Interim DON Talks Behind My Back.

[venousr3tuRN]

Be prepared for a long one...

So I have been working at my first nursing job in a LTC facility for about 8 months now and generally like the job. It has its quirks but I have grown to care for all the residents in the facility now that I have gotten to know all of them.

A little background, I started out on the floor as a charge nurse passing meds, writing orders, calling doctors and all that good stuff which really helped to instill the basis for what my next position would encompass. After 4 months, my then DON who hired me, ended up resigning due to health reasons with the precursor being that we sent her out from the facility 911 after passing out. She was out for some time and I knew in the back of my mind that she was not coming back to work at my facility. As it happens, the morning RN supervisor was asked to fill, in which she accepted and I believe does a great job at it for what she was left with. So with such short notice we needed a morning supervisor. There's only a handful of RNs at my facility, including myself, so I figured the current 3-11 supervisor would take the position. She declined confiding in me that she could not be able to work with both the new DON and the Administrator at the same time. Long story about that but the gist is that we are on our 3rd admin since I've been there and I've noticed that staff morale has gone down from what I notice.

Anyways, our admin asked all the other RNs if they were interested in supervising with each one declining including the other new RN I was hired with. When she asked me I accepted because I wanted to help out my facility and I did not want my coworkers to be without a supervisor. So after only 4 months of experience as a floor nurse, I became the new morning supervisor. It was a rough start at first going from doing medpasses to overseeing that they are done and being a resource for my charge nurses, many of whom have years more experience and knowledge than I. For the most part, all of the charge nurses were very receptive to my new role. So now after 4 months of supervising I have become a little better in tuned with the position but still continue to ask as many questions as I can and ask for help when I need it.

I still consider myself a work in progress as a supervisor and have noticed vast improvement in all the areas of nursing skill set and confidence from when I first started. I finally started feeling a little more useful and gaining the trust and confidence of my peers. We have 2 nursing stations in our 99 bed facility and everyday I find myself constantly traveling between the two to help my nurses out in any way that I can. I give a little more time to the newer nurses so they feel they have that support, which I unfortunately did not feel when I started, and more trust and autonomy (within reasonable scope) to the seasoned nurses to show that I value their experience and knowledge and am there when they need but won't constantly hover around them. The seasoned nurses are good about letting me know what they are working on and any new developments throughout the day. I answer every resource questions that my nurses have, to the best of my knowledge and experience, and when I truly don't know will have them ask the DON for backup resource. I handle all admits and discharges so my nurses can focus on their residents. I help my nurses out with their orders, doctors, family, labs, dietary and pharmacy reqs, do all the tasks and meetings required of the supervisor and act as a liaison between other disciplines like rehab, social services, dietary, housekeeping, and so on. I can't say that I do it all perfectly but see myself improve everyday.

So to the point finally...my DON has told me that she has been pleased with my quick progress and my dedication to helping out by working doubles and my days off, if needed, to cover shifts when short staffed. However, one of my nurses recently confided in me this past week that she overheard the DON talking about me to other staff in the break room. She allegedly said that it was useless to have a supervisor on shift when all I do is walk around the facility "looking" like I'm doing work. She supposedly goes on to comparing the work she did as the supervisor and her handle on the staff. I deduced that something to that effect was said only from my experience with her constantly slamming other staff to me. I cant expect that I would be exempt from such talk, you know.

When she does that, I try to pose underlying reasons for work performance instead of just superficially passing judgement. I investigate if it is a deficit in knowledge or skill, personal factors, or any other plausible reason. I take my nurses aside and have a conversation with them about how they are doing, how they feel their work performance is going, and any way we (as a facility) can help facilitate, improve, or change their working conditions as possible. One thing I don't do is talk about my coworkers behind their backs, mainly because I don't know the whole story and I like to give everyone the benefit of the doubt. Now i cant say that my moral compass always faces true north and have been known to resign to similar actions in fun, in anger, in stress, and so on. I try to analyze those behaviors and see how i could have better handled those situations. To reiterate, I'm a work in progress.

People have actually slammed the DON comparing her performance to the previous DON. I don't full on defend her but I tell them that they have no clue as to all the unfinished work that was left for her to deal with on short notice and all the deadlines she is still expected to meet. I basically imply that it is easy to judge from the outside. I'm actually privy to a lot of the work that she has to do and still feel she is doing a fantastic job as our DON considering our situation.

It hurts a little to think that I'm possibly not shown enough respect from my DON to be criticized to my face and to other people no less. I've grown thick skin in my short experience and do not feel it a full on personal attack. I just do not want to work with that aura over head. I want to know these things so I can improve and be more efficient and useful at my job. I keep my DON in the loop of everything going on in the facility even general perceptions of staffing, management--including her--and working conditions without ever naming names. I want my staff to feel like they can be truthful without fear of retaliation. I'd rather work on finding solutions than wasting time and energy on pointing fingers. My nurse told me of all the DONs supposed chatter this past Friday after our shift ended while we were walking to the parking lot. I'm off on the weekends so I plan on having a meeting with the DON on Monday to discuss what was supposedly said and get her side of the story, if any. I'm sure I will find some truth in the middle of both stories and will ask for advice on any areas that she feels I could improve upon. I still value her expertise, knowledge, and dedication to resident care in the end as a seasoned professional nurse. As a person though, she may have been knocked down a peg in my eyes.

Have any of you experienced this kind of situation with your DON or management as a whole? How did you handle it? What advice would you give? Thanks for taking the time to read my long situation.

[DHawkinsrn]

I myself have had the very same experience. I handled it wrong. Don't ask her about something you heard. Always look at the person telling you what someone else said. Pay attention that person may have something to gain from telling you that. You may also gain an enemy in your boss by confronting her.