Rather than communicating directly with their manager and telling her the behaviors they did not like, they attacked her as a person. We need to be advocates of our managers and ourselves, equally. Managers and nurses need to initiate communication. A study recently published in the Journal of Nursing Administration that surveyed nurses in 12 hospitals in 1986 and again in 1998 reported in 1986 that 90 percent of nurses thought head nurses were good managers and were supportive of nurses. The 1998 survey reported that only 70 percent of nurses held that same belief.
Nurse managers have few hours in a day to nurture and hand-hold.
The root of the communication problem, Sanford said, is that hospitals and administration expect more of nurses and managers than ever before. Today s nurse managers have more than one unit to manage and may be responsible for as many as 100 to 150 people. Many hospitals have removed middle management, which leaves fewer nurse managers to direct nurses, said Linda Aiken, Ph.D., RN, FAAN, professor at the University of Pennsylvania, School of Nursing. The relationship between nurse managers and their ability to communicate with top management may be difficult. The problem with nurse managers is there are fewer of them than there used to be.