Another Badly Treated Nurse: How NOT to do a Layoff

I have written both here and The No Asshole Rule about the persistent nastiness that nurses face.  There is quite a bit of research showing that they face insults, glaring. and insensitivity of all stripes at higher rates than most other occupations -- for example a 2003 study in the Journal of Orthopaedic Nursing found that 91% of 461 nurses surveyed had experienced verbal abuse int he past month -- mistreatment that left them feeling attacked, devalued, or humiliated.  Note that doctors are the main culprits in this research, but nurses experience nastiness from a host of others: supervisors, administrators, patients, patient's families, and so on.   I've also written here about the "Dr. Gooser" incident that Dan Denison I observed years ago when we were studying surgical nursing teams.  And I've discussed how, in the United States, The Joint Commission, which accredits hospitals, has recently implemented new guidelines where hospitals that condone or don't stop persistent hostility can lose their accreditation.

Well, as we are in a time of layoffs and other moves associated with tough economic times, nurses are of course suffering the results along with millions of others.  As every boss out there already knows (but all don't do), when it comes to  implementing these tough decisions, there is an important difference between what you do and how you do it.  Layoffs are hard enough, but when they are implemented with a lack of compassion and with insensitivity, they do further damage to the target, magnify fear and anger that spreads among both "survivors" and other potential targets, and undermine the humanity of bosses who implement them poorly.  Unfortunately, there was recently a nearly perfect case of how not to do a layoff reported by the Wisconsin State Journal. Alas, a nurse was the victim of such incompetence. Here is the lead:

A Dean Health System manager removed a nurse from a minor surgical procedure last week — in violation of medical protocol — in order to lay her off, a spokesman for the company confirmed Monday.

The abrupt removal, which spokesman Paul Pitas said posed no danger to the patient, came after the Madison-based health care provider announced Wednesday that it planned to “immediately” lay off 90 employees.

The Dean Health Care system did admit that this was an error in judgment and admitted it was also a violation of operating room procedure:

“There was a period of time in which an RN was not present during the procedure,” Pitas said. “While there were other clinical staff present, including a physician, the absence of an RN goes against established patient-care procedures at Dean Health System.”

The manager who hauled the nurse out of the operating room was described as follows: "This person is very upset and is extremely remorseful over this,” Pitas said, adding that the layoffs created “extraordinary circumstances.” 

In contrast, note the statement from a senior executive: 'Of the layoffs, Craig Smitty, Dean Health System president said last week, “We do not feel patients will notice.”'  My reaction was that, even if I didn't notice that my nurse had removed from the operating room when I was receiving surgery, I would be most unhappy if I discovered this had happened.

Certainly, patients should not receive inferior care even if they don't notice it.  But that is just part of the story. Given these are extraordinary circumstances, it seems to me that extraordinary care is required by management to assure that the layoffs are done as humanely as possible -- for everyone's benefit. Indeed, take a look at the article, and you can see further descriptions of how waves of fear rippled through the hospital the day the layoffs were done because excessive fear and uncertainty were introduced in the process. My hunch is that it is senior management who dropped the ball on this one.  When layoffs are done, orchestrating the process so it does as little additional damage as possible is their responsbility -- HR usually gets blamed when things like this are botched.... but everyone in senior management should help with the process.

I suggest that any boss who is planning layoffs take a look at the story.  It is a lot less painful to learn from someone else's mistakes in this case than to be that seemingly insensitive manager or president.

P.S. Nathan, thanks for sending me this story.

Comments

[mjesf]

Well, I know where I DON'T want to wind up should I wind up in the hospital.

[David Maxfield]

Have you seen the layoff technique here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MiY1DkIVZro