NUR 670 Topic 5 DQ 1_3

Describe a time in your professional life when you felt used and manipulated. What were the circumstances? Did you feel valued by the leader? Based on the textbook, explain how the issue of purpose, in the servant-leader paradigm, could have yielded a more beneficial outcome for the leader and yourself.

ANSWER 3

Work with worthwhile purpose challenges creativity and gives them a sense of pride and acomplishment (DelHousaye & Brewer, 2004).

“Naturally, when people feel used and manipulated to simply carry out the agenda of someone else, they lose both motivation and creativity. In their book, Credibility: How Leaders Gain and Lose It: Why People Demand It, Kouzes and Posner, observed
and documented that when people did not feel valued and served they did the following:
• Produced only if watched carefully
• Were motivated primarily by money
• Would say good things about the organization publicly but feel differently
in private
• Would consider looking for another job if the company experienced problems.” (DelHousaye & Brewer, 2004).

This describes me. When I graduated from nursing school I went stayed in the same facility I was already working in. I started on April 1. Should have known then. I have been in the OR for 20 years as a surg tech/first assistant, but the transition to nursing was difficult. And after this experience I understand completely why people quit nursing in the first two years of practice. By July I was placed in the heart room to circulate because I was the nurse “with the most experience”. There was no evening shift, but was a level 2 trauma center. The person on call typically had to stay often until midnight or after finishing up cases from the day or emergency procedures. Then having to come back the next morning because there wasn’t enough staff. In November we lost 3 nurses who were never replaced. By February I spoke with the supervisor to see if there was a plan, because if not, I would not be there in three to six months. I was assurred, yes, they were planning on hiring for an evening shift, were talking with the schools (which wouldn’t graduate until May, then testing, then orienting) and were discussing agency help. By April none of this had happened and call ins from everyone were becoming more frequent. I had a surgeon on a particular very busy day ask why we weren’t in the room yet and I told him I had stopped to go to the bathroom.  I was being serious, not flippant. He cancelled the surgery, a older gentleman who was having a colon resection which means he had a bowel prep as well as family arrangements because he “couldn’t work with the staff and their attitudes”. Needless to say I was very upset over this, I had no support from the supervisor, he asked what could I have done better. I didn’t have time to even pull it together because then I was told that my case had cancelled, another doc was there already and he was going into my room. At 7 that night, no lunch, no real breaks, and my bottle of Sierra Mist with one drink out of it the whole day in my locker, I decided I was done. I gave notice the next day. There was no support, no real purpose except to churn out cases, I talked the hospital up to others, and griped to my family. I had no purpose except to survive. I feel if the supervisor had shown any care: come and given lunch relief, allowed people to go early on the rare days it was possible, hired into and created an evening shift, anything at all really, things might have gone much differently. It took me over a year to actually talk about that time and not feel so deeply angry. I have gone back and visited several times because I do miss my coworkers, and also to “get back on the horse” so to speak. And from this I have learned that giving my staff purpose other than just getting things done is very important. Purpose is important because it gives someone a goal, but also gives that feeling of self satisfaction, which in turn will cause them to buy in and produce effectively.

DelHousaye, D., & Brewer, B., (2004). Servant leadership – seven distinctive characteristics. Scottsdale, AZ. SBC Press.