As a Bedside Nurse, What is More Important to you in a Manager?

[klone, MSN, RN]

Do you feel like it's more important that your manager can be relied on as an expert in the care you provide on your unit, that she is someone who could jump in and take a patient assignment if necessary; or do you feel like it's more important that she is a skilled leader (by skilled, I mean compassionate to the staff, holds people accountable, is fair, transparent, will advocate for you, and is a good communicator)?

Would you want the second type of person to be your manager, even if her background is in a completely different type of nursing? Or is it more important to you that she understands the type of nursing you do, and would be able to jump in and work the floor if needed?

[RNperdiem, RN]

I am lucky in that the manager is a nurse who is skilled at the tasks of management. She hires well, oversees orientation, communicates effectively and is fair in her policies. She also has power to appeal to higher levels of management and other medical services outside of nursing to advocate for her staff. 

In addition, there are three assistant nurse managers who each have their admin. tasks (staffing, competencies, education), but staff one or two shifts a week and are often in charge. They will absolutely jump in and take an assignment if there is a shift in acuity or we are running short. I have worked with one of them for over 20 years, and they are skilled in bedside nursing.

So, even though staffing has been rough lately, I do have both types of management. 

[JKL33]

Former bedside here.

I personally do not understand (at all) the number of nurses who want managers to prove they care by working the floor.

My sole and #1 wish is that they level with people. In general that they are genuine. This one thing has the potential to take care of a lot of other problems. Gaslighting? Not genuine. Toxic positivity in the face of real problems? Not genuine. Constantly acting like nurses are the problem? Not genuine. Gossiping with staff members about other staff members? Not genuine. Giving mediocre evals (without at least explaining if it was a corporation-level decision)? Not genuine. Treating people increasingly poorly as they become beat down?? Obviously not genuine.

2 hours ago, klone said:

Would you want the second type of person to be your manager, even if her background is in a completely different type of nursing?

Oh, interesting. I thought you were going to ask whether it mattered if they were a nurse at all. Which in my opinion that does matter.

Whether they have experience in a particular specialty? That's a tougher question. I don't think they should be rejected (for the job or socially amongst the staff) because they come from somewhere else. OTOH, if they walk out to the desk while everyone is in rooms and don't even have the capability of recognizing [totally abnormal thing showing on a central monitor] that level of unfamiliarity is a problem--not because they need to be the one to do something about it, but because it's just too much of a disconnect/gap to probably be effective with that group of staff. ?  However, the person/candidate could always choose to learn even if it involved something like studying for the specialty certification.

[JKL33]

Add: I would take a good-person-nurse as a manager over a specialty expert with significant social/emotional weaknesses every time.

[mimibrown, ADN, BSN]

Yes I want a manager to provide patient care when we are short staffed. I think it shows that you care about what is going on and being helpful to the staff. I do think it’s important that you have experience in the area or relevant experience. 
 

One big thing I would love is if the manager actually managed poor performing employees. It’s demoralizing to work your butt off while some of your coworkers slack off in a big way. Constant call outs, rampant drama and chaos, gossiping, multiple long breaks, overall crappy attitude. Please, do something with those employees! How do you have a job when you call out weekly? I don’t get it!

[HiddenAngels]

Meh. I guess we can’t choose both. I think both are necessary.  I could care less if you can hit the floor but  have no leadership/organizational skills and I would not want you to be in a closed door office  being friendly and a fair while watching us drown.

[LibraSunCNM, BSN, MSN, CNM]

I'd rather a strong leader, every day.  I've never worked on a unit where the manager ever jumped in and helped by taking an assignment.  I can see how that would be helpful/admirable and make staff feel like the manager really "gets it," but there are other ways to demonstrate that without literally taking an assignment.  I've worked with spineless managers and really strong ones, and the impact that the strong leader's skills made on the culture of the unit was infinitely better, and the tightness of the team/staff retention was exponentially higher.

[HiddenAngels]

20 minutes ago, LibraSunCNM said:

.  I've never worked on a unit where the manager ever jumped in and helped by taking an assignment. .

I have and it was worthless.  They picked and chose whatever they were going to do for that assignment, meaning they felt as though they did not have to provide the same level of care as we did.  They felt as though they were just covering until someone else showed up and they complained the entire time.  WEll no one ever showed and they split the assignment by giving us more patients and we ended up doing the work the mgr refused to do.

[JBMmom, MSN, NP]

I would also take a good leader over someone who will take on patient care. My current manager is one of the worst I have dealt with, in any profession, in my careers. Says what you want to hear to your face and then does the exact opposite. No leadership skills AT ALL, a complete inability to deal with conflict or inept employees. I don't need a manager to take on patient care, if they have created a unit of competent nurses that work collaboratively and feel supported that's enough. We can deal with a lot of short staffing if we feel we're supported in the right ways. 

[LibraSunCNM, BSN, MSN, CNM]

6 minutes ago, JBMmom said:

I would also take a good leader over someone who will take on patient care. My current manager is one of the worst I have dealt with, in any profession, in my careers. Says what you want to hear to your face and then does the exact opposite. No leadership skills AT ALL, a complete inability to deal with conflict or inept employees. I don't need a manager to take on patient care, if they have created a unit of competent nurses that work collaboratively and feel supported that's enough. We can deal with a lot of short staffing if we feel we're supported in the right ways. 

THIS!  A conflict-averse manager is the absolute worst.  Dealing with people is probably the hardest aspect of the job (and why I know a lot of people don't want to get into management), but it's critical.

[TAKOO01, BSN]

On 5/24/2022 at 9:35 AM, mimibrown said:

One big thing I would love is if the manager actually managed poor performing employees. It’s demoralizing to work your butt off while some of your coworkers slack off in a big way. Constant call outs, rampant drama and chaos, gossiping, multiple long breaks, overall crappy attitude. Please, do something with those employees! How do you have a job when you call out weekly? I don’t get it!

Get out of my head! This is is exactly one of the major reasons why I just left a position. It's maddening. I'm not sure if they are afraid of these employees,  or best friends with them or they feel they can't replace the workers or  maybe they just don't care.

I didn't care so much about the gossip and attitude, which I can ignore, but when they call out and take long breaks, the work was dumped on me. Thats an absolute no.

Companies have to stop being cheap and start training managers. So many I have met in nursing are horrendous. (To be fair,  I have met some terrible managers in my pre nursing life).

[Tweety, BSN, RN]

I want it all, but first I prefer a manager that has management and leadership skills over the bedside.  

As time goes on, I do think a manager should become familiar with the basics of caring for the patient population they manage.

During the Omicron variant surge when dozens of nurses and ancillary staff were out with covid, where I work, managers needed to step up and do charge or take a patient assignment (as well as us working overtime).  I think a manager should have these skills as well.  But it shouldn't be an expectation on a day to day basis they work the floor.