Administrators are not our Parents

[Davey Do]

As children, we expected our primary caregivers, usually our parents, to provide for us and guide us. We expected to be reinforced as a result of positive behavior and chastised for negative behavior.

When we entered school, we expected the same from our teachers: provide for our learning needs, and guide intellectually and behaviorally.

Then, we entered the workforce and expected pretty much the same from our supervisors- guide us, allow us to possess the tools we need in order to do our job, give us money & reinforcement for doing our job, and critique areas in which we could improve.

These are general situations that don't always apply to the real world, as parents, teachers, and supervisors can have their issues, foibles, idiosyncrasies, and aberrancies which can foul up endeavors and goals. But the basic concepts are seemingly consensual.

Our powers are limited as children, students, and laborers, but our society allows certain freedoms and methods in order to deal with perceived problems. Sometimes those methods result in desired goals while other available methods done merely for appearance; are all for show.

If our parents and teachers pretty much fulfilled their responsibilities, we can suffer from cognitive dissonance if our supervisors act in ways foreign to our expectations. And if we attempt to right the situation through following suggested methods and realize they were all for show, well, that can be rather disheartening.

Ya know?

[Davey Do]

50 minutes ago, Davey Do said:

 we can suffer from cognitive dissonance if our supervisors act in ways foreign to our expectations.

When administrators at Wrongway Regional Medical Center did not follow protocol as stated, for example , in P&P or the Code of Ethics, a common belief was:

"Administration can do whatever it wants wherever it wants at anytime".

[Davey Do]

1 hour ago, Davey Do said:

If our parents and teachers pretty much fulfilled their responsibilities, we can suffer from cognitive dissonance if our supervisors act in ways foreign to our expectations.

Knowledge is power and if knowledge is taken away from us we can feel powerless. 

One supervisory method is for those in power to institute protocols or sanction actions without declared rationale. This can cause us to feel upsettedness without a point of reference, allowing those in charge to have the upper hand.

[Guest 1152923]

It's all about the money.  Administrators can be counted on every time to protect their interests: $$$.  I've seen this play out so many times with physician/nurse relations, even practice issues that directly impact patient safety.  Doctors (esp. surgeons) just need to rage a little, threaten to refer their patients elsewhere and the administrator caves like a house of cards everytime-pathetic!

[Davey Do]

12 minutes ago, morelostthanfound said:

It's all about the money. 

Bottom line agreement, MLTF.

However, adhering to certain standards, such as not putting personalities before principles, quality administrators can manipulate their media and meet goals without compromising their integrity.

[Guest 1152923]

6 hours ago, Davey Do said:

Bottom line agreement, MLTF.

However, adhering to certain standards, such as not putting personalities before principles, quality administrators can manipulate their media and meet goals without compromising their integrity.

They (administrators) adhere to certain expected and professional standards up to the point that it impacts the bottom line, $$$

[Davey Do]

6 minutes ago, morelostthanfound said:

They (administrators) adhere to certain expected and professional standards up to the point that it impacts the bottom line, $$$

Specific, empirically gained, objective factual evidence to support your premise, MLTF?

[JBMmom, MSN, NP]

2 hours ago, Davey Do said:

Specific, empirically gained, objective factual evidence to support your premise, MLTF?

VERY difficult to find, since no one's going to publish any study touting the delivery of substandard care in order to meet financial goals. However, we only need to look as far as the staffing ratios employed by most units. Conflicting data exist about the optimal nurse to patient ratio depending on where you look and your endpoint. We know that better staffing impacts morale, increases job satisfaction and ultimately better patient outcomes, but some papers do not say that justifies the cost.  We know that staffing impacts falls, but those data are often overlooked when another study shows nurses can take a larger assignment without "negative effects". 

Patient Falls: Association With Hospital Magnet Status and Nursing Unit Staffing (nih.gov)

Analyzing Staffing Trade-Offs on Acute Care Hospital Units | Article | NursingCenter

 

[SmilingBluEyes]

6 minutes ago, JBMmom said:

VERY difficult to find, since no one's going to publish any study touting the delivery of substandard care in order to meet financial goals. However, we only need to look as far as the staffing ratios employed by most units. Conflicting data exist about the optimal nurse to patient ratio depending on where you look and your endpoint. We know that better staffing impacts morale, increases job satisfaction and ultimately better patient outcomes, but some papers do not say that justifies the cost.  We know that staffing impacts falls, but those data are often overlooked when another study shows nurses can take a larger assignment without "negative effects". 

Patient Falls: Association With Hospital Magnet Status and Nursing Unit Staffing (nih.gov)

Analyzing Staffing Trade-Offs on Acute Care Hospital Units | Article | NursingCenter

 

took the words (more or less) out of my mouth. Thanks for the citations.

[Davey Do]

14 hours ago, Davey Do said:

Specific, empirically gained, objective factual evidence to support your premise, MLTF?

 

11 hours ago, JBMmom said:

VERY difficult to find since no one's going to publish any study

Empirical: based on, concerned with, or verifiable by observation or experience rather than theory or pure logic.

The request wasn't for factual information that was the result of an objective study- the request was for first hand examples of the aforementioned premise.

[Davey Do]

16 hours ago, morelostthanfound said:

 the bottom line, $$$

A manipulator can be defined as one who manipulates their media in order to achieve a desired goal.

Although the term manipulator connotes negativity, In a sense, we are all manipulators. Everyday, we manipulate something or someone in order to meet our wants and needs.

22 hours ago, Davey Do said:

adhering to certain standards... quality administrators can manipulate their media and meet goals without compromising their integrity.

In the early days of St. E's Hospital being bought out by a conglomerate to become Wrongway Regional Medical Center, there were many meetings with the CEO and other administrators.

St. E's was a so called non-profit business, good to a fault, that was losing money and the general employee consensus was that the conglomerate was an evil, money hungry for-profit giant ogre.

But one administrator said something along the lines of, "Every business is a for-profit business. Employees need to be paid, equipment must be bought and maintained, from those profits".

I could get behind that; that made sense to me. This administrator had just manipulated my way of thinking toward the positive. And, in the ensuing years, a lot of resources were put back into Wrongway in order to improve the facility and its services. Easily, MILLIONS of dollars were invested for improvements. For the first time in years, employees were given raises!

The actions matched the words and all was right in Mudville! The administrators were like my parents! When my parents said something would happen, it happened!

But, then, everything changed...

[NurseBlaq]

You know why I'm here. ?