Nurse Leader, Are You Listening to Your Staff?

As a nurse leader, you should know what your staff thinks about their jobs. Do you know how they feel about their schedules, assignments, patient care and staffing issues, or what may be worrying them and holding them back from moving ahead on their education and careers? Do you make time for these things, or are you too busy running meetings, working on budgets, making announcements and overseeing new programs, policies and procedures that add up to a lot more time talking than listening?

Here are a few questions to help you assess how you’re doing with your talking-to-listening ratio:

• Do I let staff know how their voices can be heard?
• Do I share why organizational decisions and plans are made?
• Do they know I advocate for them with administration on staffing, scheduling, overtime and work-life balance issues?
• Do I place importance on staff satisfaction?
• Does my staff feel appreciated?
• Do I periodically involve members of the C-suite in staff meetings to listen to my staff?
• Do I follow up and follow through when a staff member comes to me with a problem?