NU514 Unit 6 seminar reflection example

Ninety Seconds of Praise Before the Point: A Seminar Reflection on Telling a Twelve-Year Nurse She Has Not Passed

[Student Name]

Purdue University Global

NU514: Human Resources Management

Unit 6 Seminar

[Instructor Name]

[Date]

The seminar scenario and the nurse are composites; the frameworks cited are published.

The Scenario

The seminar used a scenario close to my own unit. A registered nurse with twelve years in the surgical ICU, respected and often precepting, completed the return demonstration for the unit's new continuous renal replacement therapy machine and missed two required steps: she did not verify the prescribed effluent rate against the order, and she skipped the pressure check after connecting the circuit. Under the unit's validation plan, she cannot be assigned CRRT patients until she revalidates. The manager has to tell her. We rotated through three roles: manager, nurse and observer.

Round One

I played the manager first, and I want to reconstruct what I did without defending it. I spent about ninety seconds on her experience, how much the unit relied on her, how new the machine was for everyone. When I reached the result, I called it "a small thing," said the policy required me to restrict her assignment "for now," and added that I was sure she would pass next week. I never said clearly which two steps she had missed.

My motive was protective. I wanted to keep the working relationship intact, and I was uncomfortable being the person who told a senior nurse she had not passed.

The classmate playing the nurse said afterward that she heard reassurance and a vague reference to policy, and that she left the conversation unsure whether she could take a CRRT patient on her next shift. The observer's feedback was blunt: "You made her do the work of finding out what happened. You protected yourself, not her."

What the Framework Explained

Stone et al. (2010) argue that every difficult conversation contains three conversations at once: the what-happened conversation, about facts and intentions; the feelings conversation; and the identity conversation, about what the situation says about who we are. In round one I argued the what-happened conversation badly and tried to manage the identity conversation for her, reassuring her that she was still competent before she had heard what the problem was. The reassurance landed as a signal that something was wrong without telling her what, which made the identity question louder, not quieter.

Round Two

In the second round, I stated the result in the first sentence: "You didn't pass the CRRT validation on Tuesday, because two required steps were missed: verifying the effluent rate against the order, and the pressure check after connection. Until you revalidate, I can't assign you CRRT patients." Then I stopped and waited.

The classmate playing the nurse responded with embarrassment and some frustration, which I acknowledged directly rather than rushing past. We then talked about the two steps, whether the machine's screen sequence made the pressure check easy to miss, and when she could revalidate. I offered the first available slot and asked whether she wanted to review the sequence with a super-user before then. At the end, I said what I had tried to say at the beginning of round one, that her twelve years of work mattered to the unit, and this time it sounded like respect rather than cushioning.

The observer said the second conversation was shorter, clearer and kinder. When we switched roles and I played the nurse, I understood why. Hearing the result at once, with the two steps named, gave me something to do with the embarrassment: I could ask about the steps, argue about the screen sequence, and book the revalidation. In round one, when the classmate playing manager had softened the message the way I had, all I could do was wonder what I was not being told.

What I Take to My Own Practice

Three things. First, the message goes in the first sentence, with the specific facts. Being clear is not the opposite of being kind; leaving someone to guess is the unkind choice. Second, the restriction is real and should be stated plainly, because a nurse who is unsure whether she may take a CRRT patient is a safety risk on a busy night. Third, the identity conversation is hers to have, and my job is to make room for it, not to settle it for her in advance.

A competency validation plan depends on conversations like this one. Wright (2005) places ownership of competence with the employee and responsibility for a supportive culture with the organization; a plan in which managers soften every result into vagueness would undermine both. Scott (2004) argues that the conversation a leader avoids is usually the one that most needs to happen, and that clarity delivered early spares both people a longer and harder conversation later; round two was my first real attempt at acting on that.

References

Scott, S. (2004). Fierce conversations: Achieving success at work and in life, one conversation at a time. Berkley Books.

Stone, D., Patton, B., & Heen, S. (2010). Difficult conversations: How to discuss what matters most (10th anniversary ed.). Penguin Books.

Wright, D. (2005). The ultimate guide to competency assessment in health care (3rd ed.). Creative Health Care Management.