She tends to procrastinate alot.She never pays us our vacation so we have to constantly watch our checks to be sure its right.But I always know I can count on her to be available for questions or concerns if I have any.

She sent me a thank you note at my home address telling me about a family that had a lot if nice things to say about me and thanking me for the care I give to the patients. It was awesome!

That was when I was brand new to the floor and in the year since then the kudos have been less forthcoming. All we ever get are e-mails about improving our HCAPP scores and how we need to step it up. They get really nasty and threatening sometimes. Sometimes I wonder if the thank you note wasn't a ploy to keep me from quitting as 2 out of 3 of us that started at the same time quit w/in 2 months :-).

It did feel great, though. And it did keep me from bailing prematurely.

So, I would say: thank you notes and an occasional POSITIVE e-mail. I think morale would be better and people would work harder if we got some positive e-mail once in awhile.

Specializes in Oncology/hematology.

My manager stands up and fights for us when the hospital tries to understaff us. She also shares with us how amazing she thinks we are. She is there all the time, even nights and weekends (although not as much as days). She tries to schedule staff meetings so that there are multiple options and night shift as well as day shift can come if they want. She asks me how I'm doing whenever she sees me and makes sure that I'm not feeling overwhelmed (I'm a new grad).

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