Confronting a co-worker

[colleennurse]

Hi all. I am posting this to get some feedback on how I handled a situation. I am a staff RN on a med/surg/tele floor. Recently our unit has experienced a multitude of changes, and as we all know people hate change. Our clinical nurse leader (permanant day charge nurse) took the position to be our nurse manager and another nurse was made the clinical nurse leader. The new CNL is not as helpful and available as old one was. A lot of the nurses are complaining. One nurse in particular who can be very intimidating asked me how I felt about our new CNL. She has already gone to our manager and complained about him. She is a known complainer and I think that our manager does not take her very seriously because she complains about everything. So this nurse asked me if I would go to our manager with her and discuss our complaints. At 1st I said I would and then this nurse told me that she would go into the office with me but wanted me to do the talking. This made me feel very uncomfortable. This is/was to happen tomorrow (Wednesday). Anyway last night I laid in bed half the night thinking about this. So I decided that I would confront the CNL myself before going to our manager because that is what I would want if someone had an issue with me. The problem is that I choke up when I have to confronmt people about things and I have to train with the CNL for the next 2 days to train for charge nurse. So I sent the CNL an email. He is a very easygoing person. In the email I didn't mention anyones names I just stated that people were complaining and that I myself also felt that he is not always available to help out. Part of the concern is that my manager hired 12 new grads to start this summer and we will need his support during and after their orientation. I also stated in the email that I realize he may not be aware that people feel this way and it is only fair to let him know 1st before going to the manager. I don't know what kind of advise I am looking for, maybe just some reassurance that I hopefully handeled this in an adult manner?? Just looking for anyones thoughts! Thanks for letting me vent :)

[nickola]

I know this is an old thread, but I admire your wisdom in confronting the CNL the way you did. We recently had a similar situation w/our CNL, only the 2 most vocal (WHINERS) people on our unit went straight to the DON & complained. This resulted in our CNL being terminated, no questions asked- and she'd only been in that position a few weeks- not even enough time to get a feel for the job. If only the complainers had confronted our CNL, things might've been much different. Now one of the complainers is our CNL & it's AWFUL. No one trusts her b/c she runs to the DON w/everything w/out confronting the staff member, she also complains all the time about the DON behind her back, & she & her buddy complainer have made things quite intolerable in our dept. & morale is at rock bottom. Yes, it's true face-to-face confrontation might not be the best choice in all situations, & the known complainers (who are usually the pushy aggressive intimidating types) come across as being very abrupt - almost hostile at times & it's hard to take them seriously; but in this day & age there are other ways to 'communicate' & email is a great option.