Will I be in trouble in speaking out?

[april2]

There other day 3 staff nurses asked me to help them with their application forms and with interview should they get short listed. I gave them constructive feedback and said to them to "up their game" as its is going to be very competative (these 3 nurses according to the management doesn't function like staff nurse at time).

The reply i got from all them saying what the point of upping our game, we have done this in past but we have constantly been put down. (i know this as i have experince this attitude from the manager, she just "bites" you if you say something. As result everyone has fear of speaking out.

To cut the story short, i bumped into deputy divisional director who was doing his round asking everyone if they were ok. So i said to him i am ok but with all thats going around here that does not make it ok. So he asked me what is it. I said to him that i will tell you but must be in confindance and that he should not mention my name. With this verbal agreement I told him that nurses are fed up here as no one is listening to them if they suggest anyting, they are put down by this manager. I then said to him don't rely on my information only and suggest to do staff satisfaction survey as soon as possible to capture what is going in this department. He said thank for letting him know. But now i am worried that the management may use this to get rid of me (nursing restructering is on its way to us). Please let me have your views on this. Thanks.

[XB9S, BSN, MSN, EdD, RN, APN]

If you work in the NHS you should be protected by the whistle blowing policy, you asked for it to be confidential and therefore it should remain so.

As far as if your actions have been appropriate, it would very much depend on what exactly you see to be wrong with your manager and how you have already addressed it. I am not sure what level you are or what level your manger is so it's difficult to judge as to if your actions have been appropriate, for example if your a band 2 nurse who has bypassed your management structure about a problem rather than going through the correct process then you may well end up answering to a Matron / Head of Nursing. If your a ward manager and find that your Matron is the problem then maybe addressing it with the deputy divisional manager may be appropriate.