Would like to know how others have handled this situation or what their experienced have been...Anywhere I have worked, if we had call-outs or were overloaded with admits, the supervisor would help out. Well,we have a supervisor that refuses to do anything.
Past Sat. had 42 pts. on a Dual Diagnosis unit....3 nurses were there on Fri. but only 2 scheduled for Sat. well, one called out.. So there I was alone with 42 pts. must chart 5 pg. note on each one, tx. plan mtgs. c drs., and numerous problems...I asked the Sup. 3 different times when she paraded by with clipboard in hand, if she could help me out. She never did.
The last 3 Supervisors that we have had always helped on the floor if we were short.
Isn't it their job to help out if you are so under-staffed ???? I was so close to saying, if you don't help out, I am leaving. But then I would have gotten written up, for sure.
Specializes in med/surg, telemetry, IV therapy, mgmt.
i was an acute hospital house supervisor before i became a unit manager. it was part of our job to make sure that the staff that was available was distributed around the house fairly. it didn't mean we were supposed to lend a hand when help was needed. our administrative coordinator would have given us hell for doing that. it was up to our discretion to either delegate other staff to come and help out a busy unit for an hour or two or pitch in ourselves and help. often i would pitch in and help if i had time, but i have to tell you that if there was something else going on in the hospital that demanded my presence my first priority was to be there. a supervisor represents hospital administration, all other department managers who are not in the building and must be able to move about the house freely. i would find you an extra pair of hands somewhere if that was what i had to do. i would never, however, summarily ignore your requests. if help wasn't available you would be told why and you would be helped in some way even if it meant having the er hold admits or telling admitting not to admit to your unit (as a supervisor i had authority over bed assignments) for a few hours or the remainder of the shift. that is because the supervisor is the only person who sees the whole picture of what is going on in the entire house and knows what resources are and aren't available. if some staff nurse thinks they know what's going on in the house better than the supervisor, they are either nuts or they are out gallivanting around the hospital instead of working on their unit where they are supposed to be doing their job and leaving their coworkers in a lurch!
i have been staff nurse and supervisor. how is it so many of you know what the supervisor does during her shift if you've never had the job? how arrogant! that is no different from a nursing assistant who claims they know the rns job and that the rn isn't doing it. it took me 6 months in training before i felt comfortable in the supervision position and most of what was totally new to me involved exactly what this op is posting about--staffing issues and not just for the department of nursing. it's not as easy as you all think it is folks. don't be so quick to criticize when you've never walked in those shoes.
Specializes in med/surg, telemetry, IV therapy, mgmt.
daytonite, both of these statements from aloe's opening post, are valid reasons why she and her supporters, thought our 'criticisms' were appropriate.
and no, it certainly is not arrogant.
leslie
So? I helped out too, when I could. But if I had to call in a surgical team or there were reporters hovering around the ER, I had to be doing those things because that was the supervisor's job. If the other nursing units weren't also busy as well, I could ask them to send someone to admit a patient to XX unit for them. You know how popular floating is! Try to sell that to a staff nurse in the middle of a shift!
Specializes in telemetry, med-surg, home health, psych.
Not all Supervisor positions are alike....I was not condemning all supervisors.....But in our particular small, private psych hospital I am aware of the duties of the Supervisor.....and as I stated, all 3 of the past Sups. have worked the floor when needed....
That was my beef.....It is part of her job description to "assist staff with clinical and administrative duties as needed"......
I don't know why above post became so defensive when obviously her duties entailed far more than our Supervisor's...If she had read all of the posts she would have been aware of this.
A supervisor is usually responsible for several different units and must assure that all units run smoothly. However, a big part of the job is maintaining safe staffing levels. 1 RN to 42 DD clients seems to be much, much too high.
Does your facility have mandatory overtime? Refuse all overtime?
A staff nurse always needs to -well, cover her own tush. A quick note faxed to the supervisor stating that the needs of the clients are such that one RN does not permit safe pt care at the BEGINNING (that is before the last shift gets out the door) of a tour usually gets a prompt response...if it doesn't the RN is on record as identifying the problem when something does go wrong.
