Goal Setting and Feedback

Greg Bird, RN, MS, vice president of patient services and chief nursing officer at Heywood Hospital, Gardner, MA, would agree that although a nurse can advance personal career goals independently, it would be preferable to have a partner on the career journey. Bird does not like to be called a “boss.” Instead, he emphasizes a concept where he relies on each team member to bring expertise and strengths to the organization, and they can expect the same from him.

According to Katherine Bourassa, RN, BSN, associate director of the telemetry unit at Winchester Hospital, Winchester MA, Bird is no stranger to this type of team work. When she was a per diem staff nurse on the same unit where she is now in a management position, Bird was the director there. She says that her career goals, with Bird’s support, included moving into a core staff role and eventually management within several years. After she had been a per diem staff nurse for almost a year, both Bird and her fellow staff nurses asked Bourassa to interview for the associate director’s position.

Giving and receiving feedback is critical to the nurse/manager relationship, according to both Bourassa and Bird. Bourassa says that the things that made Bird’s feedback constructive and accepted were that he valued staff input, he was very much “present” on their unit, and the staff felt informed about management’s role. Staff would accept feedback from Bird because he would always start with something positive, move on to the problem issue, and together with staff, set goals and expectations for the resolution of the problem. Such feedback can apply to solving clinical problems as well as setting goals for individual achievement.

Partners in Growth

Heather Steinberger, RN, BSN, CCRN, staff nurse in the CT SICU at Philadelphia’s Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania (HUP), believes that assisting an individual’s growth in the workplace should be part of the manager’s job: “This can potentially help the unit staffing by retaining experienced people. Urging more education and matching personal characteristics and experiences with appropriate positions will benefit both the individual and the patient.” Bird finds that facilitating a nurse’s growth as an individual and as a professional is one of the most rewarding parts of being in management. “After all,” he emphasizes, “It’s about people reaching their potential.”

Bourassa urges nurses to develop a career plan like any other problem that needs solving. She advises nurses to reflect on where they have been, where they are now in terms of career development, and where they would like to be in the future. In this way, nurses can articulate their goals and together with their managers, develop a realistic career plan, much like developing a solution to a problem.

In her book, The Millennium Candidate, Kathy Wilson emphasizes that advancing yourself requires making yourself valuable to the decision makers.¹ Steinberger agrees with Wilson saying, “It’s really true that a lot of advancement comes from who you know. Make your interests known to people who make big decisions.” Steinberger also believes that you should seek out a mentor if you have a manager who is not a decision maker or if you can’t work with your manager. A mentor need not be in the same field or same position where you’d like to be. Finding someone who is “confident, eager, knowledgeable, approachable and interested” is really more important, according to Steinberger.

Keeping Current and Keeping in Touch

The new millennium will bring many opportunities for change in the management paradigm which will ultimately affect patient care. The reason that Bourassa’s career goals have been achieved and the reason she assists others to advance their careers is that it’s always a “win-win” situation. Although she doesn’t like to see an excellent staff nurse leave, she enjoys seeing growth among the staff.

Bourassa stresses that all nurses should keep current with changes in their field and practice settings, take every opportunity to improve their skills, and keep in touch with their goals. She observes that sometimes when RNs stay too long in one position; they become stagnant, frustrated, and unaware of professional practice outside of their work environment. Bourassa concludes, “As we move into the new millennium, both patient care and nursing will benefit as a result of supporting professional nursing development.”