The importance of the unit manager

During conversations about management, interviewees reflected on relationships with their past and current unit managers. Closely echoing findings from the open question data, their personal stories illustrated how the skills and attributes of individual unit managers were crucial to the quality of their working lives. Relationships with their unit managers affected their general wellbeing at work, the quality of their work/life fit and influenced whether or not they felt valued as ‘good nurses’.

5.6.3.1 The unit manager and general wellbeing

In the case of four of the interviewees, working with an effective unit manager promoted a sense of wellbeing at work. For example:

She is so experienced, so good in a crisis, like when there’s an arrest she calmly directs the team, a really good leader working with her is a buzz. C1:Sandy:Pg5:Ln27-28

My NUM [nursing unit manager] is great … if we get behind she gets in and helps and what she’s taught me is huge.. because of her we are an ace team and even though it is always busy that makes work fantastic. C1:Adrianna:Pg:7:Ln3-5

In contrast, for five interviewees, relationships with unit managers were perceived negatively and were influential in their decisions to leave the profession. Their comments included the following:

…the whole feel of the place was influenced by the NUM [nursing unit manager]. I felt she was quite interesting in that she would play staff off against each other and she was kind of very harsh. She wasn’t very warm and inviting in terms of support. I think I was very put off by her. When I left I was bitter. I thought I don’t need this, to work under these conditions in such an unsupportive environment. C2:Michelle:Pg7:Ln30-35

…she was horrible to me, every opportunity snide comments like ‘How does the uni let people like you get through?” that sort of thing, and in front of other people, she just didn’t like me and she made my life a misery. Not many things make me cry but she often got me dissolved into tears. I was totally demoralised by the time I left. C2:Laura:Pg3:Ln29-33

5.6.3.2 The unit manager and work/life fit

All interviewees agreed that having an acceptable work/life fit was important to whether or not they would remain in the nursing profession. Similarly to the findings of the open question survey data, most of the interviewees commented about high work demands that left them with a lack of energy to apply to the other aspects of their lives. In spite of this, the interview data revealed that a family friendly roster was the most important factor in achieving an acceptable work/life fit, and that staff rosters were under the control of unit managers. All agreed that, in many cases, the

type of roster administered was dependent on the quality of the relationship between the individual nurse and the unit manager. One interviewee stated:

I have a pretty good work/life balance but that’s only because I get on well with the NUM … she gives me the same roster all the time because she knows it fits with my partner’s work hours.

C1:Sandy:Pg3:Ln7-9

All interviewees held the opinion that while some unit managers acted fairly, others were discriminatory in administering rosters, which directly resulted in work/life conflict. Two interviewees explained their unit manager’s discriminatory behaviour as follows:

I’ve had enough of shift work and lousy rosters… I missed my daughter’s school concert because I did not get the shift I requested… she [unit manager] doesn’t like me so others tend to get their requests but I don’t. C1:Kathy:Pg17:Ln8-10

The rostering was very unfair, the unit manager had her favourites. I wasn’t in favour so I worked far more evenings and weekends than the rest and I got more on-call….I got terrible rosters so not much of a social life. C2:Michelle:Pg9:Ln22-23

5.6.3.3 The unit manager and feeling valued as a good nurse

All interviewees said they liked to know that they were valued as a ‘good nurse’ by their unit managers. Yet, only three had received formal feedback about their performance in the six months prior to the interview. Feeling valued by the unit manager was mainly dependent on informal feedback. For example, one interviewee explained how the unit manager’s informal feedback impacted positively on her feelings of professional worth:

What I like where I am now is that I feel like a valued part of a team and a lot of that’s down to the NUM. It’s the little things, like she thanks us for our hard work at the end of the shift, once after a really bad stretch she brought in a cake for us as a thank you … it’s the hardest unit in the place but the staff stay, so I’d say its feeling we are valued that keeps us all there.

C1:Adrianna:Pg9:Ln2-5

Most of the interviewees felt they received inadequate or no feedback about their efforts and this made them feel undervalued. For example:

…you don’t get feedback unless you do something wrong you are noticed then, otherwise you are just one of the many running around at a thousand miles an hour trying to keep up…not even a thank-you when you stay late to get it all done …I have been giving it my all for months and she still doesn’t get my name

right… that tells you something about how I am valued.

C1:Kathy:Pg10:Ln1-5

The following comments are examples of how the lack of any performance appraisal from the unit manager was directly involved in the decisions of interviewees to leave nursing:

When I was leaving the NUM did say to me “this has been a very tough, incredibly busy time to have come into this unit and you have coped well”. I had been thinking I wasn’t quick enough, not cutting the mustard, never going to be good enough, so perhaps if she had told me that earlier, even just one pat on the back, perhaps I wouldn’t have left. C2:Isabel:Pg7:Ln14-18

I won’t stay in a job if my contributions are not valued and you don’t get that in nursing….it wasn’t until I was about to leave that I got any positive feedback but it was too late. I was at the stage where I had already made my decision and by then it wasn’t going to make me change my mind. C2:Nina:Pg10:Ln28-32