Negotiating Your Workload When the Role Expands

By Rose O. Sherman, EdD, RN, NEA-BC, FAAN

It is no secret that health systems are struggling with finances. To preserve clinical roles at the point of care, increasingly administrative roles are eliminated while those remaining take on more responsibilities. That works until it doesn’t. Consider the following email I recently received from a blog reader:

I am a resource nurse at the point of care who works for a CNO, a director, and a unit manager. Initially, my role responsibilities were audits related to our performance metrics and staffing and scheduling for my assigned unit. I now cover two units for various managerial responsibilities that keep expanding. My workload is now almost undoable, and I take calls 24/7. I am feeling burnout and know I can’t sustain the pace I am working at. So far, my concerns have fallen on deaf ears when I have tried to discuss them with the director. How would you manage this?

Unquestionably, this is a tricky situation. Given the current economy, I would not ask for a salary increase to compensate for the additional responsibilities, nor would I recommend hiring an additional resource nurse. I would instead ask myself the following questions before I scheduled a follow-up meeting with my immediate supervisor:

• What are the true priorities in my role as I understand them?
• What aspects of my current role don’t add value and could be eliminated – e.g., What could I stop doing?
• What meetings do I attend that I could eliminate from my schedule?
• How could after-hour calls from staff be managed differently?

After answering these questions and putting my thoughts on paper, I would schedule a meeting. I would begin by saying that I like my role and want to continue doing it, BUT the workload has become unmanageable. I would make it clear that I need to offload some of my current activities and want the help of my supervisor in making decisions about how to do this best. I would then talk through these four questions with my answers and seek feedback.

Planning out these conversations is essential. Too often, when we become overwhelmed in our roles, we react emotionally, making it hard for others to give us specific help. The truth is that no one understands your role and current obligations like you do. Immediate supervisors are often surprised at activities their staff picks up over time, adding to an already full plate of responsibilities.

There are no guarantees that this will work, but it is a better approach to opening conversations about workload.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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