Ethical Situation
Nurse managers face a wide variety of challenges daily. They are often deemed responsible for making decisions related to patients, nurses, and staffing. These decisions are often ethical in nature, as the manager must make hard decisions regarding maintaining patient safety, keeping nursing staff happy, and maintaining a budget set by the facility. According to Kath, Stichler, Ehrhart, and Sievers (2013), the nurse manager role is critical to organizational success, patient outcomes, and staff job satisfaction and empowerment (p. 1475). The foremost concern of a nurse manager is to ensure the safety of both patients and nursing staff. However, the nurse manager must also strive to stay within the budget. Nursing managers …show more content…
The first step, when determining a solution to the problem is to look at where patient safety measures have failed, and make a note of the findings. Next, have a staff meeting to discussion nurse concerns about additional staff needs. The nurse manager should sympathize the nurses regarding their request to increase staffing for safer care and make notes of information obtained. In addition, the manager should inquire with the nursing staff on what ideas they might have on how to fix the situation. The manager should express understanding regarding the increased need for more staff to facilitate safer patient care. Then, the nurse manager should express, that due to the current budget it might be difficult to increase staff. However, the manager should let the staff know that he or she will advocate for an increase in the budget so that additional staff can be added. In addition, the manager will present her case using evidenced-based data obtained regarding the incident and nurse concerns to a member of the leadership team. The leadership team will be more likely to listen to the manager's concerns if evidence is presented as to why the current patient-staff ratio is not safe to continue. Ultimately, everyone agrees that quality, safe patient care is the biggest concern of any …show more content…
It is a difficult situation to fix when the resources are not available. However, the main concern of any nursing manager is to ensure safe patient care is given. However, he or she also has to ensure the nursing staff remains safe. In addition, the manager must be sympathetic to the concerns of the nursing staff and attempt to make changes if possible.
Nurse managers face a wide variety of challenges daily. They are often deemed responsible for making decisions related to patients, nurses, and staffing. These decisions are often ethical in nature, as the manager must make hard decisions regarding maintaining patient safety, keeping nursing staff happy, and maintaining a budget set by the facility. According to Kath, Stichler, Ehrhart, and Sievers (2013), the nurse manager role is critical to organizational success, patient outcomes, and staff job satisfaction and empowerment (p. 1475). The foremost concern of a nurse manager is to ensure the safety of both patients and nursing staff. However, the nurse manager must also strive to stay within the budget. Nursing managers …show more content…
The first step, when determining a solution to the problem is to look at where patient safety measures have failed, and make a note of the findings. Next, have a staff meeting to discussion nurse concerns about additional staff needs. The nurse manager should sympathize the nurses regarding their request to increase staffing for safer care and make notes of information obtained. In addition, the manager should inquire with the nursing staff on what ideas they might have on how to fix the situation. The manager should express understanding regarding the increased need for more staff to facilitate safer patient care. Then, the nurse manager should express, that due to the current budget it might be difficult to increase staff. However, the manager should let the staff know that he or she will advocate for an increase in the budget so that additional staff can be added. In addition, the manager will present her case using evidenced-based data obtained regarding the incident and nurse concerns to a member of the leadership team. The leadership team will be more likely to listen to the manager's concerns if evidence is presented as to why the current patient-staff ratio is not safe to continue. Ultimately, everyone agrees that quality, safe patient care is the biggest concern of any …show more content…
It is a difficult situation to fix when the resources are not available. However, the main concern of any nursing manager is to ensure safe patient care is given. However, he or she also has to ensure the nursing staff remains safe. In addition, the manager must be sympathetic to the concerns of the nursing staff and attempt to make changes if possible.