What makes a good manager?

brownbook · May 22, 2017

Willing to use common sense over policies. Says, "I can help", frequently. Will listen to your whining and understands sometimes you just need to whine and you know there is no solution. Says "I can help", frequently. Gets support from their bosses.

NightNerd, MSN, RN · May 22, 2017

Offers to help on the floor when needed. Recognizes and celebrates the attributes of reach staff member regularly, instead of only seeking them out when a mistake is made. Anticipate unit needs as much as possible and strive to meet them. Advocate for staff and patients.

AJJKRN · May 22, 2017

Since I work in the float pool...a manager that lets you practice autonomously but expects all employees to do their jobs under the company's expectations. It doesn't hurt that she still works at least one day a week on the floor and when we are busting at the seams she will work the floor to help out and put her managerial duties on the burner.

This may not work for all managers but as I get closer to getting my MSN, I can't imagine not being able to walk out on my floor and be able to jump in to help a drowning staffer (within reason, which she does, she's AMAZING!).

It also doesn't hurt that she will stand her ground and go to bat for her employees or coach us whenever needed in the most respectful way so when walk away from that meeting you feel like you just let your parent down :-).

She holds us up with high expectations and gives us the tools (experiences, education opportunities, advancement opportunities, etc) to hold ourselves up to high expectations - without setting us up for failure.

Can you tell I love my manager ;-)!!!

Lev, MSN, RN, NP · May 23, 2017

Willing to use common sense over policies.

I think this is an often overlooked quality but in my opinion very important. Policies are good, but there are certain situations where rules can actually make things unsafe.

Lev, MSN, RN, NP · May 23, 2017

I had a great manager who was willing to let me grow. When she hired me into the ED, I expressed that I wasn't sure the ED was for me. But she was ok with that and said that I would see many different patient populations in the ED and I could find which one I liked working for. A manager who doesn't feel like she has to hold on to her employees and not let them move on is a great one.

brownbook · May 23, 2017

I think this is an often overlooked quality but in my opinion very important. Policies are good but there are certain situations where rules can actually make things unsafe.[/quote']
I will never forget a harrowing night a million years ago when the next morning at a unit meeting the Head of Nursing told me, "What you did was actually against policy but you did the right thing."

tara07733 · May 23, 2017

Since I work in the float pool...a manager that lets you practice autonomously but expects all employees to do their jobs under the company's expectations. It doesn't hurt that she still works at least one day a week on the floor and when we are busting at the seams she will work the floor to help out and put her managerial duties on the burner.
This may not work for all managers but as I get closer to getting my MSN, I can't imagine not being able to walk out on my floor and be able to jump in to help a drowning staffer (within reason, which she does, she's AMAZING!).
It also doesn't hurt that she will stand her ground and go to bat for her employees or coach us whenever needed in the most respectful way so when walk away from that meeting you feel like you just let your parent down :-).
She holds us up with high expectations and gives us the tools (experiences, education opportunities, advancement opportunities, etc) to hold ourselves up to high expectations - without setting us up for failure.
Can you tell I love my manager ;-)!!!

That's the kind of manager that the thought of her leaving sends chills down your spine. She sounds great; you are lucky.

Davey Do · May 23, 2017

Great discussion Lev & Co!

A couple of great quotes from a good manager I worked with as a relatively new nurse back in the 80's:

"My job is no more important than yours. We merely have different responsibilities."

And when assigned a task that I didn't care for:

"You don't have to like it. You only have to do it."

Lev, MSN, RN, NP · May 23, 2017

That's the kind of manager that the thought of her leaving sends chills down your spine. She sounds great; you are lucky.

You are right. When a good manager leaves, staff often follow if they can or leave themselves. Usually the person who replaced them cannot fill the big shoes left over.

Ben_Dover · May 23, 2017

Realistically!

