While completing this weeks assignments I started thinking about strategic planning.  I was not real familiar with the term and wanted to do some research to find out how much it was used in nursing.  I came across an article about implementing healthcare informatics in nursing education, and the authors were talking about strategic planning.  I found it interesting when the authors were talking about the differences between conventional planning and strategic planning.  Sackett, Jones, and Erdley (2009) noted that "Strategic planning takes into account the vision of long range goals for the institution and is an on-going evaluationary process.  Conventional planning tends to be more strictly focused" (p. 100).  I never really thought there was a difference, when you say planning I think that is when you make a plan to do something.  I guess am much more in the mind set of conventional planning.  The article also mentioned that the idea of strategic planning was difficult for healthcare professionals, so maybe that is why I was struggling at first with this concept. 

I have also found a new analysis that I like the SWOT analysis, which is the
S - strengths
W - weaknesses
O - opportunities
T - Threats

This is new to me but I think I may have to start using it with my health team.  It may not be used in the same way that you use it in big organizations, but I think we could adapt it to our small group.  I can forsee using this sort of as an evaluation tool.  They can do their own SWOT analysis on themselves.  They can look at their strengths and weaknesses.  Then they can give some opportunities they might have, like going to trainings or become part of a community group.  The threat will be looked at as what threats do they see that might hinder them from doing their job well.  I know this is not maybe how it was intended to be used, but I really think it would be a good evaluation tool. 

I know my organization performs a Self Evaluation each year, which I associate with a SWOT analysis.  They are looking at strengths, weakness, and ways to improve the programs that are offered.  I take part in this every year, but never put much stock into until now.  I think this year I will try to be much more involved and help with some of the analysis. 

Reference:
Sackett, K., Jones, J., & Erdley, W. S. (2005). Incorporating healthcare informatics into the strategic planning process in nursing education. Nursing Leadership Forum, 9(3), 98-104. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/207441903?accountid=8483

While researching Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) I ran across an article by Smith and Alexander (2013) that talked about the wording companies are using instead of CSR.  I found it interesting when it was talking about Wellness Programs, because I am the Wellness Coordinator at my workplace.  When I thought of CSR I thought of much more grandiose things that companies were doing, not really about Wellness Programs.  Wellness Programs are defined in Smith and Alexander's (2013) article as being "A wellness program is a comprehensive health program designed to maintain a high level of well-being through proper diets, light exercises, stress management, and illness prevention."  (p. 161) 

I believe Wellness Programs are vital to businesses.  Not only are they good for companies to say they have them, but it is good for employee moral.  Last year I put on my first Wellness Escape at my work.  We partnered with the local YMCA to put together some exercise classes, some health and wellness talks, BMI evaluations, and had vendors come to talk about products and services that they offered.  This event was a huge success and the employee requested we do it again this year.  It was a nice day to just get away from the stress of work and have fun. 

As a supervisor I am seeing more and more the need to help my staff have better health and wellness.  When you are feeling good physically and mentally then your work productivity is much better.  I like to have some time with my staff at meetings to just reflect on the things that have been going on with each one of them.  This sometimes becomes a complaining session, but I think it helps free people's minds so they can focus on the new things we are about to talk about.  I do have to monitor this session closely that it does not get too out of hand or off track. 

Wellness Programs are important and should be utilized by all companies.

Reference:

Smith, K., & Alexander, J. J. (2013). Which CSR-Related Headings Do Fortune 500 Companies Use on Their Websites?. Business Communication Quarterly, 76(2), 155-171. doi:10.1177/1080569912471185

  

Ethics what a dilemma.  So this week we are looking at ethics in business in MGT 500, but I want to focus on ethics in nursing.  Though it is argued that nursing is a business, I am looking more at the act of nursing.  As I nurse for the past 14 years I have had my fair share of ethical dilemmas come across my path, especially since I work in the obstetrics and pediatric fields.  I have had people ask me about abortions and experimental treatments that could be done and I always say "I can't make that decision for you."  I feel like making choices that are ethically challenging must be made by the person or people it affects most.  I don't feel that it is my place to tell someone they should have experimental treatments done, that is something they need to decide. 

An article by Ulrich, Taylor, Soeken, O'Donnell, Farrar, Danis, & Grady (2010) talks about the ethical dilemmas that nurses face every day.  The top five issues that nurses noted most were: protecting patient rights, autonomy and informed consent for treatment, staffing patterns, advanced care planning, and surrogate decision making.  All of these issues come up in nursing often, but the one that I find most challenging is the topic of end of life care.  I have had experience with this on both sides of the topic as a nurse and as a family member.  As a nurse I give the information to the family and let them make the decision, but when I had to help decide whether to put my mom in hospice that was one of the worse decisions I ever had to make.  Sometimes knowing too much can be a curse. 

