Ever met an excellent nursing manager? Time to share!

Totone656 · Jul 27, 2003

Well, our Nurse Manager or PCC is GREAT! Becki has made me feel like I do know something! She is not only a mentor, but she listens to my concerns. When it comes to employees she is number one! Each of us can call her or come to her office at anytime!

Since we are working with the dying we have the added of stress of family dynamics and she helps us find the best solution to many problems of the family.

And ya know those durn Nursing Care Plans? Well, she is right there with us when we have to write them.

I have to say it again....Becki is GREAT!

Marie_LPN, RN, LPN, RN · Jul 27, 2003

This is the first nurse manager I have ever worked for, and I don't know how i got so lucky. Wanting time off and put in for it before the schedule deadline? There's a 99% chance you'll get it, even if she has to work in your place. Need someone to talk to, feeling frustrated? She's taken pains to make sure her office is a comfortable place for people to speak their minds (refreshments, comfortable chairs, serene setting, suggestion box).

There is a suggestion box for everything (meeting ideas and points, educational ideas, inservice suggestions, patient suggestions)and that's the second thing she checks when she gets here (emergencies are first of course). If you happen to get her on the phone about anything, she ALWAYS asks "hey how is work going for you? school? did your dad come up for a visit" (how she remembers what's going on in every person's life is beyond me, but she does).

Our Nurses' Week was beyond fun with games, prizes, a 15 minute massage, tons of food, and cards and gift certificates. We gave her a thank-you throw, which the next day we received a card of thanks for, and praise about how lucky she is to have such a great group to work with.

We get a thank you card once a month from her tacked up on the "bulletin door". Any sort of complementary letters from pts are posted up on the bulletin board with a "great job!" and if the letter sontains names, she highlights and underlines the names and the name of our dept.

When you see a boss going the extra ten miles like this woman does, this is an inspiration for everyone to work just as hard. And it doesn't seem that hard for the simple fact that it's rare to have a boss that works so hard and this well with her employees and the employees returning the favor.

And she is a big part of why this is the best job I have ever had.

sjoe · Jul 27, 2003

NEVER (in 12 different nursing jobs), though I have worked with good managers in non-nursing fields.

CseMgr1, ASN, RN · Jul 27, 2003

:kiss The best nursing manager I ever worked for was almost 30 years ago, in a small community hospital. She stood up for us and publicly threatened in front of the hospital's board of directors to resign, unless they brought nursing salaries in line with other area hospitals, who we could not even compete with. She was also instrumental in getting our hospital its first JACHO accreditation. She also didn't play handmaiden to a bunch of arrogant doctors, and did not kiss their a----, for I and the other nurses often witnessed her going nose-to-nose with more than one of them....and reading the Riot Act...right back to them.

But, more than anything (and excuse me, as I become teary-eyed as I write this): This lady was instrumental in me being able to survive nursing school, by tirelessly working with me, as I tried to juggle going to school full-time, working weekends, holidays and in-between....then having to call in unexpectedly, when a demanding instructor made an unscheduled and mandatory clinical assignment....or when my son (who was a baby at the time), woke up in the middle of the night of the morning I was supposed to go into work...screaming with a 104 fever (or worse)...and my husband was not available to take care of him.

And, I will never forget the moment when, the day after I found out I had passed the Boards....this lady walks into the nursing station..calls for everyone's attention, then proceeds to announce that I had passed...and how proud of me she is...as she pins my new name badge with "R.N." on my uniforn...and led the rest of the nursing staff in applause. She then hugged me...and we both cried!

I still have that old blue-and-white badge in my jewelry box, as a reminder as what a wonderful and proactive manager she was...and wish I could work for another one like her. :kiss

SmilingBluEyes · Jul 27, 2003

YES!!! she was excellent. Held everyone to a high standard---but especially herself.Cleaned up the unit of lazy no-gooders and gossips in quick time. She would not entertain gossip or tattle-telling---if you had a problem, you had better have proposed solutions also. And if you had a problem w/a coworker, you had better have had gone to her/him FIRST before knocking on her door. I loved working for someone who was consistent, demanding and fair. I miss it. She had guts but also cared about people. I have never worked for anyone like her since. Most are either wishy-washy puppets of administration or evil. Sad.

LaurieCRNP2002, MSN, RN, APRN · Jul 28, 2003

The manager of the ICU I currently work in meets the criteria for being an "excellent" manager. She cares about her staff and gives full authority to whoever is in charge when she is not there (or even if she is there but not charge nurse for the dayshift). She is very approachable, pro-education and just an all-around great person. I have to say that I'm very impressed with her, even though I've only been in the ICU for 2 months. I was thinking during my interview that if we could clone her, the profession of nursing would be in a much better state!

Laurie

Not-so-newly-minted MSN

Audreyfay · Jul 28, 2003

The nurse manager who I had who was the best was honest, sincere, hard-working, fair, no favoritism, never too busy to help, and a genuinely good person. She didn't know everything, but if she didn't, she would help us find out. Brings back such good memories.

live4today, RN · Jul 28, 2003

Originally posted by Kristi2377
I'm wondering if any of you have ever worked for a manager that just really had their stuff together, knew how to treat their employees, had the right finesse, went out of their way to ensure employee satisfaction? Anyone? If so, would you care to share just what it was that made them special?

Absolutely! I have had one really really good nurse manager that I wish I could take with me everywhere I work as a nurse. I worked full time on her unit for quite sometime at a military hospital. She always presented herself as a compassionate and caring nurse to the patients and her staff. She never asked anything of her staff that she wasn't willing to do herself. It's been years since I had her as a nurse manager, but I will always remember her fondly. :kiss

glascow · Jul 28, 2003