I work in a subacute rehab facility. I'm a relatively new nurse with less than a year experience. Recently a position opened up at my facility for a unit manager and my supervisor and some coworkers recommended me to apply for it. I applied, went through the interview process and was hired into the position.
I know that I was hired for the position because I am a good, prudent, capable nurse. I also have non-healthcare related management experience.
I have seen numerous posts in the past saying that you aren't truly competent until a couple of years of clinical experience. I have been in my position for about a month and am doing fantastic, I feel confident, I know when I need to utilize my upper management team for support or opinions. My DON has complimented me and told me today that she is more impressed with me each and every day in the new position. A big part of why I was interested in the position is because I think that the experience looks great on a resume.
Is it possible that clinical competence/critical thinking just comes earlier for some?
Do you think moving into a management position early on in the career, and in a subacute setting looks positive on a resume, or could it be a negative in some instances? I am interested to hear other opinions as I build future educational and career goals for myself.
Specializes in Nurse Leader specializing in Labor & Delivery.
I just wondered if it is a negative to go into a management position early in the career if, for example, I wanted to move to acute care as a floor nurse and decided at any point NOT to continue on a management path.
Congrats on your new position! As a seasoned senior level manager in a previous life and a new nurse in this one, I understand your situation. However, I would advise exercising caution. An old military maxim states, you don't manage people, you manage things. People are to be lead. Problem is that leading some nurses is akin to herding passive-aggressive cats.
Sour Lemon is right. If you have good upper management to lean on, this is all very doable. Otherwise you might find yourself a scapegoat for blame. Problem solving should be on par with the DON's goals and facility director's vision. I'd try to focus on getting 'buy-in' from the top and bottom when you enact changes at the unit level, that way you have a chair if the music stops.
I haven't had any naysayers so to speak. I work in a very supportive environment and do know when to get help. I work closely with another manager for the same unit who has decades of clinical experience and has been a huge mentor to me. I just wondered if it is a negative to go into a management position early in the career if, for example, I wanted to move to acute care as a floor nurse and decided at any point NOT to continue on a management path.
I think your success is partially related to it being a sub-acute environment, as you stated. This in no way relates to transferring into an acute care setting later, but you could be a director of an acute care unit, as long as your manager below you was clinically strong. As someone said earlier, it is an entirely different skill set.
Personally, I don't always believe that you need to master one job to be competent at another. You always hear this..."You dont know what you don't know" Yah no ****. But you might know, what you do know, and that might be enough to be good at your position.
For instance, people are always doubtful at NPs who have little RN experience. But they are too very different positions. Similiar yes but different. Look at resident physicians, they start out in their careers with less than years of clinical experience yet we trust them with our lives. A NP is not a "master registered nurse", it's a healthcare provider, someone who is writing orders, not carrying them out. Do you need to be an expert at inserting foley catheter's to know when a foley catheter is indicated and when it's good for the patient? No, not necessarily.
In your case, do you need to be a master floor nurse to know how to manage floor nurses, schedule them and put out fires on your floor from an admin perspective? No. I'm not saying it wouldn't help though.
Yes experience at any job could be beneficial before starting another but let's not make presumptions about people's current position based on lack of experience at a different job.
You may not need to be a master nurse to be a competent manager (and nobody claimed it was necessary) but you do need to have a realistic grasp of what really goes on at the bedside. As a beginner, the OP is unlikely to have that in any real depth. Without it, all the "buy-in" in the world is just so much management happy-talk parroted by empty suits.
Those passive-aggressive cats one poster mentioned are probably just rolling their eyes at the latest mandate that has nothing to do with the quality of the care being given. (Can you say Press-Gainey?)
What's concerning is that the OPs frame of reference seems to include only upper management. The concept that a manager has any responsibility towards the staff they are managing seems to have gotten lost.
According to Patricia Benner's novice-expert stages, I would find it hard for anyone to be at the competent level in a year. Typically, it takes 2-3 years in the same area for a nurse to reach the level of competent. I have been a nurse for over 20 years and have served as a preceptor in all the positions I have held. While experienced nurses gain competency faster (usually), it does take new grads a few years to reach that stage.
