Morale Building for Managers
One of the toughest jobs in health care today is that of the front-line manager. Nurse Managers stand at a vortex of change, experiencing an unending swirl of forces pulling and pushing them to respond to powerful demands of stakeholders throughout the complex health care system. They are expected to recruit and retain enough nurses to care for an unpredictable volume of patient days, while at the same time keeping salary expenses down, morale up and physicians happy. Oh yes, engagement scores in the 95th to 99th percentile, please.
Managing Staff Morale
Nurse Managers, more than anyone else, directly impact the morale of the staff.... which directly impacts the quality of care on a unit. We all tend to forget how important the Nurse Manager is to the staff nurse. Not only as a person with great power over schedules and assignments, but also as a role model, mentor, and career coach. Demoralized Nurse Managers have a profoundly negative impact on how a unit operates, how staff treat each other, and how patients are treated on that unit.
Nurse Executives lead manager morale
In the same way, Nurse Execs (and their direct reports) have a strong impact on the morale of the Nurse Manager. Again, they act as model, mentor, and coach. One of the most important lessons nursing, especially those of us in leadership roles, must learn, is to discern what is ours to own and what is not. There are many problems in the health care system. We did not create them, nor can we solve them. No matter how convenient it is to look at nursing, with its large number of FTEs. and high salary costs, as the target to solve the current health care financial crisis, the fact remains that nursing is a labor intensive yet vital part of the health care system. The fact that the system may be imploding on itself right now is not about nursing costs. I think it is very important for us to accept the fact that nursing didn't create the problems and nothing nursing does will solve the problems.
However, we are part of the system, what happens affects nursing, and we must wisely choose how to respond to these problems. Managing our responses to life and work circumstances it is the opposite of victim thinking. Self-management is the key to maintaining personal and professional balance in this time of constant whitewater. The following are key areas where leaders at all levels can model healthy self-management behaviors:
* Manage your relationships. Nurse Execs need to model the ability to communicate openly about sensitive and difficult issues, to exhibit appropriate 'functional' trust and to respect everyone regardless of status, race, gender etc.
* Manage your response to problems. Some problems you can solve, some you can't. Deciding how to respond to those you can't solve is a powerful manifestation of self-management. Often the wisest choice you can make is to live with problems you can't solve without letting them spoil your work experience.
* Manage your time. This is especially important for Nurse Directors and Execs, because the modeling you do here will ultimately 'trickle down' through the Nurse Manager to the Staff Nurse. If you are constantly allowing yourself to be buffeted by other’s demands and are unable to exercise even 'little choices', you may be manifesting a 'victim-like' mentality about time use. A couple of time handling tricks are:
--- Establish office hours. Block off in advance 1-2 hours a couple times a week when the staff knows (be sure to announce it) they can find you in the office if they need to touch base with you. In between visits, you will find this is a great time for paperwork! Staff will seldom use the time, but they like to know you are available to them.
--- Take at least one half-hour a week for yourself. Again, block off this time in advance. Visit a unit. Grab a cup of coffee in the coffee shop (with a newspaper). Go for walk around the block. Buy yourself an ice-cream cone. Don't just think about it. Just do it!
It has been my experience that these 'little choices' have a powerful effect on how much control we feel we have over our most valuable resource -- our time. Our perception is our reality.
If any members of this list have other tips about how to manage your time, pass them on to me and I'll share.
