Managers staffing???

[nimbex]

With the recent threads on short staffing and exhaused nurses.... led me to wonder...

When you are short, and it's barely safe, how often does management in your unit take any kind of assignment to lessen the load?

In 5 years my manager never has ONCE even helped with any type of patient care... I was the assistant for a year and a half and jumped in all the time... to the point of burn out... So now I'm back in staffing...where I belong.

[prn nurse]

I've never seen a manager assist with patient care. I wonder if the size of their units has an impact on the ones who do jump in and assist. Most of the managers in hospitals I've worked in had 3-4 or 5 units they were responsible for.

If a manager only had one unit, then I could see how they might jump in.

My current manager was just given her 4th unit. She is responsible for CCU , Tele, a medical unit, and an ENT.

[oramar]

I used to see this all the time in the old days of one manager to one unit. Now, with multiunit managers it is an impossibility in most places. I am sure it still happens.

[renerian, BSN, RN]

Two comments I do have to fill in for my boss or when she is busy. I take referrals, do insurance verification and schedule visits or handle whatever happens to be at the end of the phone call. I am required to know all regs and ed staff and do everything my boss does except I am not paid if I help.................

She on the other hand, and i like her as a person don't get me wrong, will not help out if we are swamped. She will not touch a chart, intervene for one of our phone calls if we are on another line, She just won't. Countless people ask why we have to do her job but she does not help us. I just say I don't really know but that is a good question .You need to ask her that....

I believe in helping where ever I can so I don't mind helping her but sometimes it would be nice if we all thought that way....

Good thoughts here people,

renerian

[CashewLPN, LPN]

my manager only covers inpatient rehab.... she's never worked when we were short.... the assistant mgrs(theres 2 of them) never even come out of their office... and are always slamming the door when we pass by, and, if you look in to see if anyone is in there, they're always eating with their feet up...(well not always.... sometimes they're talking and laughing... with the feet still up)

only once have I seen the asst mgr work the floor, and that was after a battle with the ADN.... she only worked 3 hours, and went home immediately afterwards....

--Barbara

[Mattigan, RN]

I wear scrubs, the VP of nusing wears white uniforms and she answers call lights as she walks down a unit hall. I'm Peds Nurse Manager,as well as Peds clinical spec. for ER and on call for NICU stabilazation & transport. I teach community classes through the hospital public ed. center and am Peds advisor to BSN and PN program. I instruct PALS,NRP and ENPC at several regional centers as well as tasks forces and more committees than I can name and I love to work the floor.I also collaborate weekly with DA office on abuse cases as part of my job description.

My friend is Nurse Manager of ICU, Heart Cath Lab,Cardiology and Neurology Inpt and Outpt. serves on several state BN committees and is officer in Ok. Nurse Exce. Assoc. She wears scrubs and works the floor ,too.

My assist. is AD RN who is a great help but has taken her a year or more to be familiar enough with my job to help me with the NM crap. The other nurses on the units are great at their jobs but do not have the nursing management skills or knowledge to help with the "crap"and they are grateful for that. I have a CNA who is in nursing (BSN) program who is a great help with alot of things but realizes it takes more than snappy organizational skills and is more interested in developing herself (and rightly so). She has a charge position here when she graduates.

Sorry but nurse managers have no businesss getting away from the bedside and making themselves distant from the other nurses on the unit. It's bad for nurses and the patients. There is time if it is important to you.

[nimbex, RN]

so what I gather is that there are a few who do, some, have too many responsibilities to be able to....

My manager has 17 ICU beds to manager, I was the assistant for a bit. I can verrify that the time is there, and if staffing is barely safe, the patient, not the paperwork should be the priority. Having been in management I am aware of all the responsibilities... I was wondering what other facilities do. Is anyone's manager required to be staffing before beds are closed?

We have some managers who will jump in for a few minutes, some for a full 12 hr. shift if needed. In 5 years, mine has never. It's hard to take when everyone has 3 ICU patients each, they're bringing up a balloon pump, and you're told "it's not ideal, but try to do it". and the manager in the other ICU closes beds and staffs when needed. It's very inconsistant.

For those of you who have managers that help out in a pinch, give them a hug and a thanks... they DO NOT have to help in many facilities, and when they do, they are behind on their work as a result.

Thanks for the info... an

[Furball]

Originally posted by mario_ragucci

I am totally out of order here, but what if the manager asked you for help with their work? Could you help them? Often, i have wanted to offer my organizational skills to the Nurse Manager because I am pretty snappy with that. the nurse manager is not dressed in any kind of scrub. What about charge nurses? I've seen some mucky-muck from them at times. It all depends.

Why would she/he need "help" sipping coffee sitting in meetings???? ....

[puddlesrn]

I am manager of a 12 bed ICU unit. I work staff quite a bit. Schedule myself 2 12 hr shifts a week when im needed. I do assessments, pass meds, baths, turns anything else that nonmanagement staff does. I dont mind at all to do this but sometimes the stress is too much. I have to report to the DON if my management work is not done. I feel that all mangers should do this because this is how they keep the respect of their staff and it also keeps them in touch with what the staff is going through too. If i need help with any of my management work they are more that happy to help. I have a great staff. cant say that for the hospital but my staff is great.

[Furball]

Originally posted by puddlesrn

I am manager of a 12 bed ICU unit. I work staff quite a bit. Schedule myself 2 12 hr shifts a week when im needed. I do assessments, pass meds, baths, turns anything else that nonmanagement staff does. I dont mind at all to do this but sometimes the stress is too much. I have to report to the DON if my management work is not done. I feel that all mangers should do this because this is how they keep the respect of their staff and it also keeps them in touch with what the staff is going through too. If i need help with any of my management work they are more that happy to help. I have a great staff. cant say that for the hospital but my staff is great.

You sound like one helluva NM! Wish more were like you....

[Nurse Ratched, RN]

In the past few months, our facility decreased the dollars for hours devoted to education positions. While this is not a good thing, it did have the positive effect of forcing the education folks to pick up hours on the floor every pay period and get back to the bedside. They now have a much more realistic background from which to train new staff.

[suni, BSN, RN]

my manager helps out of the floor every day also but she is the only manager in my facility to do so, middle management is the worse job in the world, why anyone would want it is beyond me and while i have some trouble with managers on the whole i respect the fact that they do a job few other people want

[night owl]

never!