As for advice on taking a management job with a year's experience....I personally would not. I have noticed that generally, the more respected nurse managers, have a good deal of experience under their belt. Of course, all circumstances are different, and this may be great for you!
Specializes in Nurse Leader specializing in Labor & Delivery.
As for advice on taking a management job with a year's experience....I personally would not. I have noticed that generally, the more respected nurse managers, have a good deal of experience under their belt. Of course, all circumstances are different, and this may be great for you!
I became a manager after 10 years as an RN. I manage nurses who have been RNs for 30+ years. Sometimes I think to myself "How on earth do they respect me and my leadership when they know SO much more than I??"
I can't even imagine how that would be with only a year of nursing experience. I imagine it would be REALLY hard for longtime nurses to respect a nurse manager who has only been a nurse for a year.
By virtue of her license and degree, a newly graduated RN was the house supervisor of a facility where I worked. I was not far in front of her when it came to nursing experience at the time, only having a few more months on her. She approached me one time for clinical advice about a patient. While I did not have a definitive answer, I told her how I saw the situation and why. I did not respect her less for being new and asking a question. Sometimes nurses are made managers because there is no one else, not because someone deems them to be the best choice for the position. That does not prevent them from doing a good job.
Personally, I don't always believe that you need to master one job to be competent at another. You always hear this..."You dont know what you don't know" Yah no ****. But you might know, what you do know, and that might be enough to be good at your position.
For instance, people are always doubtful at NPs who have little RN experience. But they are too very different positions. Similiar yes but different. Look at resident physicians, they start out in their careers with less than years of clinical experience yet we trust them with our lives. A NP is not a "master registered nurse", it's a healthcare provider, someone who is writing orders, not carrying them out. Do you need to be an expert at inserting foley catheter's to know when a foley catheter is indicated and when it's good for the patient? No, not necessarily.
In your case, do you need to be a master floor nurse to know how to manage floor nurses, schedule them and put out fires on your floor from an admin perspective? No. I'm not saying it wouldn't help though.
Yes experience at any job could be beneficial before starting another but let's not make presumptions about people's current position based on lack of experience at a different job.
No one is trusting resident physicians with lives...
After reading some of the more recent comments I will add some insight. I have proven myself in my months on this job as a fast learner and a good, thorough nurse. That is not to say that I do not often ask questions and second opinions from more clinically experiences nurses. The company culture where I work is phenomenal and very supportive. I think I was selected for the job for a few reasons. 1, I work in a field and at a facility that employs a lot of LPNs and I am an RN which is that preference for the position per corporate. We actually have many other RNs at the facility as well as many LPNs. Only one other RN showed interest in the position. I have worked in the facility long enough to have a decent rapport with the physicians we work most closely with as well as to have a good understanding of processes and policies in the facility. One of our other excellent nurses was promoted to ADON around the same time, her having much more clinical experience than I though not in the same setting. We have several new grad nurses and most of the nurses who have been with the facility the longest are LPNs, most of which did not express interest in the position. While I acknowledge that I was possibly in the right place at the right time, I also know I was a good candidate for other reasons. The person who really suggested and pushed for me in the position was the other unit manager who worked closely with me for the several months preceding the job availability.
I appreciate all of the honest feedback I received from you guys. I just am unsure if I made a poor career move going into a management position early on with my more limited floor experience. Though I do think I could consider my position to be clinical experience, my career goals at this time are to become a FNP and I wonder if my CV will now hinder me from being accepted into a program.
Some NP programs specifically want bedside experience, some do not. Your choice to move into management instead of building more clinical skill might limit the programs that you can be accepted into; but I don't believe it will completely exclude you from being able to move forward into an FNP program. Just check out programs you are interested in and see what their requirements are. I'm sure you'll be fine. :)
klone, MSN, RN
14,857 Posts
Yes, it can be difficult to make that transition.