Running head: ANALYZING A MANAGER INTERVIEW

Analyzing a Manager Interview

Valrey Llewlaka
Ferris State University

ANALYZING A MANAGER INTERVIEW

Analyzing a Manager Interview

This paper is an attempt to analyze the role of a nurse leader. An interview was
conducted with the nurse supervisor, who is subject of this paper. The information obtained in
the interview was analyzed using information from materials related to the Ferris State
University Bachelor of Science (BSN) program, Leadership in Nursing course.
The results of this paper are intended to give the writer an overview of a leaders personal
views and experiences of the leaders role. The importance of this information is seen as
beneficial to the writer in a future role as a nurse leader. The results of the analysis are expected
to demonstrate possible positive, and perhaps negative, aspects of the nurse leadership role.
Background, Education, and Experience
This interview was conducted at the nurse leaders place of business. A series of
questions were asked of the nurse leader. These questions were chosen to address specific
topics, the headings of which follow in the body of the paper.
This nurse leader, who will be identified as LR, works for a large medical organization
which includes hospital, physician, and outpatient services. She is a supervisor in the care
transitions department. LR has an associate degree in nursing, has worked as a nurses aide at a
nursing home, then as a floor nurse at a hospital in her area, and progressed to a charge nurse.
Later she moved to the city where she is currently employed.
She has taken advantage of educational offerings that have been available, such as
Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS) and Certified Brain Injury Specialist (CBIS). LR states
that there is no specific certification for her role. She believes that any education or knowledge
of the nurses field of care is helpful. LR stated that her position is unique, because it is not
hospital based and therefore not under Magnet recognition, she is not required to have a BSN

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degree for her role as a nurse leader. LR believes that all of the care she provides is evidence
based. She does not specifically seek out evidence based information to provide care, however,
does regularly attend conferences and maintains her credentialing. When faced with a question
she seeks answers through her organizational references as well as online.
Role and Responsibilities
LR began as a liaison and was later approached to assume a supervisory role due to
demonstrating good leadership skills (LR, 2014). LR states that working in post-acute services
and in a hospital as a bedside nurse has provided her with a unique perspective for her current
role. LR provides information and assists patients with transitioning from inpatient status to any
appropriate post-acute service. These services can include home care, rehabilitation, and longterm care. LR assists the patients to understand insurance, navigate the steps of the transition,
and to find answers to various questions that the patient or family may have. LR answers to a
director and has five staff that report to her. These staff may be nurses, social workers, or rehab
therapists. There are two additional supervisors in a lateral position. She maintains a client
assignment as well as performing management tasks.
Communication and Relationship-Building
Throughout the interview, LR commented on the importance of teamwork,
understanding, and flexibility. She stated that healthcare is ever changing and requires the ability
to adapt to that change. LR stressed the importance of being open and honest [and providing a]
feeling [of] warm[th] (LR, 2014) with patients, as well as the use of active listening to assure
that the patient feels valued and is the center of the nurses focus. She repeated the importance
of open, honest communication between members of the transition care team and other entities.
Communication occurs mainly by email and in person. LR states that the best part of her job is

ANALYZING A MANAGER INTERVIEW

the smile on the face of clients and family when she and her staff are able to assist with care
solutions.
LR was very clear on the importance of open, honest communication, whether it occurs
between members of the team, with the client, or with other organizations. Her style of
communication appears to partially meet the criteria of the American Organization of Nurse
Executives (AONE) (2011) as LR presents her ability to resolve and manage conflict, [utilizing]
shared decision making, [and] community involvement, [however does not indicate that she has
a role in] produc[ing] written materials to address nursing (p. 4).
Health Care Environment
LRs view of the health care system is that it is ever-changing. She believes that these
changes are a benefit to patients because it provides more options (LR, 2014) that provide
better outcomes for patients. She offers examples such as being able to replace cardiac valves
via angioplasty. Additionally, quality assurance is critical to providing best practice with a
patient focus. Although she indicates that her department is less involved with specific quality
assurance issues, her team does assist other departments, especially when involved with direct
patient interactions. Because the transition team is very specific, LR appears focused on her
department and role, rather than that of nursing as a profession, even though she notes concepts
that Black (2011) offers as preparation for practice within complex healthcare systems [such
as] patient-centered care, interprofessional teams, [and] clinical reasoning/critical thinking
(p. 137). This writer could see that LR may receive additional benefit in her role by fleshing-out
her knowledge base through acquiring a BSN degree.

ANALYZING A MANAGER INTERVIEW

Leadership
A critical aspect for the position of transition coordinator includes having a good work
ethic. LR makes it clear that she can teach the necessary tasks and skills to new hires, but cannot
teach them to show up on time, how to react in stressful situations, [or] how to be a team
player (LR, 2014). She is very clear that she expects her team to perform with dedication and
professionalism, and that she includes herself in that expectation. Critical thinking and
communication skills are more important than credentialing or educational background for the
staff that LR supervises. It appears to this writer that LR is in an advantageous position to
increase systems thinking (AONE, 2011) in her department, although she may not have a full
understanding of the concept at this time. She did indicate that change management (AONE,
2011) does fall into her realm of supervision from time to time when system changes occur.
Professionalism
LR makes a good point when talking of maintaining professional relationships with
referral sources. She does this through networking and establishing good working relationships
with other entities and peers. This writer sees LR as having a great deal of professionalism as
defined by AONE, (2011) including the ability to apply ethics [and] advocacy (p. 9) to her
practice. One identified area of weakness appears to be researching for evidence-based practice
to improve her practice.
Business Skills
LR is an active part of the hiring process for her team members. She assists with
interviews and makes recommendations. Potential staff are analyzed for their ability to think
outside the box [as well as] having thick skin (LR, 2014). LR indicated that because the job
consists of dealing with a wide variety of patients and health care organizations, staff must be

ANALYZING A MANAGER INTERVIEW

organized and possess excellent communication skills. LR indicated that the majority of the
business skills are performed by her director although some tasks fall to her and her team. She
does not perform marketing as there is a separate department who manages that task. It appears
to this writer that due to the separation of departments and the mid-lever supervision that LR
performs in her role, that tasks specifically related to business are minimal.
Conclusion
One unexpected and quickly obvious problem with this assignment was identified by this
writer at the onset of the interview; the fact that LR has not obtained a BSN degree. It was
definitely a misunderstanding on the part of this writer to come to the conclusion that an
individual in a leadership role would not be required to have said degree, given the Magnet
status of the organization that LR works for.
Although this writer has not yet obtained a BSN degree, there is some understanding of
the importance of a BSN degree for nursing leaders. That importance became apparent to this
writer when asking LR questions related to nursing models and evidence-based practice. The
coursework for the BSN degree stresses that knowing the history, models, and theories of
nursing are critical to understanding a leadership role. It is important to understand these aspects
as a means of contributing to excellent patient care, as well as the advancement of nursing as a
profession, whether these goals are achieved by using nursing models and theories, or evidence
based research. This assignment has made the importance and understanding of nurse leaders
obtaining higher education glaringly obvious to the writer.

ANALYZING A MANAGER INTERVIEW

References
American Psychological Association. (2010). Publication manual of the American
Psychological Association (6th ed.). Washington, DC: Author.
American Organization of Nurse Executives (AONE). (2011). The AONE nurse executive
competencies. Chicago, Illinois: Author
Black, B. P. (2011). Professional nursing: Concepts & challenges (7th ed.). St. Louis,
Missouri: Elsevier.