Running head: MANAGER ROLE

Analyzing a Manager
Danielle Bular
Ferris State University

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Introduction

When analyzing a manager or leader, we look at the qualities that we believe should be
the building blocks of a person's attitude, belief system and leadership capabilities. When I
looked at people that interested me to interview, I made certain to look deeply at the traits of that
person. When I think of a manager, I appreciate good attitudes or leadership capabilities. I saw
greed, selfishness and no desire to become a better person in my floor manager. When I realized
this fact, I began to pursue somebody that possessed the traits I was looking for in a leader. I
chose to interview one of the charge nurses on my floor during the year and a half I worked at
Lakeland Hospital. Her name is Deborah Spates. She went to school in a little town in southern
Alabama. She graduated with her bachelors degree in nursing and shortly after started working
at Lakeland Hospital. She has worked Lakeland for a total of four years and has been a charge
nurse for the last three. When I glance at her traits, she partook in the qualities I was pursuing in
a leader. This paper will be an overview of who she is, what she does and how she inspired me to
become a stronger leader.
Job duties
As a charge nurse, she was in charge of the whole floor during the midnight shift. She
was responsible for dealing with patient issues, family issues and anything that concerned the
staff. She would often come help start intravenous lines on people who were difficult to poke.
While she was starting a line, she would take the time to teach me better techniques of how to
improve my own nursing skills. When talking to Deborah, she stated that her job duties were to
maintain balance in the nurse patient ratio, taking difficult calls, helping with skills around the
floor and assembling the new assignment for the day shift.

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In the organizational chart, she would fall under manager, because she was in charge of
many different things on the floor. She was the supervisor to the floor nurses and assistants. It is
expected that if we have an issue, that we would bring it her attention, but ultimately she would
be responsible for how the floor functioned during her shift. She has to write an email or report
off to our clinical resource nurse and floor manager each morning. Along with different reports
to key people, she would also be required to give a shift reports to the oncoming charge nurse.
Deborah had achieved the five basic functions of the manager according to the Yoder-wise 2011,
which is establishing and communicating goals and objectives, organizing, analyzes and
dividing work into tasks, motivate and communicate, analyzing appraising, and measurements
and lastly develop people, including self (p.54).
Discuss the collaboration role for this manager
Deborah collaborates with many people including the nurses on the floor, assistants and
clinical resource nurse. She mostly was involved in overseeing the care that the patients received
from the nurses on shift. During the night she would call a shift huddle, this was wherever we
would be able to get together and talk about our issues with our patients, expected discharges and
our hospice population. During this she would collaborate with the unit secretary to put the
information together to be able to balance the schedule. She would help call the doctor if we did
not have time and work with house supervisor to discuss any scheduling issues. She worked
collaboratively to provide the optimal outcome for the patient and nurses.
At times we would have float pool nurses, she would make sure to help them with
whatever they needed. She would also work with nurses on other floors to help provide
equipment that was lacking. I think that she did a respectable job of working with others to
provide the best care for both the nurses that work underneath her and the patients.

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Describe and analyze the legal or ethical issue this leader or manager has and is managing
Deborah told me about one issue that stood out in her mind. It is an example of managing
a legal issue. She had a patient that had multiple co-morbidities including chronic pain. After
doing assessment she continued on with her other patients. Around midnight she went back into
his room and saw him smoking marijuana. Smoking was prohibited on Lakelands campus. The
patient was fully aware that he was not allowed to smoke on the premises or have illegal drugs.
The patient said that he had a prescription for marijuana and it was for his chronic pain. She
explained that even though he had a medical marijuana card, that he was still not allowed to
smoke at the hospital or have marijuana in his possession during his stay. He said that the
hospital had a record of his medical marijuana card and that the admitting doctor told him that it
was acceptable to have it with him during his stay. Deborah politely asked for him to stop
smoking and give her the rest of his marijuana. The patient said that he did not want to give her
his marijuana because he paid and was his. When she wasn't able to convince him to cooperate,
she called the doctor who reviewed the chart and did not see a prescription for the drug. She
asked the house supervisor to help her address the issue. She collaborated with a doctor and
house supervisor to resolve the patients issue. They all decided that the best option was to have
his girlfriend take the remaining marijuana home with her. The patient reluctantly agreed to this
proposal.
Deborah did an exemplary job of managing a very complex legal and ethical issue.
According to the University of Oregon leadership characteristics, being flexible, resourceful and
open mindedness are upright traits (2009). She showed her resourcefulness by collaborating with
the doctors and the house supervisor to devise a plan that would best suit the patient outcome.
Being open mind about the outcome was something she did by requesting that the patient not

