Running head: MANAGER 1

Analyzing a Nurse in a Leader or Manager Role

Lindsey Koch
Ferris State University






MANAGER 2

Analyzing a Nurse in a Leader or Manager Role
This paper is regarding analyzing a nurse in a leader or managerial role. I will analyze my
bosss role and their job duties. My manager is a registered nurse (RN), and she later obtained
her bachelors degree in nursing (BSN) from Ferris State University (FSU). She started out
working as an RN and later took on a managerial role when she obtained her BSN. My manager
has been working for Mid-Michigan for quite some time. She is currently the private duty
manager.
Job Duties
Some of the job duties of my manager are to supervise the nursing staff, check on
patients, do interviews, and do yearly performance reviews. She states that these are her main
duties, and she works hard to complete them. She supervises approximately forty staff members
and oversees their work. Even though she is a manager, she has a couple managers over her that
directly supervisor her. She also works closely with another manager that is on her same level.
She reports to her direct supervisor and her forty staff members that she supervises report to her.
Collaboration Role
My supervisor collaborates with another manager that is on her level. She also works
with the computer technician, nurses, doctors, and billing. The have meetings as necessary to
complete their work. She is mostly in contact with the nurses that contact her and the other
manager that she works closely with. When necessary, she collaborates with her boss, but she
tries to work through the issues on her own. However, the team works quite well together to
problem solve.
MANAGER 3

Legal and Ethical
One ethical issue that my supervisor has been managing is a patient, who is a child, and
their parent is not providing care for them. The family states that they are providing care, but
there is continual facts showing that the patients care is not being provided by the family. As
nurses, we must document everything that we see and what the parents tell us to do. The
American Nurses Association (ANA) (2010) states that this taking appropriate action regarding
instances of illegal, unethical, or inappropriate behavior that can endanger or jeopardize the bst
interests of the healthcare consumer or situation (p. 47). This helps us back us legally and
ethically. For example, the family was complaining that care was not being provided as it should
be. However, they were telling nurses not to complete treatments. The nurses then needed to
provide documentation showing that the family was asking the nurses not to complete care in a
certain way.
Power and Influence
My manager uses her power and influence to not only positively influence her coworkers, but to
also positively influence the patient. Heldman (2011) states, The majority of your workplace
will be spent interacting with people, so its important to understand how people tick, what
motivates them, and how to keep them focused and on task (p. 41). For example, she influences
the nurses to work hard to continue to grow so they can provide better care for the patients. By
providing better care for the patients, we are improving the patients quality of life. Considering
many of our patients are children, we are also improving the family of the patients life. She does
quite a good job on this because she continually encourages me to grow as a nurse.
Decision-Making and Problem-Solving Process
MANAGER 4

My manager just recently spoke to me about decision making and problem solving. She
encourages her nursing staff to try to make decisions and problem solve on their own. If we have
questions, we are always welcome to ask her, but we should try to grow as nurses and solve
issues on our own. This is an area that the staff gets reviewed on during their yearly performance
review. According to Yoder-Wise (2011), they stated that, Evaluations, however, are usually
done annually and also may be required after a schedule orientation period for new employees
(p. 298). I had evaluations after my new orientation period was completed and then I just had an
annual evaluation. Decision-making and problem-solving is a major area that we work on to
provide excellent care for our patients. Our patients can gain quicker and more proficient care if
the nurses are competent in their decision making.
Management and Resolution of Conflict
There have been a couple issues with conflicts in patients homes. It is difficult for a
family to have nurses in their home daily. Conflicts can occur, and they should be reported to our
manager as they happen. For example, I had an issue with one of my patients hitting, biting, and
spitting on me. I spoke to my manager about this and what I should do about it. She spoke to me
about how I should handle it, to contact her about it, and to document it each time it happens.
She promptly took care of the conflict and reassured me that I did the right thing.
Conclusion
Overall, I think I have an excellent manager. She speaks to me with respect, and she
doesnt bombard me with issues at reviews. If there is an issue, she speaks to you right away
which means a lot to me. A good manager will discuss issues with your right away so you dont
MANAGER 5

have to worry about being blindsided. My manager meets all of the requirements of a good
manager, and I am extremely proud to be part of her team.
















MANAGER 6

References
American Nurses Association. (2010). Nursing: Scope and standards of practice. (2
nd
ed). Silver Spring,
MD: nursesbooks.org
Heldman, K. (2011). Project Management Jumpstart. Wiley Publishing (3rd). Indianapolis, Indiana.
Yoder-Wise (2011). Leading & Managing in Nursing (5th ed, Rev). St. Louis, MO: Saunders.