By Rose O. Sherman, EdD, RN, FAAN
When you have been in leadership for many years, it can be hard to remember what it is like when you begin in your first nurse manager role. Recently, I had an opportunity to work with many new nurse managers in the leadership development course sponsored by the American Nurses Association. Most were in their first two years in the position and many felt overwhelmed. These roles are very challenging especially in today’s environment. It was surprising to see how many of these managers had little leadership development and most did not have a mentor.
Over time, these leadership roles have become very complex as managers pick up more and more responsibilities incrementally. Staff nurses have little real exposure to what their leaders do on a daily business so when they move into these roles, it can be very shocking. As frontline leaders, they run the equivalent of a small businesses and also serve as chief retention officer for their organizations.
In my discussion with these new managers, I learned that their transition was often very abrupt. One week, they were working three 12 hour shifts as staff nurses and then the next they found themselves working five days a week uncertain about how to even plan their day. Few were given any structure about how to get started, a topic we have covered on this blog about what to do in your first 100 days in a leadership role. We need to do a much better job with onboarding new managers and not leave it to chance. The following are the challenges that they reported to us:
The Challenges
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