why

[hollydoll]

why are hospitals adding more and mor nursing managers and directoors adding more and more layers, if they just had one good manager who could do the work? and whats the need for a bed coordinator?

[hollydoll]

House Supervisors (and bed coordinators) are performing a few specific functions that overlap with managment functions ... but don't do many of the other aspects of the management role.

In many cases, the supervisors are like "charge nurses" on a large scale. They coordinate some of the hour-by-hour events with a hospital-wide focus much like a charge nurse does for a specific unit. Just as a charge nurse is "kind of" a manager, few people would say that a charge nurse is the same thing as a head nurse. A similar comparison can be made between a house supervisor and a DON or senior-level manager.

House supervisors don't hire, fire, manage a budget, establish department goals, establish priorities, oversee supply acquisition and use, etc. -- many of the functions that distiguish management roles from any other. In most cases, house supervisors are implementing the policies, procedures, and priorities set by others -- not establishing them for themselves. They are the implementors for the higher level administrators.

On most hospital organizational charts, the house supervisors are a "staff position," not a "line" position. That says a lot.

Don't get me wrong. I have great respect for house supervisors -- and have shared an office suite with them at my current hospital. I am in a similar position organizationally -- a staff position rather than a line position -- and I know the difference between the two.

llg

obviously different hospitals do things differently. Our supervisors are managers. and we do assist in formulaton of policies and most of our supervisors have many more years in management that the day managers we are on the same line leveles as the managers

[Tweety, BSN, RN]

i agree but don't understand why people think supervisor are not managers

I would just do it on a relief basis, for sick calls and vacations. My primary job is at the time was a charge nurse/floor staff nurse. That's why I say I've never been in management. We have house supervisors only for 3-11 and 11-7 and utilize them as llg does. They aren't really involved in the intimate details of the day to day operations of the units, and don't do the things that managers and directors do. They don't go to manager's meetings, etc.

[hollydoll]

I would just do it on a relief basis, for sick calls and vacations. My primary job is at the time was a charge nurse/floor staff nurse. That's why I say I've never been in management. We have house supervisors only for 3-11 and 11-7 and utilize them as llg does. They aren't really involved in the intimate details of the day to day operations of the units, and don't do the things that managers and directors do. They don't go to manager's meetings, etc.

Our supervisors do go to management meetings, do sit on committees, do participate in disciplinary actions and yearly evalauation, and do si in on interviews. we are involved in the intimate details of all the units and our supervisors have much more experience in management thatn the day managers. Most of our supervisors are masters prepared where the day managers are not. In fact there are some who dont even have an associates degree.

[llg, PhD, RN]

Our supervisors do go to management meetings, do sit on committees, do participate in disciplinary actions and yearly evalauation, and do si in on interviews. we are involved in the intimate details of all the units and our supervisors have much more experience in management thatn the day managers. Most of our supervisors are masters prepared where the day managers are not. In fact there are some who dont even have an associates degree.

OK ... so maybe in your hospitals the supervisers have more of a management role than in most places. As you say, different hospitals do things a little differently.

However, notice the words you use to describe the management functions in the post above. Your supervisors "go to" the meetings and "sit on" committees, but they are not in charge of functins those activities control. They "participate" in disciplanary actions and "sit in" on interviews. So do a lot of people (e.g. educators) -- but that doesn't make them managers. Participating in something is very different than being the one responsible for it.

Also, educational level has nothing to do with it.

Either a person has budgetary control, hiring/firing control, etc. or they don't.

llg