Nursing entails providing assistance to patients from the time they are admitted into a nursing home until they are discharged. Nursing may sound simple verbally but the act itself requires a lot of commitment. This paper focuses on how a nursing manager can monitor the performance of the nurses assigned to him/her with the aim of improving delivery.
A nurse manager should ensure that every nurse in his/her department has the relevant training. The resume of the nurse should be perused to determine whether the nurse has any experience in nursing apart from the usual industrial attachment. The least experienced nurses should be given duties that are less complex but should also be introduced to complex cases gradually. The response displayed by the nurse as he/she is moved to various departments should be noted because it will be used to determine his/her willingness to work (Radcliffe, 2000).
To become a professional nurse one needs to have a strong heart because a nurse is supposed to remain composed even when the condition of the patient continues to deteriorate. If the nurse panics, the patient may lose hope which could affect the healing pressure. A committed nurse should not be afraid of dressing the wounds because that’s her/his scope of work.
A manager should observe the nurses as they execute their duties without their knowledge. Among the things to consider is the punctuality of the nurse. Huber (2006) argues that a nurse just like any other employee is expected to report to work on time because he/she is the one assigned to monitor the progress of the patients. If a nurse is not punctual the patients may not be attended to accordingly and duties such as distribution of medicines could be delayed.
Nurses should be able to establish good relationships with the patients, which are essential in fostering communication between the patient and the medical personnel. This communication is vital because a patient could be experiencing some health problems and the only person who can be reached is the nurse.
Nightingale and MacDonald (2005) explain that a nurse should work under minimal supervision because she/he knows what he/she is supposed to do hence she/he should exhibit maturity. A manager can gauge a nurse’s maturity by observing the performance of the nurse in question when nobody is watching her/him. Some nurses are fond of doing their own things or simply idle around when they are sure they are not being watched.
A competent nurse should be able to work with other nurses because some tasks require collective efforts hence when such cases arise all nurses are expected to work as a team and with one voice. Additionally, the manager should check across the board to identify the nurses who do their work with a lot of enthusiasm because there are some nurses who join this profession just to earn a living and they are the ones who are fond of neglecting their tasks.
A nurse should respect the rights of patients because they are human beings hence should have the interests of the patients at heart and thus should not be arrogant while handling patients. There are nurses who shy away from certain tasks because they feel they are filthy. The love for patients, in that case, cannot be instilled. If the manager notices such behavior in a nurse she/he assigns more of such tasks to the nurse in question.
Carefulness is important in nursing because if the nurse is not careful he/she may give the wrong dose to the wrong patient. Freemon (2001) argues that carefulness is also necessary when dressing the wounds of a patient because if the nurse is rough it might cause further injuries. A nurse who talks loudly or shouts at his/her fellow nurses should not be allowed to work in the intensive care unit because such patients need silence than anyone else.
A nurse is supposed to stick to the instructions of the doctor to the end and if he/she feels something is not being done right or something is missing she/he should not do it without consulting the doctor. This is because in case of a fatal fault the doctor could lose his credibility and as well as that of the hospital.
A nurse should remain vigilant while at work. A nurse should watch how the patients sleep because some patients do not take their medication as required which affects their healing process. And in case a nurse needs to tell a patient about something negative that he/she would like the patient to stop doing, he/she should use polite language. A nurse should not talk negatively about a patient’s situation while he/she is in close vicinity with the patient because the patient could feel humiliated by such gossip. In essence, the explained management of nurses ensures that patients get the proper care that they have paid for.
References
Freemon, R. F. (2001).Gangrene and glory: medical care during the American civil war. Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press.
Huber, D. (2006). Leadership and Nursing Care Management. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Saunders Elsevier.
Radcliffe, M. (2000). ”Doctors and nurses: new game, same result”. British Medical Journal. 320 (7241):1085.
Nightingale, F. and MacDonald, L. (2005). Florence Nightingale on women, medicine, midwifery and prostitution. Canada: Wilfred Laurier University Press.