jkfraser

I'm a new nurse on a med/surg unit. We have a clinical nurse manager, and three nursing educator supervisors who put out our schedule for six week periods at a time. We do not use self-scheduling, but I would like to make a proposal that we begin because I see a pattern of inefficient use of charge nurse/nursing supervisors and clinical nurse manager time. It is my impression that these four managers spend 50-80% of their daily hours trying to fill holes that exist for the next shift, or the shifts for the next 12-24 hours, even though we have a schedule that exists. My feeling is that if we had a self scheduling system in place, these highly paid individuals would have to spend less time constantly tweaking the schedule. In addition I think that self-scheduling would give our nursing staff more autonomy, an increased morale and less of the "us/them" mentality on our floor, and that would address filling the holes better... am I being naive? I know this works in other hospitals... any feedback would be helpful. Thanks!

I'm a nursing student, making decent grades, with a family to keep me busy when school/clinicals is not. I would say that the process of nursing school has made me a better student. I also have a BA in Psychology and see that my aptitude is for the theory/analytical material, and I'm less technically minded, but I'm learning...It's hard, but doable if you apply some discipline, making time to study, and being prepared for lecture and clinical makes it a better experience. I take issue with the person who said that nursing is one of those professionals of all grunt work... I whole heartedly disagree! Sure there is physical, sometimes unpleasant work to do, but the excellent nurse is one who is always thinking, using her critical thinking skills and analysis, and making sure that her priorities are providing the best care for each patient. I would not want to be cared for by someone who thinks her job is to perform grunt work... I would want to be cared for by someone who is genuinely interested in providing good quality care.