Case Study: Nursing Staff Morale

In this case study, the staff nurse’s morale is very low because her performance appraisal conference with the nurse manager seemed to focus on one single event that happened months ago and didn’t seem to praise her for all of the good nursing care she has done. The staff nurse must feel upset because, after the incident, she probably felt guilty for the mistakes she made and remembered to never make those mistakes again and to try her hardest in the future. According to Nancy Cohen, Nurses with situational awareness anticipate patients’ needs by knowing what’s going on, why it’s happening, and what’s likely to happen next”. It is important for nurses to be aware of their situations at all times and the nurse manager really wanted to make that clear so that bigger and potentially ethical mistakes won’t occur in the future. The manager probably didn’t intend to hurt the nurses’ feelings, but she wanted to make her point very clear because the nurses’ mistake could have been a result of not paying enough attention. 

An approach to solve this situation may simply to be approaching the nurse manager and asking why none of her good work was mentioned, or why she focused so much on that single event. Normally when people are approached face-to-face, they end up opening up about how they feel or why they said what they said. Especially since the nurse manager may not expect the staff nurse to confront her, it may come as a surprise. It may even be a good thing because once the nurse manager sees how seriously the staff nurse takes her job, she may pay even more attention to her, and the nurse will, of course, keep up the good work, if not try even harder, and the manager could promote her. Or, the staff nurse could open up about her feelings and vent to another nurse, who may have gone through the same problem either before, or currently. By sharing experiences with others, you begin to feel more relieved and realize you aren’t alone, and that could help bring up her mood and morale.

The nurse manager’s behavior was probably based on either her personality or mood. The “out of blue” comments could have resulted from the fact that she may have been a newly hired nurse manager and was just pinpointing things she had done wrong and wanted her to focus on those specific things and improve. Perhaps the nurse manager wanted to make sure the nurse knew what she had done wrong in that single event months ago and pressed on the issue so that the staff nurse would never make the mistake again. The nurse manager may have been afraid that if she praised the staff nurse too much, the staff nurse would get caught up with the compliment and slack off or think she’s so good with everything and make another mistake; however,  part of nursing professional development is praise from their superiors. According to the New York Times, “A culture of teamwork rather than hierarchy should be the dominating force in modern medicine”. It is important for every in the workforce to feel respected and treated equally in any situation, even if it is a performance appraisal conference. Although the nurse manager may be disappointed in the nurse for her mistake, she should be straight up with her and make sure the nurse understands. It seems as if the nurse grasped the concept as soon as she made the mistake, and has changed for the better, and there is no need for the manager to continue on about her mistake as if she just wants to prove her authority as a manager. It is important for everybody in the hospital to feel respected and appreciated and scolded upon making a mistake, but further remarks of criticism are unnecessary. The hospital team is a well-respected group of people, and they should treat each other with the same respect.

References

Cohen, N. L. (2013).  Lippincott’s Nursing Center. Retrieved from

http://www.nursingcenter.com/lnc/JournalArticle?Article_ID=1525543&Journal_ID=54016&Issue_ID=1525359

The New York Times. (2013). At the hospital: The role of the team. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/25/opinion/at-the-hospital-the-role-of-the-team.html?ref=nursingandnurses&_r=0>