I have been in the same hospital dept. for 12 yrs so I've seen a lot of people come & go! In the past few yrs we've had several nurse managers come & leave for various reasons. The problem is, we have one nurse (BK) on staff who attaches herself to whomever is in the Nurse Mgr positon. She gets very chummy w/them, and has befriended each NM we've had- (altho she does not keep the 'friendship' going once the NM leaves) the problem is our current NM has been here long enough to see the pattern of BK, but now that she's in that position herself, she is listening to this person (who is not a charge nurse or even a key person in any dept.) & makes decisions based on what BK tells her. Several nurses have noticed the "power" BK seems to have, and wonder what can be done about it. BK seems to think the place can't run w/out her & targets certain nurses & tells the NM things based on her own opinion. I have caught her in several lies/half truths simply by asking the person she has told me things about. I have talked confidentially to the NM & asked her to come to the charge person in each area b/f making decisions based on what BK says. So far it hasn't helped, and right now staff are feeling like they can't go to the NM b/c her opinions seemed to be formed by what BK tells her. BK is spreading negativity & admin. seems to be immune to it- part of this is b/c BK acts completely different when Admin. is around & goes out of her way to be extra nice to them- suffice it to say that Admin. does not see the person the staff does on a day-to-day basis. Another Sr. RN went to Admin. when talking to the NM didn't work, but nothing has changed. How do we handle this? People are afraid to talk to management b/c it will make BK mad, and nobody wants to be on her bad side. It's really bringing morale down, and causing a negative vibe all around our dept. - I limit the time I spend w/her, but I am seeing her treatment & intimidation of new hires & it's just not fair. Where do you go when it seems that no one will listen?
