Administrative HELP!

Good evening all!

I am embarking on a NEW adventure and am soon going to be a nursing administrator. With this, I know, comes HUGE responsibility, which I am ready for! However... the nursing staff at my job seem to not care about the job. The morale is low. The biggest thing is that their documentation is not good... at all. After educating and counseling, I don't know what else to do. Write-ups are just NOT the answer. The reason I say this is because we are very limited on staff and do not have people applying for any positions.

Any advice/suggestions are welcome! Thank you so much in advance!!

If you treat your staff well and pay your staff well, you'll attract quality people. Actually, you'll attract all kinds of people and you can hire and retain the quality ones. Nothing else works, from what I've seen.

I understand that... it's just that I'll be going in to a staff that feels beaten down by previous management.

Wondering how you can assume "the nursing staff at my job seem to not care about the job."

EVERYONE cares about their job.

YOUR responsibility now is to find out why morale is so low and why you " do not have people applying for any positions. "

Agree with been.there.done.that. Why is the staff morale low? Why are they angry and don't care? What unit are you running? In your defense though, there are some nurses who just don't care and are plain bad apples and man they are really mean and angry, but most are hard-working people who wants to feel valued. I hope you are a blessing to the unit and turn things around.

Asking for feedback about why they are having charting difficulty, followed by actually following up on that feedback might be helpful. In my experience the best managers are those that invite open-ended conversations have a more positive effect than those who just lecture via mandatory meetings. Dialogue should be encouraged outside of meetings because some might not feel comfortable speaking in a large group.