Ch-ch-ch-changin’

My boss announced last week that she will be leaving our organization. I know this kind of thing happens around America on a daily basis. In American healthcare, the position she holds (VP of Nursing) has a 2 to 4-year average length of service nationally. My VP has been in her spot for 20 years. This longevity makes her highly unusual among her peers!


She informed her direct reports personally last week and then put out a lovely announcement so the rest of the staff could read it directly from her and wrap their brains around this rather large piece of news. She is taking a career step that she has been planning for over the last decade. Having obtained her doctorate around the turn of the century, she has been plotting and planning how and when to move into nursing education – a field desperately in need of skilled and willing professors. When the right opportunity presented itself, she went for it. She will be with our organization for another 6 months and then, she will be at the university a few blocks away. It is a wonderful transition for her and I can’t help but share her excitement about what’s next.


Naturally, within the space of seconds, my joy for her was pushed aside as my thoughts raced to: What does this mean for me? We are all such ego-centric creatures (I am at the head of that line) that our joy for others is very short-lived when we realize that there are implications for ourselves in the news we’ve heard.


My mind leaped to the potential negative consequences first (And, while I like to think of myself as an optimist, I notice this leap to the negative happens a lot, so maybe I don’t know myself as well as I’d like to believe I do!). What bad things could happen as my boss prepares to, and finally does depart?


Possibility 1.
A new VP will be hard to find and the CEO will allow us to languish without the position filled for months on end (This has happened all over the USA, so I’m not making this up!). The lack of leadership will cause cultural deterioration and by the time someone IS hired to fill the slot, s/he will face an impossible up-hill battle to re-invigorate the tribe. In the mean time, my work will fall into disrepair as the upheaval dumps onto my to-do list items that were never part of my intended role here! Woe is me.


Possibility 2.
A new VP is found among those already serving in the management ranks here – a colleague becomes my boss – and this person’s transition to executive leadership is rocky for reasons beyond her own control. As a result, the organization flounders, revenues take a nose-dive, cuts must be made. Thus, by this time next year, I am on the unemployment line, looking for another job! Woe is me.


Possibility 3.
A new VP is secured from outside the organization. This person requires some time to acclimate to “the way we do things here” and has, of course, some ideas of his or her own. Leadership tries to accommodate the style and expectations of the newcomer but we are mostly old, tired and accustomed to our own ways and struggle with all of this. Frustration ensues. Everyone is unhappy. Some abandon ship (retirement, other positions, etc.) and we are left with fewer leadership resources. The leadership vacuum grows and gains momentum. Discouragement spreads. The remaining leaders struggle to keep the ship on course. Work-life is no longer fun, it is constant struggle. Woe is me.


Okay, okay, okay. . .enough of my whining. What if something really wonderful were to come of this? What if we had an absolutely lovely transition and things even improved (not sure what that might look like, but here goes. . .).


Possibility 4.
A new VP is secured. In fact, the CEO secures TWO VPs to replace the one who is departing. Her responsibilities are split (as she has been one to take on more and more over the years, doing a remarkable amount of work, remarkably well!). Now, there is a VP for Clinical Services and a VP for Nursing Services. Thus, our new VP does not have to keep such a close eye on so many departments and can engage nursing (his/her tribe) differently and with much more animation than we are accustomed to!

Seeing the opportunity to grow the work, this new VP creates a title unknown here, the Director. Into this new title, s/he promotes three of the managers. This forms three practice arenas that can be managed, measured and maintained more easily because of their internal homogeneity and new leadership. What follows is the opportunity for other promotions. Nurses who have demonstrated leadership skills and capacities are promoted. Several others rise from the frontline to fill the spaces created in their wake and a whole new energy for what is possible emerges.

I get to sit by and watch these marvelous changes take place. I make my supportive-role contribution to the new leaders much as I did under the former VP. I take feedback and make my adaptations so that I can better accommodate to their needs and priorities. My work continues to be joyful. Grateful am I!

Craving just a little conversation. . .

As I recall, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over but expecting a different outcome. My recent repetitive behavior has been to visit a group of nursing chat sites and either login or lurk to see if anyone is making interesting conversation. Much to my chagrin, I am repeatedly disappointed.

My responses, when I find something juicy enough to address, can range from friendly to feisty and sometimes, I confess, I am out-right, in-your-face furious for the inane things people (nurses!) do online. Here's a typical sampling. . .

• I have this assignment for class . . . could you do it for me?

This line of thinking leads the writer into a request that his/her readers explain the school assignment to her; tell him or her what to write his or her paper about; go to a website and take an inane survey s/he has devised; or, my favorite -- explain the meaning of terms used in class.

This week the winning thread was about discerning between the terms "strategic plan" and "operational plan". The writer wanted readers to tell her the difference and explain the relationship between the two. My blistering response said that as her audience, we had already earned our credentials and that we were not interested in earning hers as well. I advised she at least Google the two terms in question and return to the chat boards when she had a well reasoned question to offer!

• I don't like the way people treat me at work. . .

If you follow these sorts of threads very far, they tend to become a litany of everyone's complaints about co-workers and the dreadful way everyone is behaving at work. Rarely (if ever) is there a respondent who offers an iota or self-reflection. Blaming is the modus operandi and seems to offer no solutions either to the initiator or to contributors along the way. What became of nurses having problem solving skills?

• Where I work, things are terrible because. . .

Now, I will be the first to admit there are some dreadful work-places in healthcare. But what I can't abide is the assumption that the poor, pitiful nurse who is writing has NO other option but to be an indentured servant at this particular facility s/he is describing.

Where are the nurses asking clinical questions? Why aren't we raising issues about ethics, politics, public policy or public health? Where is the art of conversation among educated women (and yes, many of these nurses have at least a baccalaureate degree)? And what became of scientific inquiry and the ability to ANSWER questions, not merely ask them (expecting someone else to offer you the solution on a silver platter)?

You can tell, I get wound up about this.

Maybe I shouldn't. Or at least maybe I should avoid the chat sites for a few months just to let my jets cool. I could leave my conversations to my workplace where nurses of all varieties do seem to know how to think, ask, ponder and respond in ordinary, thoughtful and conversational ways.

So, enough rantings. It is time to leave the computer for today, go out into the world, do something physical with the remains of my day and leave all the nurses online to their just desserts. Perhaps someone else will pick up where my usual tongue-lashings leave off.

What's in a name?

Today a friend I trust suggested that I start a blog. She told me it would offer me a place to put my writing which is now in a dozen notebooks scattered all over my house. She told me it would afford me a sense of "deadline" so that I would be accountable to write regularly. She told me it might bring me feedback -- if anyone found it -- and that is something I would genuinely value. So here I am, following my friend's advice and starting a blog.

Getting started has some logistic requirements including naming the blog.
You might wonder, "how hard can that be? " And truly, it's not that hard except that my brain doesn't function that well 22 hours into the day (perhaps this could have waited 'til tomorrow?).

And what does the name Pilled Higher & Deeper suggest?
Unless you have a PhD (or love someone who does) it probably doesn't mean anything to you. So, allow me to let you in on the joke.
BS -- you know what that stands for
MS -- well, that's more of the same
and thus PhD comes to mean: Pilled Higher & Deeper
Those of us with "terminal" degrees use this joke to remember not to take ourselves too seriously -- after all, a terminal degree doesn't have to be a death sentence.

So, there! I've created my opening paragraphs and begun to blog.
If you've stumbled onto my whereabouts here in the blogosphere, come back and visit.

My goal is to speak my mind, speak the truth, provoke some conversation, controversy and maybe even conflict. This ought to be fun!

Stay tuned!