Emerging Nurse Leader

A leadership development blog

Helping Nurses Cope with Moral Distress

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By Rose O. Sherman, EdD, RN, FAAN “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter”       -Martin Luther King, Jr. A nurse manager recently discussed with me the challenge of helping her nursing staff cope with moral distress.  Her medical-surgical unit has a very high case mix of elderly patients covered by Medicare.  Many of these patients are close … [Read more...]

Charge Nurse Series Part 5 – Managing Difficult People

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By Rose O. Sherman, EdD, RN, FAAN Charge nurses have a unique challenge in work environments because they have to learn to lead teams of staff and manage patients with little formal power.  When all is working well on the unit and with the team, this is not a problem.  But when a staff member, patient, physician or family member is a difficult person to keep happy, the … [Read more...]

Charge Nurse Series Part 4 – How to Manage Conflict

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By Rose O. Sherman, EdD, RN, FAAN In research that I have done with charge nurses, conflict management has been identified as the top challenge that they confront in their roles.  Charge nurses reported that they are frequently mediating conflicts that occur with physicians, other departments, among team members or sometimes with family.  The generational diversity in the … [Read more...]

Charge Nurse Series Part 3 – How to Communicate Effectively

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By Rose O. Sherman, EdD, RN, FAAN "Seek first to understand, then to be understood."   Stephen Covey Several years ago, I was involved in a series of 10 charge nurse workshops conducted by a large health system.  As part of these workshops, we surveyed the 350 charge nurses who attended about their thoughts about their role challenges and qualities important to doing the … [Read more...]

Charge Nurse Series Part 2 – How to Delegate Care

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By Rose O. Sherman, EdD, RN, FAAN Many charge nurses find it difficult to delegate tasks to other members of their health care team.  When done well, delegation can be a very effective management tool.  It frees professional nurses to attend to more complex client needs, develop the skills of nursing assistive personnel and promote cost containment for the organization.  … [Read more...]