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Discussion

New nurses in Management

I was reading a few threads here tonight and was really disheartened by what I came across.

If you are a new RN, please do not take on a Management role out of school no matter what

the facility says to lure you. I really and truly appreciate your enthusiasm, excitement, abilities,

and overall need for a darn job in this marketplace; trust me, I was in your shoes once too.

But you are only sabatoging your own career. You will face obstacles that you will not be prepared

to handle. You will face clinical issues that you are completely clueless about. You will face the reality

of the health care system head on, and no one will be there when you fall. In the end, you are just setting yourself up for failure and may come to hate nursing and health care... and then everyone loses.

Please, please get 1 or 2 years of hospital experience, even if it's nights. Just do it for at least 1 year. In the role of a new RN in the hospital you will have some support. You will learn a lot. You will have peers who share your daily struggles. The entire experience will be beneficial to your overall growth. You will be so glad down the road that you did this. You can expand on that in many ways, and develop a foundation for your future, what ever that is.

There is no way I would ever, ever hire anyone in management without some acute care experience. I would consider myself an incompetent leader if I even considered it. I want leaders and managers who are smart enough to know the right steps in life. It says to me, "I'm no fool. I'm calculated, patient and willing to learn and grow in the right order, instead of skipping steps because of my overzealousness for a title." And you should wonder about anyone in a leadership role willing to put you in a position of failure, and worse patients at risk.

Take the right path on your careers and start at the beginning. You will never, ever have to look back with regret, and you will ALWAYS BE the compitition.

All the best.

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    One of our best managers is a green kid with a BSN. Excellent manager and an excellent nurse. Once she tempers some of her youthful arrogance with wisdom she'll be incredible.

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    Your unit, and your entire patient population shouldn't be her trial and error. A manager in today's complicated health care, with Core Measures, Joint Commission, Magnet Aspirations, should already BE incredible...

    and wise.

    Keep us informed about her growth from an arrogant youth.

    I wonder if she'll be posting on here under an alias?

    T.

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    That wasn't necessary, tridil.

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    • Author

    I'm sorry; is it necessary to take someone out of school and make them a manager? Seriously,

    is that necessary in your facility?

    Maybe I don't understand, but you said she was a "kid" and "arrogant", and then implied she lacked wisdom.

    Would you trust your 401k fund under a manager just out of school? Or would you prefer the manager of your money (and in health care we're talking lives!), have at least a year or two of experience in their specialty?

    T.

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    In my environment, yes. Medically underserved area, LTC.

    She's actually one of the best nurses in the facility. Lots of burn-outs, those who don't care, task-oriented automatons. Unlike most of them she's actually cracked a book about nursing in the last decade.

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    • Author

    So she does have some experience?

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    I completely agree with the OP.

    One of the most important functions of a nurse manager is to advocate for his/her staff. This requires adept political skills as well as a comprehensive knowledge of how healthcare in general and the organization specifically actually works. There is an enormous amount of management research that indicates staff understand and place a high value on working for an influential supervisor - one who solve problems and get things done.

    In my part of the country, qualified candidates for management jobs are becoming more scarce so they are being filled with starry-eyed hopefuls. Of course, some of these bright young things will undoubtedly become wonderful leaders...... over time. But I pity the staff who have to serve as a learning lab during the developmental process.

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