What do you look for in a Nurse Supervisor?

[Leelee2]

I am just curious what traits/styles of management other nurse's look for in Nurse Supervisors? I like to see Supervisor/Unit Managers/DON's on the floors, observing the flow of the units. Assisting on the floors when and where needed, with admits or emerg. situations, etc. Would be reassuring to see some of them stay beyond 5 pm, as other floor nurse's stay about two hours past shift end to finish up work. Just doesn't seem to happen much where I work...Maybe my ideals are too high or too unrealistic?

[ceridwyn]

Honesty, and someone who does not rant and rave, puts down staff left right and centre never getting the true story.

[Love_2_Learn]

I'd much rather respect my supervisor than like them. Respect is earned in so many ways too, including the example of assisting on the unit when times are desperate, being calm and acting like an adult, and not sharing confidential information about employees with others. Respect is earned and a good supervisor is very hard to come by. Sigh.

[tewdles, RN]

I am interested in managers who understand that a BIG part of their job is to make sure that the staff are successful at their patient care duties...who understand that in order to manage a group of people and department they must support that staff emotionally and professionally.

I want to work for managers who are more interested in us working together to achieve common goals than they are in threatening those who don't meet the goals. I prefer managers who empower and grow their staff...who are not threatened by the skills and strengths of the team members.

Yup...and the respect thingie...it's gotta be there in good measure...if you sense a relative lack of respect for management in your department you are in for a bumpy ride...

[anonymurse]

The best nursing sups are there because they know everything, know everyone, have their values straight and act decisively. The worst are there because they were demoted and management can't figure out what else to do with them.

[PostOpPrincess, BSN, RN]

TRUE and I mean TRUE leadership abilities.

GOOD LUCK with that. A natural leader is a one in a milliion....

[Jules A, MSN]

My favorites are excellent nurses that have been willing to actually help out on the floor when necessary. My least favorite had little floor experience, left every day at 5pm no matter what the state of staffing or acuity and couldn't have found the med-room with a map.

[rn undisclosed name]

Communicating with their staff is a big deal if only because it conveys that they actually care about their employees and then their unit that they manage.

My previous manager had a terrible repoire with most of the staff. Unless you were one of the few favored employees she hardly spoke to you much less acknowledged your preference. Basically you had to kiss her a$$ to be one of the favorites and that is just something I refuse to do. This happened at all levels from the secretary to staff nurses.

I'm sure it didn't help that she was only a staff nurse for 2 years before being promoted to manager.

Another biggie is that if they are the manager they need to confront the individual who there is an issue with. Her style of dealing with something was having a meeting and scolding the whole staff for one thing that an individual did. For example, she had told a staff nurse they needed to do CHF teaching on a pt b/f they were discharged. This particular nurse blew up at her and asked her when she was going to find the time to do that because she was just too busy. Basically that is insubordination. None of the other nurses would do that. It would just be added to the list of things that needed to be done b/f discharge and if you don't get to it on your shift then it can be passed on. There was a meeting about how if you were instructed to do something you don't have an attitude about it. This happened twice a month in our meetings.

[Jules A, MSN]

Another biggie is that if they are the manager they need to confront the individual who there is an issue with. Her style of dealing with something was having a meeting and scolding the whole staff for one thing that an individual did.

I agree 100% but have never had one that didn't do the "blanket admonishments". Personally they do little more than **** me off for wasting my time. If I'm doing something inappropriate please tell me don't subject my peers to that drivel.

[Truth66]

One of the most important things that I look for is a Nurse Supervisor who is not a Bully and actually respects their staff. I worked with one nurse manager who was an exellent coach and a cheerleader to her staff. If it weren't for her I would never have taken all the extra courses that I did. Interestingly, when she was our DON, there was very little overtime paid out.

On the flip side I've worked with some nurse managers who are completely incompetent, negligent, abusive and compulsive liars. Interestingly when these types of managers have been around, overtime costs have gone through the roof, because people don't think twice about booking off of work.

[IHeartPeds87]

A couple things I would want in a nursing supervisor:

- One who attempts to understand the realities of floor nursing by picking up a shift every once in awhile. It doesn't have to be that often (once a month, etc) but enough for them to truly see what the issues on the floor are.

- One who is an advocate for the rest of the nurses on the team. As a nurse I would hope that my supervisor had my back, instead of blaming everything on me!

[MinnieMomRN]

One who has his/her nurse's backs -- supports the staff needs v. other department's push-back.

One who is advanced in practice to function in the Rapid Response role/ handle the "hard" situations... and answer the phone and arrive on the floor when needed.

Gives frequent check-ins with the staff to see what the issues are on the floor.

One who understands that patient accuity can sometimes trump the actual nurse/patient ratio.

Those are just off the top of my head