Question

Group Members: Scenario: Two new associate degree graduates were hired for the pediatric unit. Both worked three 12- hour shifts a week, Jan in the day-to-evening shift and Ronnie at night. Whenever their shifts connected, they would compare notes on their experience. Jan felt she was learning rapidly, gaining clinical skills and beginning to feel at ease with her colleagues. Ronnie, however, still felt unsure of herself and often isolated. "There have been times," she told Jan, "that I am the only registered nurse on the unit all night. The aides and LPNs are really experienced, but that's not enough. I wish I could work with an experienced nurse as you are doing." "Ronnie, you are not even finished with your 3-month orientation program," said Jan. "You should never be left alone with all these sick children. Neither of us is ready for that kind of responsibility. And how will you get the experience you need with no experienced nurses to help you? You must speak to our nurse manager about this." "I know I should, but she's so hard to reach. I've called several times, and she's never available. She leaves all the shift assignments to her assistant. I'm not sure she even reviews the schedule before it's posted." "You will have to try harder to reach her. Maybe you could stay past the end of your shift one morning and meet with her," suggested Jan. "If something happens when you are the only nurse on the unit, you will be held responsible." Questions: 1. In your own words, summarize the problem that Jan and Ronnie are discussing. To what extent is this problem due to a failure to lead? Who has failed to act? 2. What style of leadership was displayed by Ronnie and the nurse manager? How effective was their leadership? Did Jan's leadership differ from that of Ronnie and the nurse manager?

Answer 1

         Question 1

    In this scenario, we can understand that this a communication between two staff nurses in a pediatric unit who are new degree graduates.

Jan and Ronnie are new degree graduates working on the Pediatric unit of a Hospital as staff nurses. Jan is working in the day to evening shift along with experienced staff while Ronnie was working alone in the night shift. They usually discuss each other regarding the experience during their shift and knowledge what they gained during the working period.

  Jan is gaining rapid knowledge and clinical skills as she is working with her experienced colleagues while Ronnie is not getting sufficient knowledge regarding the clinical practices as she was working alone in the night shift. Ronnie wish to work with an experienced staff to gain adequate knowledge. Jan also encourage Ronnie to work along with an experienced staff as she is new to the clinical environment and she will be the only responsible one if any problem occurred in the unit.

Jan encourages Ronnie to discuss the issue with the Nurse manager as she is very hard to reach. Ronnie also tried several times to reach the Nurse manager but she is not available. Again Jan is encouraging Ronnie to meet the Nurse Manager after her night shift to avoid clinical issues during her duty time.

Here the Nurse Manager failed to act. As a Nurse Manager , She has the responsible for taking care of the Staff and meeting goals .

Role of a Nurse Manager Includes:

· Staff management

· Case management

· Treatment planning

· Recruitment

· Budgeting

· Scheduling

· Discharge planning

· Mentoring

· Developing educational plans

· Records management

                 In this scenario , The Nurse Manger is not doing any responsibility what she should do. It is clearly mentioned that her assistant is assigning the duty schedules to the staff and she is not even checking before posting the duty routines.

               She is failed in the Staff management , Scheduling, Educational plans. As Ronnie is a new staff who not even finished the orientation classes, without providing proper orientation and education, assigning her to do duty alone in the night shift is a big failure from the side of Nurse Manager . This failure can leads to legal issues also.

Question 2

            As a Nurse Manager, She is responsible for creating safe, healthy environments that support the work of the health care team and contribute to patient engagement. Nurse managers need strong communication and leadership skills. They must be effective leaders who can strike a balance between working with the nursing staff and the healthcare facility administrators. The job requires management skills, budgeting and business acumen and leadership qualities. Communications and interpersonal skills are also vital.

             In this scenario, the leadership displayed by Ronnie and Nurse manager is very poor. Why because Ronnie is not even seeing her Nurse Manager to communicate regarding the clinical issues. There is no communication between them as the Nurse manager is not even attending the phone calls and she is very hard to available also.

              As a Nurse manager she has to assign the duty rosters and she should provide enough staff to work and she needs to give education to the new staffs also. Here the Nurse manager is not doing such responsibilities and she is assigning her duties to her assistant.

            Hence, Without failure, we can assume that as a Nurse manger she is a failure and there is no leadership quality within her.

             Here I think, Jan’s leadership is differ from that of Ronnie and Nurse Manager. Because Jan is doing a Day to evening shift where the Nurse Manger is available most of the time than night. So Jan can utilize the duty hours to discuss the clinical issues with the Nurse Manager and also she can learn new things by clearing doubts and can perform well. So without doubt, Jan's Leadership and Ronnie's Leadership is different to the Nurse manager.