Is there a nurse manager who will help?

sl.taylor · Feb 2, 2013

I am a RN to BSN student and have been given an assignment to interview a nurse manager. I initially ran into some problems with my PC and now am having a hard time finding someone to interview so the assignment is already due. I'm hoping that a nurse manager in this forum can help me by answering the following questions.

What led you to your current role as a manager?

How long have you practiced in this position?

How do you work on team building with your team?

How do handle conflict between your nurses?

Do you miss bedside nursing?

Describe some of the skills, educational preparation, and special abilities necessary to be

successful in this position (personal and professional):

Describe some of the responsibilities and requirements of your role.

Discuss some of the challenges you deal with in the position.

How do you provide feedback to nursing staff as well as other work professionals?

What are your initials?

This will really help me out. Thank you in advance for any help you can provide.

nurseprnRN, BSN, RN · Feb 2, 2013

We get these requests a lot, so if there are any other students out there who might get this kind of assignment, listen up:

Part of your faculty's reason for giving you this assignment is to get you to go out there and speak to an RN face to face. A big email blast is not a substitute for shoe leather. AN is not Google.

See, in nursing, you have to learn to speak to a lot of people you would not otherwise encounter; you might find yourself out of your comfort zone. This is part of nursing, a huge part. An anonymous respondent online, well, you don't really know who we are, do you? We could be the truck driving guy living next door for all you know.

So if all you do about learning new things is "Go to the keyboard and hit send," then you are limiting your chances of actual learning a valuable skill you will need all your working life.

That said: Where will you find a nurse manager? Think outside the (computer) box. All of these will have nurse managers.

Local hospital: go to the staff development/inservice education office and ask one of them. They value education and will be happy to chat or to hook you up with someone who is.

Go to the public health department downtown. Ditto.

Go to the local school and ask to speak to a school nurse. Ditto.

Go to a local clinic / physician/NP office. Ditto.

Go to the local jail and ask to speak to the nurse there. Ditto.

Notice all of these say, "Go to..." and not "Email..." Remember that part about meeting new people face to face and comfort zone.

Go!

I don't know what "problems with your PC" would have to do with it, but you should be able to go to your clinical site and... ASK A NURSE MANAGER. Or to any other hospital, clinic, public health agency, or facility in town.(And next time, start sooner.)

nurseprnRN, BSN, RN · Feb 2, 2013

If this is about doing an interview for a late assignment... see the response to that one. Note that threads on AN do not stay next to each other, so now, "next post" is about something else entirely.

nurseprnRN, BSN, RN · Feb 2, 2013

Already answered this in the General Nursing area. Nurse managers can be found in all of the settings listed below.

We get these requests a lot, so if there are any other students out there who might get this kind of assignment, listen up:

Part of your faculty's reason for giving you this assignment is to get you to go out there and speak to an RN face to face. A big email blast is not a substitute for shoe leather. AN is not Google.

See, in nursing, you have to learn to speak to a lot of people you would not otherwise encounter; you might find yourself out of your comfort zone. This is part of nursing, a huge part. An anonymous respondent online, well, you don't really know who we are, do you? We could be the truck driving guy living next door for all you know.

So if all you do about learning new things is "Go to the keyboard and hit send," then you are limiting your chances of actual learning a valuable skill you will need all your working life.

That said: Where will you find a nurse? Think outside the (computer) box.

Local hospital: go to the staff development/inservice education office and ask one of them. They value education and will be happy to chat or to hook you up with someone who is.

Go to the public health department downtown. Ditto.

Go to the local school and ask to speak to a school nurse. Ditto.

Go to a local clinic / physician/NP office. Ditto.

Go to the local jail and ask to speak to the nurse there. Ditto.

Notice all of these say, "Go to..." and not "Email..." Remember that part about meeting new people face to face and comfort zone.

Go!

(and get started earlier next time, no idea what having PC problems has to do c this)

sl.taylor · Feb 2, 2013

Dear GrnTea,

All my classes are online so this approach didn't seem so off base... and thats why not having my laptop presented such a problem. I do get your point about talking to a real person. When I added the request for help, I didn't think about the potential for responders to be impersonating nurses. In retrospect it was probibly not the best idea. I have been an ADN nurse for 19 years, am not afraid of talking to people and the problem is not being able to find a nurse, I have friends and family who are nurses, it is finding a nurse "manager" who is willing to take the time for an interview on such short notice.

Thank you for responding

nurseprnRN, BSN, RN · Feb 2, 2013

Excellent. Then you can find one. You'll get more out of it anyway, though once you identify one face to face you can always ask if s/he'd rather answer by email than interview. I'm betting s/he will say, "Just ask me your questions now," LOL. :)