A less severe look at ethics would be taking a look at things like leaving work early when the boss is not around or taking home supplies from work for your own household use.  As a manager I have to trust that those I supervise are ethically and morally able to make good decisions when it comes to things like this.  I am not with my staff all the time because they are housed in different buildings, so I don't know for sure that they come in on time and leave on time.  I have told them many of times that I just have to trust that they are doing the right things, but if I find out that they are not then there will be some changes made to the process we currently have.  Fortunately I have had no issues in the 2 years I have been supervising them and I hope I never do.  I do think it is important to let staff know that you trust them and that they are accountable for their own actions.  This may backfire one day but I am hopeful that it will not.

References:
Ulrich, C., Taylor, C., Soeken, K., O'Donnell, P., Farrar, A., Danis, M., & Grady, C. (2010). Everyday ethics: ethical issues and stress in nursing practice. Journal Of Advanced Nursing, 66(11), 2510-2519. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2648.2010.05425.x

While reading Jim Collins book Good to Great I was struck by the idea of passion.  Collins talks about how companies need to have passion, and their employees need to have passion about the company.  It made me start thinking about my passions for what I do and where I work.  I am truly passionate about being a nurse.  There is no other job I would rather do than be a nurse!  I have known since I was young that I wanted to be a nurse, and even though I changed the type of clients I wanted to take care of I still wanted to be a nurse. 

Working now with the Early Childhood population (Head Start, Early Head Start, and Preschools) I have gotten to see other peoples passions.  Working in a hospital you get to see the healthcare passion, but there is a whole other passion in early childhood.  The teachers are passionate about teaching and having the children learn new things.  As the Health Coordinator I am excited to see the kids and families be healthier and make good healthcare choices.  Everyone I work with has a passion for what they are doing, and it is not the money.  The Early Childhood programs don't pay much, but everyone is there because they love what they do. 

An article by Vallerand, Paquet, Philippe, & Charest, (2010) discussed the difference between obsessive passion and harmonious passion.  The suggested that obsessive passion would cause conflict between work and other parts of a persons life.  Where harmonious passion would indicate work satisfaction.  The study showed that it is true, if a person is obsessive about their passion especially at work there may be a conflict between work responsibilities and other life responsibilities, it also leads to more burnout.  Harmonious passion did prove to lead to better work satisfaction, with people being excited to go to work.  I would hope that everyone stays in harmonious passion.

As a supervisor in the early childhood realm I hope that my passion is visible to those I work with and supervise.  I also hope that they are passionate about their work.  We sometimes find people that we say "have quit but are still working" meaning they no longer have passion for the job, it is just a job.  I hope this never happens to me and if it does I hope someone points it out.  I think the best way to stay passionate is to learn new things and take the initiative to keep yourself passionate.  Without passion you will never truly be happy.

Reference:
Collins, J. (2001) Good to Great. HarperCollins Publisher Inc. New York, NY

Vallerand, R., Paquet, Y., Philippe, F., & Charest, J. (2010). On the role of passion for work in burnout: a process model. Journal Of Personality, 78(1), 289-312. doi:10.1111/j.1467-6494.2009.00616.

Personality is defined as the combination of characteristics or qualities that form an individual's distinctive character.(Google definition)  I recently took a personality assessment, and was not surprised by what it said.  My results showed traits like being altruistic and supportive, rarely siting ideal, going above and beyond, understating achievements, loyalty, commitment, patience, and puts family first.  I would say all of these things describe me fairly well, but what does that mean for my management style?  I am finding that these traits can be both good and bad when you are a supervisor.  Being supportive, going above and beyond, and being committed to work are great qualities to have, but sometimes can get you walked on at work.  I find myself doing tasks that should be delegated because I don't want to upset or put too much work on those I supervise.  This leads to me becoming overwhelmed and anxious.

I read an article by Eley, Elye, Bertello, & Rogers-Clark (2012) that was entitled "Why did I become a nurse?  Personality traits and reasons for entering nursing.  The study was done to see what the reasons were that people got into nursing.  The authors interviewed nurses and nursing students to find out why they chose nursing.  The two main themes that they found were "opportunity for caring" and "my vocation in life" (Eley, 2012, p. 1546).  I feel like these are true statements for myself and most of the nurses I have worked with.  I know I got into nursing because I just knew that is what I wanted to do with my life. 

