Purdue University
English Composition II – Eng 105
Fall 1988, Dr. Bolduc – (B)
Head Nurse
Linda has been an R.N. for seven years now; she worked two years on a general medical-surgical floor and five years in an intensive care unit. She has a bachelor’s degree in nursing and is going for her Master’s in Nursing Management. She’s very bright, assertive and cares deeply for her critically ill patients.
She’s now near the completion of her master’s degree and her Director offered her a position as the Nurse Manager of the Coronary Intensive Care Unit. She’s enthused about the opportunity to use her newly obtained knowledge in participatory management. She’s learned that psychologists have studied management styles and found that people are more likely to comply with and feel invested in decisions that they helped to make. With this management style, the best leader doesn’t lead at all; she facilitates group solutions to problems and fosters the development of leadership within each group member.
On an individual basis, she makes herself aware of the special and unique contributions made by each staff member. She compliments these contributions and encourages each person to share them with the unit. For instance, one may be a good organizer of supplies, one may be good in bolstering morale, and one may be especially skilled with inter-department communication.
Through her intensive care experience, she’s also a role model. She shares her expertise in the technical aspects of critical care. She’s supportive of new nurses who are overwhelmed by the stressful situations that serve as their learning labs; she tells them “Yes, you can!”
The Administrator of the hospital has a Ph.D. in Hospital Administration. He has served as an administrator at 2 other hospitals (thus with a total of 10 years of experience). He has also worked in the accounting field and is especially skilled at corporate budgeting. He knows how to balance a budget and in a hospital, he knows where to cut spending: nursing, nursing, and nursing support services. He’s an opportunist and uses what he’s learned about nurses against them. Nurses are by majority dedicated to giving good care to their patients. They are generally passive with much less than optimum self-esteem. They don’t see themselves as having the power to improve their working conditions or salaries.
His abusive attitude allows him to take advantage of the nurse’s dedication and lack of self-esteem. He cuts the budget for the intensive care unit leads to unsafe conditions.
Federal law mandates that one nurse can only care for two patients in a critical care unit; Linda’s staff routinely care for three patients; many non-nursing tasks were also added due to the cut in nursing support services. This dangerous situation is occurring nationwide. Mr. Administrator may be qualified to administer, balance budgets and collect a 6-figure income, but he is not qualified to run the nursing aspects of a hospital. He does not know what nurses really need to do or how precious what they do is to their critically ill patients. Hasn’t Mr. Administrator heard of participatory management?