nursing

Instructions & Rubric for Interview with a Nursing Manager

Purpose: A good manager is one who is continually improving their management and leadership skills and who knows his/her resources. This knowledge is designed to inform you about nursing management/leadership to help guide your future decision-making. Through the interview process, you will be able to:

1. Prepare interview questions.

2. Compare/contrast interview responses with course concepts/theory.

3. Reflect on interviewee’s influence on your own leadership.

4. Articulate perspectives from a nurse working in a management role.

5. Describe the management and leadership skills required of the role.

6. Discuss resources available to help a nurse transition into nursing management.

Task: Your interview will be with a nurse manager, supervisor, or director who has been in their position for at least 1 year and have a minimum of a Bachelor’s degree in nursing. The manager must have the responsibility of supervising a team of staff who report directly to them. It is important to prepare for the interview by reading related course material in advance. To begin the process, you will organize your interview plan:

1. List Introduction questions that must be asked are provided (see page 2).

2. Choose 5-6 Leadership Questions: from the list provided (see pages 3-5) and read review related course material.

3. Schedule your interview and ask your questions (estimated time 30 minutes).

Criteria: After the interview, you will write a paper (7th ed. APA format) including a summary of the interview and a reflection (see rubric below). Anticipated length: 5-6 pages (not including cover page or references page). You do not need to record the interview verbatim; instead, you will summarize responses in your paper and relate these to what you have learned about leadership and nursing management from the course. Individual reflection should also be included in the paper including what you learned about aspects of management/leadership and how what you have learned has influenced your own leadership development. Submit to the “Assignments” area of D2L.

Assignment Rubric and Checklist Elements	Element Fully Addressed	Element Partially Addressed	Element In-sufficiently Addressed	Pts Poss	Pts Earned
Part I: Interview Summary (note: This should be about ½ the paper length)
· Introduce the interviewee based on their responses to introduction (must ask) questions · Asks 5-6 leadership questions during the interview and adequately summarizes interview responses (not verbatim). Set up your paper with a heading for each question-see example papers for what this should look like				1 5
· Relates leadership questions/responses to content learned in the class by providing analysis and synthesis of question and response. 5pts · Minimum of one citation per leadership question/response -you may cite the text &/or other source(s) 2.5 pts				5 2.5
Part II: Reflection including (note: This should be about ½ the paper length)
· What aspects of leadership have you learned about from the interview? Provide detailed synthesis as it relates to course content and learning. 5 pts · How did each of the responses fit with what you have learned in the course? 2 pts · Provide at least 5 citations throughout this section of your reflection - you may cite the text &/or other source(s) 2.5 pts · What surprised you the most during the interview?-explain				5 2 2.5 .5
Include detailed responses to the following and demonstrating synthesis of this activity/learning throughout the course. 4 pts total, 1 point for each of the following: · What is your leadership style? Did it align with the leader your interviewee? Explain, compare and contrast. · Has or will the interview or course change(d) your leadership approach? Explain. · How has/will what you learned influence your own leadership development? Explain · What is/are your present/future leadership aspirations or goals? Explain including examples.				4
Spelling, Grammar, Clarity of Thought, 7th Edition APA Format
Free of spelling, typographical, & grammatical errors. Be sure to cite the interviewee in-text; do not add to reference list per APA (2020) page 260; or see Purdue Owl https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/717/07/ for how to cite interviews and personal communications				2.5
Total				30

Introduction (must ask) questions: (no more than 10 minutes on these questions) Get to know your interviewee and their degree of experience in their management role.

1) How long have you been an RN?

2) I have been an RN for 5.5 years! Prior to this, I was an exercise physiologist How long have you been in your nurse manager position?

· I have been in my nurse manager position for almost a year, prior to this I was a patient care supervisor (assistant manager) for about 10 months before being promoted.

3) What influenced your decision to seek your current role and how would you describe your transition?

· I sought out this current role due to loving to help people grow and develop to reach their personal and professional goals. I always was interested in leadership, so I spent some time shadowing my old manager and really grew to like the role. My old manager became the recruiting manager and reached out to me one day to see if I was still interested in joining the leadership team, and she had some jobs for me to apply for! The transition was a bit difficult as it occurred during the time of contract negotiations, so I really wasn’t trained to my role for a while, but rather I was trained to charge nurse on a specific unit. It was a bit difficult to make the transition because at times it feels like Nurse leaders are held at a certain stereotype. The first couple of months, all I tried to do was to get to know my team, understand some of their concerns and challenges, and really build the relationships so we could all move forward together.

4) What is your typical leadership style preference?

