Desperate for advice!!!

[hhrhrn41, RN]

I'm posting here in hopes that a nurse manager can steer me in the right direction.

First off, let me say that I realize that a nurse managers job is not easy and I'm sure is very stressful. With that being said could someone please give me some advice on what to do about a nurse manager who truly has no business being one.

She is everything a nurse manager should not be!! Everyone that I work with has major issues with her,but no one seems to know where to turn. Without getting into much detail(unless i can PM someone) here are a few things that we have issues with....

1. she is either always in her office, off the unit at a meeting or not even there that day(she seems to take more days off for whatever reason, but god forbid if us staff nurses call off more than twice in a 6month period for even a legit reason. we get written up). She just NEVER seems to be available for us!!!

2. not once has she ever offered to help on the floor when we are short staffed. to even help giving a pain pill to someone would be appreciated or to take off a few orders. She used to be a staff nurse on our unit, but it seems as though since she became a NM it is "beneath" her to lend us a hand.

3. The unit morale is awful. Constant complaining about her and how everyone wishes she would just step down. Everyone is at each others throats b/c of the way she doesn't handle things and we seem to take it out on one another instead. She's constantly telling us that the morale on the unit stinks however she has no clue that it's due to her lack of leadership,caring and lack of respect for her staff!!

4. We have actually been blamed for things that were in fact her own fault but she doesnt want to get in trouble by upper management so she lets the "peon" staff nurse and even her assistant manager take the blame.:angryfire

I could go on and on but I hope that I have painted a clear picture of what she is like. And please don't flame me b/c I'm sure you NM's do have a difficult job but geez... Can we poor staff nurses be shown some respect and positive reinforcement for the great jobs that most of us do??!!!

[llg, PhD, RN]

There are people all over the world ... in every line of work ... who "don't like their boss" and think they could do a better job. Until we have heard your boss's side of the story, we can't know for sure whether you are being fair to her or not.

That said, you have a couple of choices:

1. You can offer to work with her to help solve the unit's problems. Join a committee. Form a committee. etc. Ask her how you can help her solve the unit's problems. Get to know her better and be open to learning her side of the situation. For example, all those meetings might be mandatory for her job.

2. You can simply lie low until things calm down, blow over, and/or come to a head and a crisis occurs that forces some change.

3. You can choose to be a rabble-rouser and get everybody all stirred up about your complaints. Sometimes, that works. But many times, the institution ends up viewing you as dangerous to have around and/or a detriment to the good running order of the unit and people like that often end up having to leave. It can work sometimes ... but it is a dangerous. Trust me, I have done it (and lost) before. In fact, I am currently in danger of making that same mistake again.

4. You can leave. If you don't like your current job situation, you can find another.

The bottom line is that it rarely pays off to try to work against your boss. You either work WITH your boss to try to improve things ... you cause trouble for your boss and probably lose your job unpleasantly ... or you voluntarily resign before you do something to give yourself a bad reputation.

Make your decision and then be prepared to live with the consequences.

llg