-A$$ Kissers

-Can Do The Talk But Can't Do the Walk

-Histrionic

-People Person

-Sociable

-Charismatic

To make it easy, someone who's in and into Politics! :roflmao:

Ruby Vee, BSN · May 23, 2017

I've had good managers and bad ones, too. The good ones will listen to the story, the problem, both sides of the argument before reacting.

The good managers will support their employees and then, if required, discipline them behind the scenes. I had a colleague make a really dumb mistake, and she made it in the middle of physician rounds. Voices were heard loudly exclaiming about the morons that work in this ICU, and how did someone so stupid make it through nursing school. The manager went in, defused the situation, told the physicians they needed to apologize for their rudeness toward her nurse (and waited until they did) and then whisked the nurse into her office for a little talk. Only after my colleague was done crying over being humiliated so publically did the manager discuss the actual mistake with her. And although not everyone knows it, there was discipline involved as well. The bad ones -- and this was me -- will pile on publically and then never seek out the rest of the story. "Did you, Ruby, tell Dr. Iusedtobeapathologistandamnowtryingoutcardiacsurgery that he was a moron?" "No, ma'am. I only told him that if he wanted to do a heart transplant on every patient who had a cardiac tamponade, he'd better have a cousin in the enforcer business to go around and line up donors for us. He told me that only an idiot would say that to a man who had just finished telling a patient's wife her husband was going to die without a transplant, so I told him that only a moron would talk to the wife about a heart transplant without at least checking with his Fellow about opening the chest because the experienced ICU told him his patient had a tamponade and he needed to get on it NOW rather than after his pizza break." (OK -- I was somewhat more tactful -- but the manager didn't understand my POINT. The patient had a tamponade -- needed to be fixed now. He didn't need a transplant, although he would have needed a pine box had the charge nurse not dragged the Fellow out of the OR -- the resident was so sure he was right and I was wrong he wouldn't even PAGE him -- and we opened the chest.) She told me I needed to apologize to Iusedtobeapathologistandamnowtryingoutcardiacsurgery; the Cardiac Surgery Fellow brought HIM to apologize to ME.

A bad manager tells you that if you need Wednesday off because the biopsy came back positive and the HMO's only oncologist is only available on Wednesday in the clinic three hours away, you'll need to find your own replacement. A good manager asks you how you're doing, and if Wednesday is the absolute soonest you can get an appointment and if she can call her friend who is the oncologist's scheduler's mother to see about getting you in sooner. And by the way, I've taken you off the schedule for Wednesday and if you need any other days off, please let me know.

A poor manager hears about you being on your cell phone all day while your orientee (who is nearing the end of her orientation) and tells you that you're obviously not fit to precept. A good manager asks you if anything is going on at home, because you're not usually on the phone at work. When you tell her that Mom has Alzheimer's and your sister programmed your cell phone number into Mom's direct dial and Mom has been calling you all day looking for your father, who died two years ago, a good manager takes you off the schedule so that you can fly home and sort out Mom's living situation, faxes the FMLA papers to you in hour home town that is so small there's no cell phone coverage and sends you an Edible Arrangement because that's all you have the time and energy to eat.

A bad manager accosts you at 7:35, waves your rhythm strip which is already analyzed and signed in your face and says "This is inadequate charting." A good manager wanders by at 7:35, sees that you've already posted your rhythm strip and says "Good -- now we'll have documentation that he actually WAS in atrial fib so that cardiology resident will have to believe that nurses can distinguish A fib from that other rhythm."

A good manager either knows the job and can do it well, or understands the outlines of the job and trusts her staff to do the job well and believes them when they tell her that they need more X, Y and Z and perhaps someone could talk to Dr. Dick and explain to him that "Yes, nurses can analyze a rhythm and if he ever again refuses to come when called because of a serious dysrhythmia, she'll be having a talk about it with the Highest Head Honcho of Doctoring." A bad manager will talk to her nurses about not pestering Dr. Dick at nigh because he needs his sleep.