When you graduate from NP school, you hear about working with difficult physicians, earning their respect with your knowledge and work ethic, etc. But what you don’t hear about frequently is the struggle that can occur when you start a new NNP job and have to work with bedside nurses that have been working longer than you’ve been alive.
How can you gain their respect?
How can you learn from them, while also taking care of your role as a provider?
Listen to what the bedside nurses are telling you
Even if you think what they are calling about is irrelevant, be willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. It is easy to blow off a nurse’s concerns when you have so many more patients (and sicker patients) to manage. But – when you listen to the nurse who is at the bedside of the patient, not only will your patients have better outcomes, but you will have gained the trust and respect of your nursing staff. Having empathy and compassion for your coworkers and nurses will help you immensely.
If they see that you care about their opinions on their patients, as well as caring for the overall wellbeing of the patient, they will respect you as a provider and feel more confident coming to you in the future if anything were to go wrong. Validating the concerns of the nurses is an obvious way to gain respect. Nurses, as a whole, are a compassionate and empathetic group. They wouldn’t want to care for others in this role if they weren’t. Show them that you have those same values and goals in mind, and they will respect your leadership.
Be open to learning
The great thing about being a new NNP is that you are surrounded by knowledge on all sides. You work as part of an interprofessional team with all different kinds of knowledge and all different levels of experience they can share with you if you are willing to listen. Ask all the questions. Admit what you know and what you don’t know.
The biggest enemy of a new NNP is the inability to admit what you don’t know, and to not have the motivation (or fear) to go find it. Even if you think the bedside staff doesn’t know you have no idea what you’re doing… let me clue you in. They do. Hospitals have certain patterns and procedures they follow. Ask what the normal plan of care is. Admit when you need help. It’s there for you to find – and it’s much more respectable to be honest.
Be open in your communication between your doctor and your staff nurses
If you disagree with something the nurse did at the bedside, go to that nurse and talk to him/her about it. Explain why it wasn’t what you wanted done, and explain how it could have been handled better. This way, you know that there’s no question of “if” the nurse knew, and it also gives you the ability to have the insight of what she was thinking when she did it.
This also leads back to the physician. If you are open and honest with your MD, you’ll earn their respect and you will also gain more knowledge for the next time. So much of your job is to anticipate the requests/needs of the patient in the same way the MD would. If you try to bluff your way through, instead of asking questions to learn, this can lead to multiple mistakes and ruin your relationship with your physician. For more autonomy, more knowledge is required. Ask the questions and be honest about your base. There’s nothing worse than finding out you made a mistake or someone disagreed with a decision two or three people down the line, instead of from the source. This goes for the bedside nurses as well. Be open with them and tell them when you put orders in, when you don’t agree with something that’s been done, and when you think something could have been done better.
Be willing to teach your bedside staff
Is there a new policy? Do the staff nurses know the new policy and understand it? Is there a new procedure because of new evidence based practice? Explain it to the nurses. Take the time to explain when nurses ask questions.
Not only does it give you the ability to show your knowledge and understanding, but it also gives the bedside staff the ability to understand why things are done a certain way, instead of being hit with new policies and procedures each week/month with no explanation why. It’s not always clear why things change. If there’s a good reason behind it, it is much more likely to be accepted around the unit, and it’s also much more likely that the nurses will do it the way you want.
If they know that you know what you’re doing and your reasoning behind it, you’ll show that you have something to bring to the unit.
Have your nurses’ backs
If there is ever a time to be honest, it is when you put in an order that the doctor doesn’t agree with. There are situations where it would be easier to say the order was suggested by the bedside nurse (or something was not reported), than to be honest and admit your mistake. But again, knowledge is based on learning from mistakes and honestly admitting them.
Standing up for the nurses and explaining that they were just following your order, or explaining to the physician the thought process of the nurse (because you also talked to your bedside nurses and know why they did something) will make all the difference in the world in terms of respect. If they feel that you have their back, they are more likely to trust you AND to also let you know if something bad or unexpected happens.
In conclusion, the biggest part of gaining respect is simply being respectful. Even if you aren’t considered a “coworker” of the bedside nurses on the unit – if you present as being open and collaborative, you’re much more likely to be more effective not only as a provider, but also as a person that can be trusted and respected on the unit. Respect is earned, and not freely given; especially for healthcare providers. Once that respect is broken, recovery is usually nonexistent.