I think it is important as a supervisor to know the personalities of those you supervise, this can help make your life easier.  I supervise 3 women and all their personalities are different, extremely different.  One is go with the flow and does whatever is asked of her with very little complaint or push back.  One is not as easy going and tends to find reasons why she doesn't think she can do the task asked of her.  And the other is reactive and get upset at any extra work or change that is presented to her.  Knowing the personalities of these 3 have helped me be better at presenting tasks and changes to them.  I know that the first person I can just explain what I need and how it needs to be done and they will do it.  The other 2 I have to be a little more delicate about the way I ask.  This has made a huge difference in how I supervise.  When I started supervising them I thought that everyone would be willing to pitch in and help like I would, but I found out quickly that was not the case.

Working in healthcare and early childhood education I have found many different personalities.  Between trying to figure out the personalities of the staff there is also the parents we work with.  This can be a challenge for everyone, trying to figure out who needs what and how they need to get it. 

I would love to have my staff take the personality assessment and have us talk about it.  I might look at implementing this close to the time of yearly evaluations, that way we can look at strengths and weaknesses and they can help identify some things they need to improve on.  I want to state that my staff is Wonderful and even though dealing with their personalities can be a challenge these women are great people and they are dedicated to their jobs, so I will work around the challenge. 

Reference:

Eley, D., Eley, R., Bertello, M., & Rogers-Clark, C. (2012). Why did I become a nurse? Personality traits and reasons for entering nursing. Journal Of Advanced Nursing, 68(7), 1546-1555. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2648.2012.05955.x

Today while reading for MGT 500 I read through Habit 1 of Stephen Covey's The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.  Habit 1 deals with a lot of different things but one thing that really stood out to me was the language that we use.  Covey talks about being proactive not reactive, meaning be positive not negative.  He talks about how we make choices to let others hurt us and change our perception of ourselves.  This hit home with me.  I thought about the day and what language I used today when talking with people.  I used a lot of phrases that had the words "I can't" and "I have to" all of these phrases put me in a negative state of mind.  I was telling my self all the things that I thought I was not able to do or had to do.  Yes there are things that I cannot physically do and there are things that have to be done, but it is how I go about telling myself about those things.  I know if I don't do certain things at work like turn in my payroll calendar I will not get paid, but I am making a choice to turn in my payroll calendar so I do get paid.  So I don't have to turn it in, but I choose to turn it in.

I think this new thought process will help me in my management style.  I feel that if I can be a more proactive positive person that staff will see that and they will be more proactive as well.  Covey tells a story about how one person changed the entire structure of an organization simply by being proactive, to the point where no one would make any decisions without consulting with him first.  I want to be the positive proactive person in my workplace that people gravitate to because of their outlook, not just so they have someone to complain to.

This week in MGT 500 we are talking about time and stress management.  Dr. Montag posed a true or false question to us during her lecture video about who has more stress managers or the employees they supervise.  I started thinking about my personal situation with stress and those that I supervise.  I feel that I have a fair amount of stress with all the things that I am being asked to do at work, but I also feel that those that I supervise are also under a lot of stress.  The answer to the question that was posed to us was that the employees that were being supervised had more stress.  One reason for that is that the managers have more autonomy than the employees.  I can definitely see the rationale for the answer, but I do think that it depends on the job and the people involved.

In my job I have a lot of different hats that I wear, with a lot of different deadlines and things that must be accomplished.  This is very stressful to me and I am working through some time and stress management techniques to help reduce the stress.  I know that the employees that I supervise are also under a lot of stress at this time.  When the school year starts there are a lot of things that must be done to ensure the children are healthy and able to attend school.  There are federal, state, and local regulations that must be followed with specific deadlines, this can be stressful to keep up with.  I also know that if you asked the employees I supervise they would probably tell you that I am a source of their stress or a stressor for them.  I do try help decrease their stress by helping them meet deadlines, going through paperwork that is needed, and reducing meeting times so they can work more on the things that they need to do.  And because I am trying to help reduce their stress I am causing myself to feel more stressed.

I hope that as a manager I can be less of a stressor and more of a support for my staff.  I want to be more of an instructional support (problem solving support) than and emotional support, but we all need an emotional support sometimes.  I think being an effective manager is keeping a balance between stressors, stress, and stress reactions and helping my staff balance these as well.