RE: New and Head nurse

Mark Hedberg — Fri, 09 Jan 2015 10:57:39 GMT

You bet. PM me for more personalized advice, but first off, take a deep breath and don't worry, there is help out there. You can get advice, CPD, and even qualifications that will help you cope with the people and management skills to get a team to really tick.

1. Honestly, one of my favorite bits of advice is a bit counter-intuitive. "Don't just do something, stand there!" It's a huge temptation to get in the driving seat and start rearranging things to a master plan, but before you do that, it pays to take a few days to really listen to the practice, get used to what is 'normal' before you start tinkering. It takes a bit of bravery, but it's really a great tip, trust me. You may know the practice really well as a nurse, but as a boss, the perspective can be different - how they treat you, how you treat them, the new bits of your job, and dealing with changes in your old job.

Remind me - are you a new hire as a head nurse, or have you been promoted internally?

2. Do exactly what you're doing now. Ask for advice, ask for opinions, and don't be afraid to ask the team for their opinions on solving problems that affect them. You're not always going to have all the answers; don't pretend you do. That doesn't mean they get to vote on your decisions; it does mean that you take advantage of previous experiences. It's possible they had a similar problem before and they can tell you what didn't work. Why reinvent the wheel?

3. Find out what their biggest and most urgent problem is. One of the big questions is figuring out what their big priority is; no better way to find out than asking them! You'll never be wrong by fixing their problems, but a big part of your job will be setting up systems to make sure that problems don't crop up. That's not asking you to be a miracle worker, of course, but it means that after learning the first bits, you can start experimenting, if need be.

4. How broken are things? If things are in crisis mode, fight the forest fires, of course, but if things are working well, start softly. Get some small successes before you climb mountains. (You may not have time for this if things are seriously messed up, of course.)

The above is extremely general advice. Without knowing more about your specific situation, there's a lot of advice that might or might not help; but I'm happy to help if I can.

Good luck!

Mark