Hey Fella's! I thought this is something that many of you would have a field day with and come up with some really great responses to. This is one of the phases of our hiring process. Each applicant has already underwent several interviews and peer interviews to this point, so the field is narrowed down to 2-3 people, typically. We ask that each answer the following five questions and respond appropriately. The responses are then reviewed by the HR Team and candidates are then filtered for the next phase or even selected for the job.  This is for a management position.  Let's see what you come up with:

1. A staff member comes to you, as their manager, and tells you that they justreturnedfrom a client's home and that the patient asked, “What’s wrong with that employee"  She never sits down.  She’s always texting on her phone.  She always seems distracted, like her mind is somewhere else.”  And the patient reports the nurse doesn’t check her vital signs each visit like the other staff members do.  The worker tells you that she offered to talk with the staff member in question about it; but the client told the staff member not to say anything to them.

How would you counsel the staff member who came to you?  What are the ethical and professional considerations and obligations, to both the client and to the interdisciplinary team?

How would you have addressed the situation if you were the staff member the patient confided in?  What would you have said to the client?  What course of action would you have taken?

2. You have assumed the responsibility of the Manager for this department. and you immediately asses that most of the nurses are exhibiting signs of job stress.  Negative attitudes, mistrust, interpersonal conflicts, unaddressed deadlines and demands are all aimed at each other and also at you, as the manager.  You realize that patient care responsibilities can certainly place high levels of stress on the nurses and even higher levels of stress on the nursing leaders, as a result.  However, every tactic you have tried as not worked such as:

Meeting individually with the staff to listen and support
Helping them to realize how to accomplish some new goals
Reviewing organization skills
Clarifying some competing daily priorities

Now, they seem to be too busy to meet individually or in groups for discussion and you are quickly running out of ideas.  You know that how you handle stressors is central to your effectiveness and longevity as a manager, so you are determined to find ways to “fix” your nurses…

3. You are a new leader in a relatively small department.  This department has been struggling with decreased job satisfaction.  The employees are performing their jobs adequately, but not excellently.  There is also quite a bit of animosity among the staff and team work is not a priority.  The employees are concerned more about themselves, than the patients or each other.

4. In your leadership role, you discover that a team member has gone “over your head” to complain about another team member’s requested days off.  How do you handle the situation?

5. As the newly appointed Manager, your seasoned staff members have made several requests for changes; some of the changes have their best interests and the other changes in their opinion are best for the whole as an organization.  The staff members informed you that they have made these same recommendations to previous  managers “but nothing ever gets changed; no one listens to us; we are hoping that you will make these changes very soon.”  They implied that if the changes are not made, then you are “just like all the other managers, sitting behind your desk dong nothing but giving orders.”