Managers? How many hats do you wear?

[Hrtnurse14]

I would love to get some feedback regarding roles and responsibilities. Let me preface this by saying I work at a 60 bed hospital. We have an ED, OB, ICU/IMCU, and 2 floors of medical and surgical patients. I work under a director of my unit who also is over another ancillary department.

Recently I became manager after working in the unit for 5 years working my way up to a full-time charge nurse and now manager. My role varies from day to day based on staffing and census in our unit. When we are short I take a team. This doesn't happen often, but at times I do. More often, I work in a charge role helping the nurses out and fielding where patients are going or helping them get admitted as they come. Intermittent meetings to act in the role as leadership on core measures team, inpatient satisfaction, doing payroll, quality team meetings as well as nurse leadership meetings. I also serve as the hospital champion for computerized charting. We have no hospital staff development or educator so I am in charge of education for my unit as well.

I realize the structure of managerial duties may be very different at a larger facility but would like to know if this is common practice. Also, if I were to look at transferring to a larger facility, would I be overlooked due to coming from a smaller one? Any feedback from rural nurse managers or from larger facilities would be appreciated.

[kayern]

I have 24/7 responsibility for my unit. Daily activities, budget, personnel management, hiring, administrative, supervisory,you name it I do it! I feel as if I have 100 kids, patients + staff = 100 kids!

[stephva1008]

I think you do more hands on direct nursing care than most managers. I don't necessarily think that is a bad thing. When talking about your resume, emphasize metrics/outcomes. Maintained operating margin of 8-10%, managed 20 FTE's, Lean Six Sigma PI project saved the unit x number of dollars, Press Ganey scores in top decile for ___# of years, core measures.... With a smaller unit/hospital, you will wear more hats. If you go to a larger hospital, you probably won't be expected to work the floor, most of the managers at my hospital do only in a crisis situation. My duties involve: staffing unit, schedule, maintaining productivity numbers, managing/disciplining staff, recruitment/hiring, service recovery, tracking metrics/core measures, education (we don't have a unit educator either), serving as a magnet team leader, human rights advocate, research council chair, and various other hospital committees. So, just remember to focus on outcomes and numbers if you're working on a resume and emphasize what you've learned and how you've contributed to the bottom line and to quality patient care. You can be a great manager in a small hospital as well as a large one. Keep us posted!

[Havin' A Party!, ASN, RN]

Too many to mention.