As a unit manager, it seems as if everything is my responsibility. It is almost as if people expect me to be three places at once (which, of course, is impossible). Everyone seems to think that I should attend to their requests RIGHT NOW regardless of what else I have going on and the urgency of each task. If I don't respond to their requests immediately, they have no problem expressing their frustration with me.
A couple of these situations occurred today. I had a couple of Care Conferences scheduled (which are basically routine meetings to discuss resident progress, plan for discharge if appropriate, etc). Unfortunately, during both of them, other urgent situations came up. Medical issues requiring immediate attention (one patient's surgical wound was worsening while another one was experiencing a sudden onset of shortness of breath). Regardless of the fact that these issues required my undivided attention, I was scolded by several coworkers that demanded I attend these meetings regardless of how critical these other issues were. One of them stated that it was important for all staff to "do our due diligence," while another one stated that I needed to attend this meeting no matter what, even though, in both instances these meetings were for residents who were currently medically stable.
After delegating some work to the floor nurse, I was able to attend one meeting, but not the other. Despite the seriousness of the one situation, which required my full attention, my coworkers still expressed displeasure over me not prioritizing a routine meeting discussing ostomy care over someone experiencing a medical emergency. I explained to them that I would be happy to follow up with questions the family may have later on, but I needed to attend to these patients first. They weren't satisfied and resorted to calling in my co-manager to the meeting instead. I am sure they reported me to the DON as well.
I am wondering if anyone else has been in a similar situation and what your response to your coworkers was. After all, it's not as if I can schedule my emergencies at convenient times.