From the other side, a supervisor may need to be in so many places/may need to leave emergently that she can't start clinical duties. The facility may dictate what a supervisor should/should not do.
Simmer down kids. This is the age old nursing debate...i.e. "Nobody else works as hard as I do". I realize that the OP was put in a dangerous position, there is no denying that. From my own experience, I have often found that when staffing is bad, it's due to poor planning on the part of the unit management, not the supervisor. By the time I get to work at 7pm, most of the staffing decisions have been made already. I in turn make the decisions for the day shift. I think OP needs to focus less on what the supervisor didn't do and more on what could have been done to prevent this situation from happening, and to prepare herself if it happens again (as was previously mentioned, not accepting the assignment is a perfectly good alternative.). Maybe the supervisor is lazy, maybe she could have helped, but the important thing to remember is that you never should have been put in that position to begin with. And if the supervisor did help you, and you got through the night (or day, I forget which) unscathed, and no complaints were voiced, then your manager was just given carte blanche to do it again. I try really hard not to enable the staff. I will work tirelessly with them to figure out solutions to their problems, but I think that by jumping in and doing patient care, the supervisor may have done more harm than good in the long run.
Specializes in ICU, PICC Nurse, Nursing Supervisor.
i know most of this talk here is about hospitals but i wanted to throw this in. i work in a skilled facility and work sat and sun... so sat i was minding my own business doing my treatments down my hall unaware that 2 cna's failed to show up ( cause we have 2 other nurses who love to deal with staffing) . next thing i know here she comes .... the don and i am thinking ." lord have mercy what have i done now" but she was there to be my cna....she ended up raping my hall but we had a great day...
Specializes in telemetry, med-surg, home health, psych.
FYI----I am the OP....to all those who gave me input, I do appreciate it...
I found out today that there were so many complaints from other staff and pts. to administration about the weekend....I talked to CNO and yes, the supervisor's No. 1 concern is adequate staffing for the unit...if she is unable to call in help...she should have assisted me in any way possible...
He told me that this will NOT happen again...to anyone...and that I should have called him, when she refused to help me....!!!!
(she had told me she called everyone to try to get help !!) she is still in her 90 day probationary period so I expect to see some changes...in her work ethic or in Sups...:loveya:
Daytonite, BSN, RN
1 Article; 14,604 Posts
i was an acute hospital house supervisor before i became a unit manager. it was part of our job to make sure that the staff that was available was distributed around the house fairly. it didn't mean we were supposed to lend a hand when help was needed. our administrative coordinator would have given us hell for doing that. it was up to our discretion to either delegate other staff to come and help out a busy unit for an hour or two or pitch in ourselves and help. often i would pitch in and help if i had time, but i have to tell you that if there was something else going on in the hospital that demanded my presence my first priority was to be there. a supervisor represents hospital administration, all other department managers who are not in the building and must be able to move about the house freely. i would find you an extra pair of hands somewhere if that was what i had to do. i would never, however, summarily ignore your requests. if help wasn't available you would be told why and you would be helped in some way even if it meant having the er hold admits or telling admitting not to admit to your unit (as a supervisor i had authority over bed assignments) for a few hours or the remainder of the shift. that is because the supervisor is the only person who sees the whole picture of what is going on in the entire house and knows what resources are and aren't available. if some staff nurse thinks they know what's going on in the house better than the supervisor, they are either nuts or they are out gallivanting around the hospital instead of working on their unit where they are supposed to be doing their job and leaving their coworkers in a lurch!
i have been staff nurse and supervisor. how is it so many of you know what the supervisor does during her shift if you've never had the job? how arrogant! that is no different from a nursing assistant who claims they know the rns job and that the rn isn't doing it. it took me 6 months in training before i felt comfortable in the supervision position and most of what was totally new to me involved exactly what this op is posting about--staffing issues and not just for the department of nursing. it's not as easy as you all think it is folks. don't be so quick to criticize when you've never walked in those shoes.