Running head: MANAGER INTERVIEW
Manager Interview and Analysis
Melissa Bisel and Tessa Grewe
Ferris State University
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Manager Interview and Analysis
There are various opportunities available for nurses. One career option is to obtain the
role of a nurse manager. According to Yoder-Wise (2014), Nurse Managers must possess the
same qualities as a leader such as knowledge, integrity, ambition, judgment, courage, stigma, and
communication skills. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the role of a nurse manager and/or
leader and understand how different positions affect patient outcomes. Throughout hospitals
there are many different types of managers. The manager that we interviewed is part of the
Resource Center at Spectrum Health Butterworth. As a manager of the resource center, the
responsibilities are not like a typical unit manager because you are accountable for employees
and resources throughout the hospital, not direct patient care.
An interview with Audra Nelson-Arnett, manager at Spectrum Health Butterworth
Resource Center was conducted on March 10, 2014. Nelson-Arnett has worked at Spectrum
Health since 2001 and has obtained various roles. She first started off as a nursing assistant and
then became a nurse on 2 South, which is Ortho/Neuro. Being a nurse manager was the next step
in her career in which she specialized in trauma. Nelson-Arnett found that her passion was in
leadership and management; therefore, she took the manager position at the Resource Center.
Nelson-Arnett currently has her bachelor’s in nursing or BSN and is working on her masters in
leadership and organization management.
Job Description and Duties
Nelson-Arnett has many job duties as a manager of the Resource Center. Because she has
over 250 employees that she is accountable for, she now has eleven hospital supervisors to help
her with employee tasks. She states that her main job duties include: hiring, interviewing,
corrective action, performance evaluations, and accountability of staff. When discussing
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accountability of staff she discussed specifically being accountable for making sure employees
are competent in providing direct patient care. Nelson-Arnett also is responsible for travel staff
for areas such as the OR, NICU, and PICU.
Audra Nelson-Arnett works directly under the director of clinical operations, Terri Popa.
Popa works directly under the CEO. There is a lot of staff that report to Nelson-Arnett which
include: hospital supervisors, nurses (unit based, new grad float pool), nursing assistants, unit
secretaries, and resource administrative staff.
Collaboration
According to the OJIN (2005), collaboration is defined as the most important aspect of
teamwork” (p. 1). As a resource manager, it is imperative that you collaborate with everyone to
achieve goals. Nelson-Arnett communicates with other nurse managers, nurses, nursing
assistants, directors, respiratory, patient transport, and even environmental services. For example,
in order for her new staff to become trained, she must work with the manager of the unit along
with the nurse that is training to evaluate the new hire. She is part of a committee called shared
leadership, which takes place once a month and employees of all departments get together to
throw out ideas to improve quality and patient safety. There is also a nurse manager council
twice a month where they all collaborate to discuss issues, processes, and events. Team
Butterworth is an additional meeting that Nelson-Arnett attends where quality improvements and
safety issues are looked at to enhance the culture at Spectrum Health. It is required that one
person from each department attends this meeting.
Legal and Ethical Issues
In addition to their leadership responsibilities, nurse managers must have a solid
understanding of current legal trends as they relate to patient care and staff. Nelson-Arnett
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brought up a situation that she had just dealt with that could have resulted in a legal issue. One of
her ICU nurses was labeling lab tubes and didn’t look at the slips before she placed them on the
tubes. That nurse ended up sending down the patient’s blood with the wrong patient information
on it. Luckily, the other nurse got a call from lab stating that her patient had a critical lab value.
The nurse immediately knew something was wrong and was able to fix the mistake. This
incident did not affect the patient or the organization in any way because the error was caught
before any action was taken. This situation also brings up an ethical issue regarding patient
notification. Due to the fact that the patient was not affected by this mistake, the patient was not
notified of this mix up.
Yoder-Wise (2014) states that nurse managers should thoroughly investigate allegation,
discuss the situation and ways to prevent it and follow up with the employee (p. 78). This near
miss mistake forced Nelson-Arnett to provide the employee with a verbal warning due to
negligence of sending the wrong patient’s blood to the lab. She states that even though it was a
little mistake it could have resulted in a safety event. The verbal warning is a consequence that
will hopefully prevent the employee from making this mistake a second time.
Power and Influence
Power and influence are two things that are important for a unit to run smoothly.
According to (Lankshear, kerr, Lschinger, Heather & Wong, 2013) influence tactics can be used
to help with rational persuasion, inspirational appeals, consultation, collaboration, and the use of
pressure. Using influence can help with more appropriate and effective behavior on the unit.
Influence doesn’t only have to effect the organization but also the patients as well the more one
can influence the patient the more one can see a better outcome for a patient. Power is also
another important aspect for the organization. Components of organizational power provide a
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strong theoretical foundation for one that is in charge. Having this foundation allows for
promotion of professional development, encouraging those to do something they may not
typically do and to initiate professional practice. Having power on a unit can ensure patients can
get the best quality of care. With power comes organization, a leader helps with the flow of the
unit and patient assignments. Having managers on the floor is a form of power manger help with
patient care to make sure all hospital acquired infections, injuries and unsatisfied patients are
taken care of.
Decision Making and Problem Solving
According to Yoder-Wise (2014), decision making is a focused and goal-directed effort
that uses a systemic process to decide among opportunities that may or may not help solve a
problem. Nelson-Arnett explained that there is a lack of resources for individuals that need
psychiatric services but doesn’t necessarily have a medical need. Due to this problem NelsonArnett implemented a process at Spectrum Health to ensure that when individuals are going
through a psychological crisis there are methods in place to keep them safe. TelePsych is a new
program to Grand Rapids that offers help to individuals that may be depressed or suicidal. In
order to implement this program Nelson-Arnett used a democratic approach and went to the
nurse manager’s council which helped support this initiative. Throughout this process, Nelson
Arnett has collaborated with many individuals to decide on
Conflict Resolution
According to Johansen (2012) “effective resolution and management of a conflict requires
clear communication and a level of understanding of the perceived areas of disagreement” (p. 50).
As a
nurse manager conflict resolution is an important part of the job. There are many different ways
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to manage conflict which include avoiding, accommodating, competing, compromising, and
collaborating. Audra Nelson-Arnett stated that when there is conflict she always goes right to the
source and most of the time it is effective. If that doesn’t work she brings the issue to her
manager Terri Popa or discusses it with another nurse manager. An example she discussed with
us stemmed from the employee that applied the wrong labels for the blood draws. Nelson-Arnett
stated that she had previous discussions with this employee regarding performance and after this
incident she had to decide what action to take. Audra’s first step was to discuss the employee’s
performance directly with the individual to find out what was going on. After talking with the
employee Audra still was unsure about the appropriate action to take so she brought the case to
other nurse managers. After receiving input from other managers she then directly took the
information to the director of nursing. With input from each source, Audra was then able to look
at the whole picture and feel confident about her situation.
Reflection
Nelson-Arnett is a good example of an effective manager and leader. She is passionate
about her job and works hard to make a difference at Spectrum Health Butterworth. Some
characteristics that confirm she is a good manager include dedication, team
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References
Gardner, D. (January 31, 2005). "Ten Lessons in Collaboration". OJIN: The Online Journal of Issues in
Nursing. Vol. 10 No.1, Manuscript 1.
Lankshear, S., kerr, M. S., Lschinger, S., Heather, K., & Wong, C. A. (2013). Professional
practice leadership roles: The role of organizational power and personal influence in creating a
professional practice environment for nurses. Health Care Management Review, 38(4), 349-360.