nursing management questions

RNPATL, DNP, RN · Sep 19, 2007

I have some questions that I was wondering if someone could answer:
For nurse managers....
Who's on your team?
What source of conflict occur on your team?
What strategies have you used to promote effective team fuctioning?
What worked and what didn't?
If a change needs to be made, how did you make it?
Thank YOU!

When I was a nurse manager (not so long ago) - the people that were on my team were mainly the staff that worked on the unit I ran. This included registered nurses, licensed practical nurses, nursing assistants, and unit secretaries.

Normal conflicts would occur over the schedule or personality issues. It was always my policy to get people together and work through the issue. As adults and professionals, it was my belief that we could work through most problems and in the end meet everyone's needs. Certainly, there were times when someone would have to give, but we always seemed to work out.

In order to promote effective team work - the leader really needs to be a member of the team and have a great deal of visibility. In addition - the leader cannot be far removed from what is happening on the floor. Finally - in order to promote good team work - provide the staff with the tools and the equipment they need to do their jobs and listen to what they need.

If a change needed to be made - I always made sure the nurses agreed that a change was necessary. There were always those few that feared change - but once they understood how the change might impact their life for the better - they would get on board. We implemented the electronic medical record (EMR) recently. There were some long term nurses (worked at the hosptial for >30 years) and they said they would retire before they would go through the implementation. As a group and as a team - we helped them through training and once we went live on the software - they did fine. Today - these nurses are the best users of the system and train others.

Hope this helps!

classicdame, MSN, EdD · Sep 19, 2007

People on my team are my department staff. Sources of conflict generally arise from the fact that we are all strong, independent thinkers. However, we all have the same goals in mind regarding patient care and the success of our department, so we work them out through communication and mutual respect. Strategies include treating others as equals, assigning someone a task (helps them see both sides), recognition for good work, a little fun on the side. What does not work with my team is to try to get them to change personality driven behaviors. If someone is a little OCD it is better to let her work it out herself. If a change is required I present the facts, the rationales and talk about why the change is needed. We then hash out the negatives, list them and then work on ways to bend them till they are positives. You cannot ignore the negatives or pretend they do not matter. They just build up. I believe my team knows I support them and care about them as individuals. That is always a plus.