By Rose O. Sherman, EdD, RN, NEA-BC, FAAN
This week, I had the honor of presenting the AONL Research Foundation Keynote at the AONL meeting in New Orleans. My topic was the Evolving Role of Nurse Manager in the New World of Work. To prepare for this presentation, we sought input from nurse managers through five focus groups conducted in February and March. I promised the 141 managers who participated in this research that I would share their feedback in this blog, as many could not attend the conference.
The 141 nurse managers who participated represented health systems across the country. Some interesting demographics included the following:
- 88% had more than three years of experience in the role, and 19% had ten or more.
- The highest representation of managers were leaders in medical-surgical and critical care specialties (63%).
- 41% had more than 75 direct reports, and 22% of this group had more than 100.
- Their three most time consuming activities were attending meetings, staffing, scheduling, and managing conflict.
- 62% had assistant nurse managers or clinical managers as part of their leadership team.
We were interested in the impact of staffing shortages on their role. Here is what they told us:
- A significant amount of their time is spent on staffing, scheduling, and recruitment issues, leaving little time to coach and mentor their staff.
- Nursing is now taking on more responsibilities from other short-staffed or remote departments. This means that accountability for these tasks is shifting to nurse managers, who are broadening their scope of work.
- Most educational efforts are spent on onboarding new staff versus developing current staff.
- Their moral distress has skyrocketed as they give complex assignments to novice nurses because there are no good alternatives.
- Managers themselves are being pulled into staffing more frequently.
- Nurse managers are finding it challenging to stay relational in a world that has become transactional.
- With an inexperienced staff and an absence of expert nurses, nurse managers find it challenging to maintain their leadership boundaries.
- An increasing amount of time is spent in patient-family service recovery because patient expectations if anything, have increased at a time when there are fewer staff.
None of these findings will surprise those currently leading at the frontline. These are not isolated problems but rather universal to leaders across the country. In upcoming blogs, I will share managers’ ideas about improving their work, what keeps them in the role, and what they want executives to know about being managers today.
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