I want to be a good leader

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Today the medical records supervisor came to talk with me about some things.  We talked about  business details and then she clued me in on a situation with one of the nurses. I appreciate the low key way that she sometimes lets me know about issues with staff.  Small things, but the kind of small things which if they continue over time could cause problems. The kind of stuff I might not be in a position to see.

She told me that one of the LVN charge nurses named Dustin seemed a bit upset.  She said that she noticed he'd been different lately.  I asked her if she knew why and she said that she thinks the DON wrote him up for his medication audit.  I felt a twinge of guilt. I've been applying pressure on the DON to get her to do her job.  The only way I know to do that with someone like her is to point to very concrete things such as how poorly the medication audits are.  I informed her a couple of weeks ago that I will be monitoring to ensure that she decreases the volume of errors.  I didn't say it but previously she'd basically been ignoring the audits. Apparently the way she chose to approach that was to write staff up.  Dustin was one of those staff.

Dustin is one of our best nurses.  He's got two things that make him steller: he's got a caring spirit and loads of common sense.  I don't want a good staff to feel unappreciated.  So I prayed about how to approach him. I didn't exactly plan out what I'd say, I just prayed that God would give me the words. I waited until later in the evening and approached Dustin and asked if he had a couple of minutes.  He followed me into my office.  I told him that I wasn't quite sure how to bring something up but was just gonna be transparent with him 'cuz that's how I work. I said I'd heard he received a write up and didn't want him to be discouraged.  I told him that he's one of our best nurses because he obviously truly cares for patients and has common sense.  We talked for a bit. We even talked about the medication audit results.  I explained that I'd put pressure on the DON to produce a decrease in error findings.  He admitted that he understands that it's a liability for the facility to have so many errors.  I agreed with that and also said that God forbid that these weren't just signing errors - what if some of them represent medications that weren't given to patients?  But we also talked about how much I appreciate him and how great he is as a nurse.  He talked about some of his challenges on the shift today and I gave him empathy about his struggles.  He told me that he was so glad that I talked with him because he feels appreciated.

I'm so grateful that it turned out.  I want to have people held accountable, and I also want caring, good people to be commended.  I want them to feel heard and appreciated.