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Today's Energizer: "She was a great (but unpopular) CNO!"

from America's non-profit Nursing Recruiting and Services Agency
The Career Institute -- Employment by Nurses for Nurses!

A National Magazine for Nursing Management, Staff Nurses, Pracitoners & Hospital Dept. Heads
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It's lonely ...and dangerous up there on a pedestal!! Your enemies can easily topple you!		When I was still a CEO, I worked with a Chief Nursing Officer who was professionally very, very competent. She knew her nursing protocols, was fabulous with budgets, never caused a single fight in the hospital, presented herself wonderfully at board meetings, and repeatedly landed us Zero Deficiencies and Accdreditation with Commendation when Joint Commission came to call. But, she didn't have very many friends. We had the usual "team-builder" stuff like monthly staff birthday parties, Employee of the Month, and, when she made rounds, she was very nice to everyone, listened to their complaints, and truly tried to address them. On the surface, she was great! But, still, she didn't have very many friends. In spite of her obvious warmth and very sincere caring, the staff thought of her as standoffish. One unit director said that this CNO seemed to be on a Pedestal. That's impossible! She's a CEO's dream come true! How could this be!? This was a textbook perfect CNO, the kind CEO's only dream about but never seem to be able to hire. The problem: Here's the ingredient that was missing in this professional's otherwise sterling career: She didn't mix! She never sat with staff nurses or aides at lunch. In fact, she never ate lunch with them at all.... Conscientious CNO that she was, she spent virtually every noonhour munching on a snack alone in her office, pouring over budgets or reports. If one of our staff got sick or was admitted for surgery, she wouldn't visit them in the hospital unless invited, stating that she had no right to use the patient admission information to which she was privy. She couldn't -- and wouldn't -- visit these folks unless she was specifically invited to do so. (Which she rarely was, since people thought she was on a Pedestal!) If a nurse or nuring unit director mentioned that they needed a couple of hours off to attend their child's school play, this CNO always said, "Hey, take the time and don't worry about it. You come in here plenty of evenings and weekends. Go! Have fun!" But, still, she was seen as distant from the "troops" who reported to her. I asked about it and she told me that she couldn't get "too buddy-buddy" with people she might have to end up discliplining or, in the worst cases, even have to fire down the line. It was a good point, in theory. But, using the Almighty Power Vested in me as CEO, I ordered her to go one step further. The solution: Here's what this terrific CNO was instructed to try: Eat lunch with the staff a couple of days a week. Take a tray and go sit with some CNA's, or some housekeeping people. When a staff member was a patient in the hospital, she had to get someone to find out if he or she felt well enough for visitors from Administration. If so...go visit! (In fact, if the patient had to continue recovering at home, set up a time to stop by and say "hi" there, too!) When one of the staff's kids was in a school play or won an award, get the unit director and go ("But, if I miss somebody, they'll think I'm playing favorites! I can't go to all of those events -- I'll never get any work done!" The sage CEO replied, "this is your work, at least for now. Try it!" We never heard any complaints of favoritism, by-the-way. More and more people just started issuing invitations to the events that were important to them. But, we did draw a line limiting these "outings" to working hours. This CNO worked hard enough during the daytime without having to give up her evenings and weekends, too! No problem, once people caught on....") What happened? Over a surprisingly short period of time, only a few weeks, people were bending over backwards to be nice to her. Housekeepers proudly showed her pictures of their new grandchildren. It got back to me that our nurses were "lording it over" nurses at the competing hospital across town, bragging that our CNO was "more cool" than their creepy old hag! I knew our plan had worked when I was wandering through the PACU one day and overheard a particularly antagonistic physician whinning to an RN and an aide that "Nursing Administration doesn't give a damn about you." In the past, these staffers would have smiled knowingly and agreed with the doc. But, this time, they stood up straight, looked the physician in the eye, and said, "you must be getting us mixed up with (the other major hospital in town). Our administration is great! You shouldn't be bad-mouthing them. They really, really care about us!"

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