One of the greatest challenges for nurses making the transition from clinical work to management fuzzy scope of practice and no one to handover to at the end of the day.
There are so many demands on the unit manager, and they often think they have to do it all. And while this worked OK when they were on the floor when they could handover their patients and any unfinished business to the next shift – that just isn’t the case when you are ‘it’!
It seems that they work is never finished — no one to hand over to.
Another challenge is dealing with the pressures from above and from their team. It seems like everything is important and urgent. It is difficult to apportion their time and delegate. They simply can’t find time to rethink how they are working and what can be done differently.
For many making this transition, it is not entirely clear where they should be focusing. Unlike their clinical work, the management scope of practice can be quite ill defined – its just everything!
They may not know what the full extent of the job is, their authority is and where their role stops and their staff’s role starts. And of course, this scope tends depend on the level of control and involvement their boss needs – whether they micro-manage or give them plenty of scope and authority.
So there is no standard management scope of practice – which is not a bad thing – but it does mean negotiating and building trust as part of carving out the management role.
If you want to develop a clearer conceptual map of the Unit Manager role, then you will find our first day of the “Clinician to Manager Acceleration Program” perfect. Join us by registering here.
