First Staff Meeting as Management

[loveleaRNing]

I am a new Nurse Manager and have scheduled my first staff meeting this week. I have never lead a staff meeting before and would appreciate and input about how to lead an effective meeting. We are planning to change the staffing schedule and I need to discuss many issues the unit is currently having. The culture in the dialysis unit is negative and the staff have been without leadership for a long time. I don't want to appear nervous or show and weakness, this group will eat me alive!

[kbrn2002, ADN, RN]

Your very first meeting as a manger and you are expected to discuss changing schedules? Yikes, that sounds brutal! For many employers, no matter the setting, their schedule is the one thing they can count on to be somewhat consistent. If you come in all gung-ho about all the changes that need to be made before any of the staff get a chance to even meet you much less know you I can almost guarantee you will not be very popular.

Can't you have some sort of meet and greet meeting first before diving right into changing up the whole place? Maybe ease into the changes on the horizon and ask for staff input on changes they would like to see implemented before making any big announcement like "this is how it has to be."

I understand your hands might be tied here if the changes are coming from above you, but you will certainly be the the one feeling the fallout as the person responsible for announcing any changes. Again, ease into any changes if at all possible. Even unhappy staff are resistant to broad, sweeping change without much notice and unless those scheduling changes magically include hiring more staff [which I doubt] the current staff will probably NOT be happy.