First Responders First - Institutional management and logistics stressors

A number of workplace stressors that likely affect you daily are caused by management and employment logistics. Constant exposure to these stressors, or constantly feeling stressed, can negatively affect your resilience, well-being & mental health.

You all, as floor and charge nurses, nurse educators, and nursing managers are leaders in your units and heavily influence the real and perceived stressors.

Resilient leadership can prevent stressors from affecting staff, but they can also become a stressor for staff too. Three negative management styles that have been studied in healthcare environments are passive leadership, abusive supervision, and over-controlling leadership.

Passive leadership is inactive, choosing to be non-participatory for both positive and negative situations in the workplace.

These leaders may do nothing to address a nurse who consistently does not return from break on time. This type of leadership can reduce team effectiveness and create negative attitudes amongst nursing staff, leading to stress.

Abusive supervision is leadership that is hostile towards nurses and can include consistent or occasional verbal or non-verbal behaviors, such as discrediting a nurse’s judgment, displaying overtly rude behaviors, imposing overly critical or patronizing comments, or subjecting a nurse to embarrassing situations in front of others.

For example, these leaders may disclose a clinical error a nurse made on shift, and shame the nurse in an email thread with other staff members.

This type of leadership causes stress and anxiety, reduces self-esteem, decreases job performance, and fosters fear and resentment towards leaders.

Overcontrolling leadership restricts a nurse’s autonomy and decision-making ability, often due to previous perceived mistakes.

For example, if you mislabelled a blood sample, an over-controlling leader may begin to observe and comment on your performance regularly across several of their clinical procedures.

This type of leadership can make nurses self-conscious, create stress and anxiety, and/or foster resentment towards their leaders.

If you’re a nurse who is experiencing stressors due to negative leadership styles, there are a few options. If you feel comfortable, you can talk to the leader directly.

Some leaders are unaware their leadership style may negatively affect others. Give fair indication ahead of time about discussing a sensitive matter, find a neutral, distraction-free place where you can speak with your leadership and approach the subject in a non-threatening way.

Provide observations you’ve personally seen, and make suggestions on how those situations could have been handled differently.

Try to lead with “I” statements, such as, “I felt insecure …” or “I felt undermined when…”. Consider bringing a second person for support.

Remember that despite any of your leaders’ actions, they are also invested in providing the best care for clients. Alternatively, you can speak with your human resources team about the issue and discuss solutions with them.

If you can, make note of the days when these events happened, and list any potential witnesses. Finally, if those options haven’t worked, you may want to consider transferring to another unit.

Nurses can also experience stress at their workplace in relation to work scheduling that is outside of their control. Consecutive shifts, long hours, holiday shifts, and frequent rotations can affect physical health, lead to higher rates of emotional exhaustion, and affect performance in delivering care.

These factors demand more time from nurses, making it especially hard to maintain a work-life balance, further adding strain to relationships and taking the joy out of life.

Shift work is inevitable for many nurses, but if you’re finding it unsustainable, reach out to your leader and share your concerns.

Together, try to find a way to help you get the break and support you need to recover. If no solution is available, speak to your union or your doctor.Other stressors you may experience in the workplace include: not having sufficient personal protective equipment to keep yourselves and others safe from infectious diseases, floating to other units based on hospital personnel needs, and missing a shift due to illness.

If you’re feeling stress for these reasons, talk to your leader, or if need be, speak to your union or doctor. Remember, taking care of your own physical and mental health will ultimately help you take better care of your clients.##SummaryAs a quick recap, leaders often establish working behaviors and if not attentive, can exhibit negative leadership management styles such as passive leadership, abusive supervision, and over-controlling leadership.

Nurses may also experience stress in the workplace due to shift work schedules, insufficient personal protective equipment, hospital floating policies, or taking sick days.

Nurses can best address these stressors by talking to their leadership team if possible, or by consulting their union,