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have the marijuana but resolving the issues by the girlfriend bring it home. The example shows
that she can be flexible with issues that are not easily solved.
Describe and analyze use of power and influence
Deborah had a great influence over the nurses that worked with her. She was consistent in
her attitude, always supportive and helped us with the issues that would arise. She was always
open to change if someone on the unit had a better idea of doing something, she would always
take it under consideration and then change her behavior if she thought that it would make her a
better nurse if she changed her behavior (UO, 2008). I believe that Deborah was a very powerful
nurse, was capable of amazing leadership capabilities and using them for the benefits of others. It
shows that she can be very influential and powerful. She was always constantly evaluating
herself and others to make the best nurses possible (UO, 2008).
Describe and analyze use of decision-making and problem-solving
Deborah had a participative leadership style. Participative is often called the Democratic
leadership style, participative leadership value the input of team members and peers but the
responsibility of making the final decision rests with the participative leader. Participate in
leadership boosts employees morale because employees make contributions to the decisionmaking process(Johnson, R.,2008). Deborah used this style when dealing with problems that
arose from patients or coworkers. She would have to make decisions during scheduling and
perhaps give a nurse an extra patient, but she make sure that the assignments were even, but she
would include the nurse who was receiving the patient. She would discuss the nurses current
workload and the type of patient that would be best-suited to handoff to an oncoming nurse. I
feel that this demonstrates a participative leadership style that continuously helps collaborate
with the decision-making process.

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Describe and analyze management and resolution of conflict

One night of coworker had in issue with me, but decided not to confront me about it.
Deborah was charge the nurse and my coworker started talking badly about me when was not
warranted. I had done nothing to this coworker but she had a problem with who I was as a nurse.
Deborah encouraged the coworker to come and talk to me and resolve the issue. She wanted to
have a better working environment. She also pulled me aside and let me know about the
situation. The coworker decided not to discus her issues with me. I feel that Deborah did a good
job of stopping a coworker from talking about me behind my back and addressing the issue. She
also said that if the coworker continued to talk about me that she would have to have a discussion
with her about professionalism and resolving conflict. I am not sure if she ever had that
conversation with her, but I am glad that she defended me and would not let the unprofessional
behavior continue from my coworker.
Deborah took a step back and made sure to evaluate the situation and do what was best
for a productive working environment. She made the effort to speak with a coworker and resolve
the issues she had with me. She also was being proactive in staying if the coworker continued
that behavior that she would have to take further action to correct it.
Conclusion
Throughout this paper, I have analyzed a nurse that I hope to be like someday. I touched
on few issues such as leadership style and characteristics while continuing to relate to Deborahs
focus on the outcome of the patient and coworkers around her. She is a powerful nurse but does
not pursue an advantage over people around her. It has been a great opportunity to analyze the
nurse and take away many lessons with me.

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References

Johnson,R.(2008) 5 different types of leadership styles. Retrieved form

http://smallbusiness.chron.com/5-different-types-leadership-styles-17584.html

University of Oregon (UO) (2009) Leadership characteristics. Retrieved from

http://leadership.uoregon.edu/resources/exercises_tips/skills/leadership_characteristics
Yoder-wise, P. (2011) Leading and managing in nursing. (5th ed) St. Louis,MO. Elsevier &
Mosby publishers.