Talking points if needed: autocratic, authoritative, democratic, laissez-faire, participative, pragmatic, servant, steward, transformational, transactional, etc.

5) Realizing you had to learn new skills and leadership to be a manager, where would you say you fall on the novice to expert continuum?

· I would say I am still on the novice scale as I am still fairly new to my role!

Talking points if needed: (modified from Benner’s Novice to Expert Theory):

Stage 1 Novice	Limited ability to predict how staff will respond to situations or decisions. Task oriented as they learn their role. May not always recognize where they need more expertise. Lean on others with nursing management experience for guidance.
Stage 2 Advanced Beginner	Have some gained some experiences that enable them to recognize recurrent or meaningful components of a situation to manage it. They have the knowledge though limited experience managing certain circumstances.
Stage 3 Competent	Have mastery of advanced planning, organizational navigation, departmental management, and leadership of their personnel though lack the speed, flexibility, and confidence of proficient managers.
Stage 4 Proficient	Capable of seeing a situation as a complex whole rather than in parts. Have gained enough experience to understand what typically occurs and are able to modify plans to respond to unique situations. Are becoming aware of their power and influence as a leader.
Stage 5 Expert	Able to recognize the demands of their role and know their resources to attain their goals. They can predict what needs to be done. They have an intuitive grasp of situations due to a deep knowledge of their department, personnel, and their management experience. They align their priorities based on the most relevant needs of the department, staff, and organization. Is big picture focused. Experts lead and influence seemingly without effort.

Leadership Questions: From the following list, choose 5-6 questions to ask the interviewee. You should consider which questions best align with this manager’s role, items you are unfamiliar with, or topics you are curious about.

1. What process do you use to determine staffing and how does it work?

Talking points if needed: acuity based or other method; nurse-patient ratios.

· We work with our schedulers to determine the needs of the hospital and how the float pool can best serve those needs. We construct a grid of how many nurses and support staff need to be on based on the average needs of the other units. We then publish the grid, and hire up to our desired FTE to fill these needs

2. Tell me about your staffing budget management and non-staffing budget planning processes?

Talking points if needed: full-time equivalents (FTE), Average Daily Census (ADC), productivity metrics like Hours Per Patient Day (HPPD) or Salary Per Patient Day (SPPD), staff mix determinations, and balancing the budget.

· Our staffing budget works a little different in float pool. We are only budgeted for an IMC RN flyer from 7a-7p and an NST flyer from 3p-7a. Those are the only deployable staff that would directly come from our budget. We do have budgeted areas for orientation and classes as all other units have. For the rest of the float pool, once they are deployed, they will be put in the unit where they are deployed to cost center. We do meet with our scheduler and finance partner to create our goal FTE to hire to based on the needs of the units.

3. What type of scheduling does your department use and how do you work with the schedulers?

Talking points if needed: self-scheduling, block scheduling, shift rotation, etc.

4. How are you evaluated as a manager?

Talking points if needed: Are you evaluated on performance benchmarks, reaching personal management goals, quality/safety measures, unit outcomes, achieving patient safety goals, length of stay (LOS) data, throughput data, HCAHPS scores for department, staff satisfaction, etc?

5. How do you monitor and approve time and attendance?

Talking points if needed: What oversight is needed (e.g., overtime abuse, excessive sick calls, attendance at mandatory meetings or required education, pattern of clocking in late, etc.)?

· We have leader access to mytime to manage all things related to scheduling. We do have a separate scheduler and timekeeper that create and approve the schedules. We are here to review and follow up on any overtime abuse, sick calls, and attendance issues that need follow up. We also work with the system operations center for scheduling needs after a schedule has been posted! The education classes should be copied over to the scheduler from our nursing education team so that the scheduler can appropriately add this to an RNs schedule.

6. What have you learned about meeting management?

Talking points if needed: How do you decide on agenda items versus what can be handled via email, or more effectively with a smaller group? How do you ensure that vocal people do not dominate? How do you handle tangents that need attention but are not on the agenda? How do you move the conversation to stay on time?

7. What process is used for performance appraisal documentation?

Talking points if needed: software used (e.g., Halogen); 360-degree feedback: supervisor, peers, and self?

· For performance appraisals, we use talent connect which is an application that we can add our metrics and goals for the year. We work together as units to determine our system goals, and then we can further add our specific department goals, while also adding personal goals to the list as well. We then pull data and information from our Power BI system and through meeting with the employees to determine if the goals were met.

8. How do you like to conduct annual performance review meetings?

Talking points if needed: How do you prepare for each performance review meeting? Do you focus on positive and constructive feedback? Do you assist the nurses with individual goal setting?

