Need nurse leaders...

[cgwrn]

Hello All-

I recently accepted a position as the Nurse Executive for a psych hospital and I am struggling to recruit nursing leaders (I need 2-3 nursing supervisors and a manager). I am curious what strategies have been used to recruit in the past.

Thanks!

[jadelpn, LPN, EMT-B]

I am a firm believer in seeing what talent you already possess. If you have amazing nurses on staff, then use them in supervisory roles. It does wonders for a unit when the ability to move up to supervisory roles is a reality.

If you have great psych techs, use one of them (or rotate) as a lead tech. If you utilize LPN's, one could be a leader a shift, or whatever your thought process is on when a supervisor is going to work.

Finally, if there is mostly LPN's (or even a few RN's) make one of them your manager. Preferably the one with the most time in. It is beyond a valuable resource to have nurses who are invested in success, have motivation to keep the unit culture positive and sound, and knows the unit inside and out.

And not to be left out of the loop, choose a couple of your current staff to mentor. If you are taking nurses off the floor into management/supervisory roles, then any new floor nurses or techs that you hire can be mentored by people who are invested in a team work concept, and the overall culture of the unit you are trying to achieve.

Because psych in my opinion is something that you either love or hate with little in between, I would not be opposed to thinking about newer graduates as staff nurses. With mentoring. Because most nurses who are into psych know that pretty early on.

Best wishes, and let us know how it goes!

[Jules A, MSN]

The best director of nursing and nurse managers I have worked with have come from the floor also. At one place I worked they hired an out of state person with a supposedly impressive CV from an online, recruiter search and it was a disaster. They had no clue about the local culture, no clue how to work the units, and clearly had not ever been a hands on nurse. Come to find out their resume was peppered by advanced degrees from less than impressive online universities and a long list of 1 year stints at different positions which should have overshadowed the salivating that took place over this person's DNP designation.

[Orca, ADN, ASN, RN]

Don't be afraid to delegate. I have seen far too many nurse managers run themselves crazy because they feel responsible for everything, so they try to do it all themselves so that it will be done right. Take the time to determine what each individual on your staff does well (and not so well), as this will determine what duties and tasks you assign to each of them. If you must interview applicants from outside to be leaders, consider whether each person has been in a similar environment, or if he/she seems to have skills and knowledge that would be useful in your current situation. Don't select people whose management styles run counter to your own, as this creates more problems than it solves. It doesn't mean that you must agree on everything, but if you are a calm manager and your charge nurse is an in-your-face type of manager, this sends the staff mixed messages about what management expects. Assess as best you can what the person's leadership style is, and whether it would be compatible with the people you have on your staff.

The best leaders take advantage of the talent around them, they don't pretend to have all the answers, and they are open and honest with the people who work for them. Grant reasonable requests that don't interfere with your ability to deliver care. Openly solicit staff ideas, and implement the good ones. Your staff will understand that you sometimes have to make difficult decisions, and that they won't like everything that you decide. Treat them with respect and dignity and give them as much of a stake in the outcome as you can, and you won't have a lot of problems when you must make unpopular changes.

I have made it a personal policy not to make changes that affect a particular area of operation without first discussing it with the people who know the job best and would have to directly deal with any changes. It may save you a mistake, bring up a point you hadn't considered, or keep you from inadvertently creating a new problem while trying to solve a current one. Of course, the exception is when you are given a directive to do something a certain way, but you still explain to your people what is happening and why, and then discuss with them how best to implement the changes. Give staff choices when it is practical. Nobody is more frustrated than the nurse who believes that her hands are tied by leadership and he/she has no say in what happens. Dictatorial leaders who rule by fear may get the job done for a while, but eventually it catches up with them.