Barbara Norris Team Paper

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1. How well has Barbara Norris done in her first month as Nurse Manager of the GSU?   Was she a good choice for the position?

         Barbara Norris, who comes from a family with nursing professionals, is nominated as a nurse manager for the General Surgery Unit (GSU) at Eastern Massachusetts University Hospital (EMU). She is a local resident in western Massachusetts and a graduated master of Nursing and Health Care Administration Program. After raising her own family, Barbara comes back to work and challenges herself by accepting the offer as a nurse manager to turn over the well-known frustrating situation in GSU. At the time when Barbara becomes the nurse manager, the hospital is experiencing the decreasing revenue and rising expense during the economic recession. It leads to hiring freeze and staff shortage. Five registered nurses of GSU leave during the past seven months, and the limited overtime allowance brings the difficulty to refill the positions. Internal conflicts are getting worse between the nursing staff as well as the physicians at GSU. In addition, the nurses felt that the unit turns its focus to administration rather than patient care. As the new nurse manager at GSU, Barbara is facing all of the existing problems and making her best effort to handle them. She gets to understand these unfavorable culture better after having one-to-one meeting and off-site with the majority of the unit’s staff.           

Barbara is a sophisticated professional nurse with decades of working experience at EMU. The nurse director places a great expectation on Barbara to “turn this unit around” when she accepts the job offer. She quickly identify the existing problems and hold an Off-Site meeting to welcome all staff’s opinions and suggestions to make practical changes to GSU. It is believed that Barbara is a good fit of the position as nurse manager, and all members at GSU are looking...