The Derek Zoolander Nurse Leadership Blog for People Who Can't Read Good

From this unit, I learned about different techniques and important elements to the firing process.  I feel like I learned about the importance of confidence and professionalism, even when in an uncomfortable situation. From the team activities, it was interesting to hear about everyone else's interview questions about the firing process.  I did have to think hard about what I would ask about the firing process. I also learned that I don't know how to budget a med surg floor really well.  It takes a lot of effort to figure out how to cut costs.  Usually, my team members and I agree on most things, but I realized there were varying opinions with the budgeting discussion.  I was impressed with how much thought my team members put into this discussion.  I didn't feel super confident on my ability to budget a hospital. This information will be useful to me in my nursing practice because if I have gained techniques in confronting uncomfortable firing situations ...

For my firing interview questions, I asked a restaurant cafe manager named Ivan about his experience with hiring/firing.  He had fired a few people previous to the interview.  I learned a lot about how they fire at this business. I asked him how he prepared for firing interviews and he told me that he will discuss with the overall general manager about the person who they are going to fire.  He said that they do that to have a witness to be there.  He says that he will usually explain that it isn't working for the team as a whole and they have to let them go, although they don't go into lots of detail in order to prevent lawsuits.  He said that the most difficult part of firing somebody is making them feel bad and trying to be aware of the person's feelings. Before actually firing somebody, Ivan said that they would discuss this with the employee that risks being fired.  For example, he tries to execute discipline first by informing the employee on what th...

I learned a lot from this unit about performance appraisals and techniques, but especially about ethics.  My Sister's Keeper  provided grounds for lots of questions about what is ethical and what isn't.  I also learned about the ethics committee and what kinds of people are on the committee. I enjoyed the team activities and coming up with the different questions for this next week.  I really liked that some of the questions were very thorough and weren't ones that I would have thought of.  I learned a lot by asking these questions. In my nursing practice, I will utilize this information by being familiar with how to contact the ethics committee and not being afraid to contact them.  I also learned that I want to be paying attention for sorts of things that could require the ethics committee and check in to make sure that I am giving my patients the best care and most ethical care possible. Overall, I felt like this was a very interesting unit to me....

How often do you schedule performance appraisals? The scheduled ones are once a year.  Sometimes, there are unscheduled ones as needed.  How do you prepare for performance appraisals? We will send out a reminder about the performance review about 2 weeks before we meet with them.  We will remind them a bout the last time we met and about the goals that we had discussed previously. With new employees, we talk about their performance so far and set goals. Do you agree that peer reviews are helpful and do you use peer reviews for each employee? We don’t do formal peer reviews.  The best way to describe it is that throughout the year, we will gauge how other people are doing. It’s an observable situation on my end - do we see if they are getting along well with their peers and handling their problems okay.  When performing these appraisals, how do you communicate to your employee that this process is to help them improve rather than tearing them down by...

From this unit, I learned a great deal about leadership and performance appraisal.  I learned a lot about methods of performance evaluations and the reasoning behind them.  I enjoyed the group activities that provided the opportunity to discuss what we would do with employees that aren't being good team leaders, particularly when they are in leadership positions.  I was interested because I felt very sympathetic towards the nurse in this situation - she had lost her husband and was a single mom of multiple children.  My teammates helped me think about different solutions, such as the need to pick up extra mandatory shifts on the floor to be able to work charge nurse shifts.  I think working with employees is important. In the team activities, I learned a lot in the different ways to approach employee performance appraisal questions.  I realized there are many ways that can be done.  Some can provide more ability of the employer to interpret.  Oth...

I learned a great deal in this interview about hiring.   I talked with a person named Erika who worked on the hiring committee in a Student Records and Registration system at Brigham Young University - Idaho.   I learned a lot about what the thought processes are for employers when interviewing others. It made me think a lot about the importance of experience in the job.   Erika mentioned that having appropriate experience with her job and a good understanding of what qualities would help with a successful candidate helped them be better prepared and qualified for interviewing.   When I asked her about the most difficult thing for the interview process, she said that using your judgment to determine the best candidate and picking the right person can be difficult.   It made me think that it requires a lot of confidence in yourself and your abilities. Typically, they would narrow their pool of candidates down to 4-5 people.   I think this is good b...

This week, I learned a lot about leadership in the group activities. I saw different leadership styles from my teammates by interacting with my group. I also felt like I had had the opportunity to take charge on some of the activities. I also learned a lot from the hiring activity. It was interesting to hear about what sorts of things are taken into consideration when hiring somebody. During the team activities, I learned a lot about my team members and about myself. I think my leadership style is very much the "let's get this done now" mentality. I don't like to waste time. I prefer to use my time as efficient as possible. I noticed that with other members of the team. I also noticed that they are good at making sure everybody is included and involved, as well as on the same page as the rest of the group. I don't think it changed my opinion on the subject, other than the survival item activity and the boat activity. My teammates made me think in different pers...