9. How do you make employees aware of performance expectations?

Talking points if needed: Nurses tend to like knowing what is expected and how they measure up to expectations. Lack of clarity over expectations can impact job satisfaction.

10. When a staff member requires coaching and/or discipline, how do you create and document performance improvement plans and follow-up on them?

Talking points if needed: When an employee is not meeting expectations, it is important to document efforts to correct, re-educate, and coach or mentor. Re-evaluation and follow-up on their performance is also needed.

11. Do you play a role in determining mandatory annual education and/or staff development education?

Talking points if needed: If so, what is your process for determining what is needed? How do you work with the education department to achieve educational needs and goals?

12. Are you responsible for writing position descriptions?

Talking points if needed: If so, what is your process? How do you work with Human Resources to get staff hired?

13. Do you have hiring and firing authority?

Talking points if needed: If so, what is your experience with these? What have you learned about planning for and documenting an employee termination?

· We do have hiring and firing authority. We obviously need to work with our scheduling and finance team to determine the correct number of FTEs we need to hire to. But then we follow the hiring process through recruitment who screens candidates that match our position descriptions to see if they will be a good fit. Once they are passed to us from the recruiter, we complete the interview process.

· If we need to move forward with the termination process, we need to be sure we loop in HR to be sure the employee meets the termination standards and the correct progression of corrective action has been taken. We then meet with the employee and HR to inform them of this and process the termination through HR.

14. Do you conduct interviews of candidates?

Talking points if needed: What topics do you need to legally avoid? Do you follow a question format or style (e.g., emotional intelligence)?

15. What is your philosophy of new staff orientation and mentoring over time?

Talking points if needed: A positive working relationship with managers is critical to job satisfaction and retention of nurses. How do you connect with and support new staff over time? How do you welcome them and help socialize them to your unit and staff?

16. Have you dealt with a sentinel event on your unit?

Talking points if needed: If so, did you participate in the Root Cause Analysis (RCA)? What was the outcome?

17. Tell me about any employee satisfaction, recognition, retention, and engagement strategies you employ?

Talking points if needed: staff rounding, merit pay, praise, public recognition, awards, treats or meals delivered, gift certificates, company swag, etc.

18. Do you prepare for site surveys? Do you prepare your staff for site surveys?

Talking points if needed: announced surveys such as The Joint Commission; or unannounced such as the Department of Health, etc.

· Yes, we have specific checklists and regular meetings to be sure we are keeping up to standards for JC/MDH. We also have a site liaison that helps us stay up to date with the survey requirements.

19. Tell me how you have addressed patient/family dissatisfaction and/or complaints?

Talking points if needed: patient rounding, care conferences, etc.

20. Whether or not a manager has plans to leave their position, succession planning is recommended. Have you begun succession planning and if so, tell me how you have begun to plan for your successor?

Talking points if needed: Document procedures, calendar of your recurrent activities, etc.

21. How do you support unit quality and safety improvement measures and monitor data trends?

Talking points if needed: patient falls, pressure injuries, medication errors, staff injuries, staff sick days, CLABSIs, CAUTIs, etc.

22. How do you handle employee resignations?

Talking points if needed: Staff announcement? Appreciation? Going away party?

23. How do you maintain your resiliency?

Talking points if needed: Retention of nurse managers has been difficult recently.

24. How do you maintain provider relations?

Talking points if needed: addressing complaints, requests for change in protocol, requests for new equipment/staff training, etc.

25. Do you work with unionized nursing staff?

Talking points if needed: If so, how does this impact your processes (e.g., when issuing disciplinary action, when hiring nurses, when negotiating workloads or nurse-patient ratios, etc.?

26. Is your unit making any efforts toward reducing the impact on climate?

Talking points if needed: Medical waste reduction, recycling efforts, groundwater protection, etc.

27. Do you engage in any strategic planning at the organizational or unit level?

Talking points if needed: What tools or processes do you use (e.g., High Reliability Organizations [HRO], SWOT analysis; PEST analysis, Six Sigma, Lean Health, etc.)

28. How do you use research evidence to inform your decision-making?

Talking points if needed: Do you have ready access to nursing management journals? Do you attend leadership conferences?

29. What resources do you lean on to continue to develop in your role?

Talking points if needed: Leadership classes, management journals, public speaking and people skills effectiveness courses (Leadership Academy, Dale Carnegie Training, Toastmasters International, etc.), peer mentors, books ( Lean In by Sandberg, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Covey, You’ve got this! by Warrell, Crucial Conversations by Patterson, Quantum Leadership by Albert et al., Maxwell Leadership Bible by Maxwell, etc.).

30. Anything else you wonder about the nursing management role?