After the three months that Carol Greely was assigned as the nurse manager of the medical/surgical unit, it was clear to her that the unit had nurses that were incompetent and unprofessional. As a nurse manager, Carol Greely had extensive experience of 25 years as a registered nurse and 10 years as a nurse manager. Therefore, she is capable of dealing with issues of the medical/surgical unit designated as a “hot seat.” It was called a hot sit primarily because nurses assigned to the unit thought that it was a concentration of marginal employees. However, upon further scrutiny, Carol found that the nurses were underperforming. They were always absent, and there many violations regarding the dress code. In addition, the nurses at the department had initiated an attempt to organize the nursing personnel of the hospital through a union, but the move failed.
For this reason, for Carol to accomplish her mission of turning the hot seat into a real nursing unit, she would first need to address the issue of dressing code violations. Since these violations were numerous, she needs to make it mandatory that every nurse should enter the dressing unit with the right clothes every instance they report. Failure to that, they should be subjected to punitive measures. Since nurses at the unit were worst dressed in the nursing department, punitive measures would ensure that everyone complied. In addition, she should perform routine check-ups to ensure that the violations are made no more (Dekker et al., 2016). Punitive measures include putting in place monetary fines. Since nurse managers are responsible for planning the finances of the unit and human resources, putting in place such a move would be important in ensuring that they are observant of the dress code (McCallin & Frankson, 2010). Carol should also initiate suspension once a nurse repeats the offense more than three times.
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Additionally, Carol also needs to crack down on the absenteeism. If a nurse misses work, they need to receive a written warning. To further show that absenteeism is not permissible, Carol should inform the top management of the misconduct to revise codes punishing the behavior. In most organizations, absenteeism is a huge misconduct or offense, and thus, making it an offense that can warrant a dismissal ( Wang & Gupta, 2014) . For this reason, Carol can adopt a similar stance, where employees are suspended once they miss work three times. Once the nurse is suspended but still repeats the offense, they should be dismissed since this portrays a high incompetence.
The move by the nurses to initiate a union action by attempting to organize the nurses means that the nurses are highly dissatisfied with working in the unit and could also imply burnout (Vahey, Aiken, Sloane, Clarke, & Vargas, 2004). For this reason, Carol should listen to the grievances of the nurses and try to mitigate or rectify them. For instance, Carol can put in place a suggestion box where the nurses can put individual letters to highlight their opinions on bettering the nursing unit. Anonymity is key since the nurses will feel freer to highlight their challenges. After learning of the grievances, Carol should mitigate them by bettering their experience while working in the unit. In this case, punitive measures cannot apply. Instead, using other methods to motivate the nurses is paramount. This includes an additional bonus for good conduct, as well as the introduction of the “best nurse of the month” recognition in the medical/surgical unit. This will go a long way in motivating them.
Additionally, Carol should discourage schedule jiggling and nurses’ request for changes in shifts that are not scheduled. Carol should ban all such instances unless the nurse has a very good reason for missing. However, it is important to highlight that adding such a clause in the employment contract can initiate a loophole where the nurses can exploit. For this reason, removing clauses that advocate for changing shift schedules or providing reasons for missing work should be removed. Carol should make it clear that no such moves should be tolerated and clarify that this is an unacceptable behavior.
The human resource management of the hospital can be handy in implementing these steps. For instance, the department can revise the employment contract in that absenteeism should be treated as a misconduct punishable by suspension and dismissal. This will reinforce the assertion that absenteeism is wrong and unacceptable in the unit. Besides, the human resources can be of benefit to Carol by incorporating motivational packages, which should be announced to all nurses in the department. Revising the employee contract on dressing code provisions by making it a punishable misconduct is also important. This will prevent any future violations. Also, routine check-ups on whether the nurses have the permitted dress code are vital as it will show how serious the hospital is pertaining to dress codes (Dekker et al., 2016). Additionally, the human resources can change the false perceptions that the nursing fraternity in the hospital has on working in the medical/surgical department. They believe that being assigned to the unit is equal to being considered a malcontent. For this reason, the human resources and Carol should change this perception and let them know that working in the department is just as equal as working in other departments in the hospital. In addition, the human resources department can be handy in solving the issues of changing shifts and absenteeism facing the unit by hiring additional nurses or assigning more nurses to the department as a precautionary measure to avoid overworking other nurses once absenteeism or changing working shifts occur. As such, Carol and the human resource department working in collaboration will be vital for the improvement of the department in terms of observance of hospital code of conduct and meeting the job duties and responsibilities.
References
Dekker, M., Caris, M. G., van Gunsteren, A. M., van Mansfeld, R., Lucas, C., & Vandenbroucke-Grauls, C. M. (2017). Effectiveness of a Behavioral Approach to Improve Healthcare Worker Compliance With Hospital Dress Code. Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology , 38 (12), 1435-1440.
McCallin, A. M., & Frankson, C. (2010). The role of the charge nurse manager: a descriptive exploratory study. Journal of Nursing Management , 18 (3), 319-325.
Vahey, D. C., Aiken, L. H., Sloane, D. M., Clarke, S. P., & Vargas, D. (2004). Nurse burnout and patient satisfaction. Medical care , 42 (2 Suppl), II57. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmc2904602/
Wang, W. Y., & Gupta, D. (2014). Nurse absenteeism and staffing strategies for hospital inpatient units. Manufacturing & Service Operations Management , 16 (3), 439-454.
