Whipping med surg nurses into shape

Have they done this at your hospital and mainly it is legal or is this harrassment?

Our nurse manager and administration ( on med surg unit) has begun a new program of shadowing each nurse for approx 3 days the entire shift ( 12 hrs). This was explained to us an

effort to see where there are weaknesses and to help improve overall performance.

At first I was feeling this was positive. I have not had my turn yet but seeing what goes on I liken it more to an engaging three day clinical where you will pass or fail. Some comments I have heard from those having completed this was " it is demeaning"

"I felt like I was taking a tough clinical test" and "I was shaking so bad being guestioned with each and every action what my rationale was that by the end of the shift I was shaking".

So my hospital has taken the sposition" if there are problems on

the unit, it must be the nurses so lets whip them into shape"...rather than seeing what system problems there are.

anyone else going through this?

[Liddle Noodnik]

Ick, better you than me.

I can see time studies ... but that clinical stuff -- talk about PTSD, I would be about 9 years old by the time they got thru with me!

[BadBird, BSN, RN]

I think the problem with all the med surg floors I have seen is not the nurses but lack of nurses, shame on the administration for not realizing this. Perhaps after you are all scrutinized you could shadow the nurse manager for 3 days each and critique his/her work.

[CCL"Babe", BSN, RN]

Noooo....Thank you. Demeaning.

[RN-PA, RN]

Another "great" idea to help all Med/Surg nurses' morale, huh? Demeaning is right! They were talking about doing this on our Med/Surg floor a number of months back. There are two nurse educators they hired a year ago, ex-co-workers, and they often seem to have too much time on their hands because they're always coming up with new education requirements, tests to take, etc. etc., and they dreamed up this idea of shadowing. (I realize ongoing education's very important, by the way, but they have been somewhat relentless.) I can see the possible need if it's a nurse with frequent complaints about them or who has problems, but to other nurses, it's an insult. I would definitely have performance anxiety if I was being followed. Fortunately, the idea went by the wayside on our unit since everyone's going nuts with JCAHO coming in late September.

I like the idea of nurses shadowing the managers or nurse educators for 12 hours that BadBird had. :)

[VivaLasViejas, ASN, RN]

What, don't these nurse managers have enough of their OWN work to do?! I didn't have time to BREATHE when I was in management, let alone follow my nurses around the floor. And yes, it's perfectly legal, but it stinks....you have my sympathy!

[renerian, BSN, RN]

YIKES I would not like that either.......jimminey........

renerian

[BBFRN, BSN, PhD]

Hey, maybe you could turn this around to your advantage and use this as an opportunity to show your NM what it's like for you on a typical shift. Make your NM put on her running shoes and try to keep up with you as you run around putting out small fires all day taking care of too many patients. Make sure to tell her your rationales while she's running after you.

[RN-PA, RN]

Originally posted by lgflamini

Hey, maybe you could turn this around to your advantage and use this as an opportunity to show your NM what it's like for you on a typical shift. Make your NM put on her running shoes and try to keep up with you as you run around putting out small fires all day taking care of too many patients. Make sure to tell her your rationales while she's running after you.

Hmmmmmmm...... Not a bad idea...... Not bad at all.......!

[Marie_LPN, RN, LPN, RN]

They've done the shadowing at my hospital but they do it on different shifts and different units.

[P_RN, ADN, RN]

I've only had the "efficiency experts" doing time studies, they were enough of a pain...timed bathroom breaks, pyxis time etc.

What dumb a** came up with this dingbat idea? What are they going to do if someone "fails?" They are the ones that did the hiring...so guess they ought to be the ones booted. Those NM ought to be putting on the running shoes and HELPING or soon they won't have any NURSES to MANAGE

[sjoe]

What can I say, except: