Sara Lang, a charge nurse at Sunny Nursing Home, has worked under the same president, Lisa Davis, for 5 years. In fact, the two have become good friends. They frequently socialize after hours. Rick Walters, director of nursing, is a capable person who has been working there for 3 years. Four nurses (Anna, Barbara, Charles, and Dan) report directly to Sara.
Anna, one of the nurses, was having personal difficulties. She asked Sara whether she could change her work schedule from the usual 8-hour shift of four days with three consecutive days off to 16-hour shifts for two days and five consecutive days off. Sara thought that was not a problem and told Anna that she would enter that information into the computerized scheduling system and that she would tell Lisa Davis of the change, since they were getting together for a drink after work.
Barbara overheard the conversation between Sara and Anna, and she immediately went to see Rick Walters to complain that Anna was getting preferential treatment and he wanted the same schedule. Rick, who always wanted to make sure that the nursing staff were happy and got along, approved Barbara’s change in schedule. He made this change through the computerized schedule and did not tell anyone else. Barbara, who is good friends with Charles, told him of the new schedule. Charles, who works closely with the chief of staff, Dr. Goodman, told Dr. Goodman of the change in Barbara’s schedule and asked Dr. Goodman to change his. Dr. Goodman thought it was a good idea and emailed Charles’s new schedule to his assistant, Susan Stevens, to enter it into the scheduling system.
On the next Monday morning, changes were implemented to Anna’s, Barbara’s, and Charles’ schedules. No one had discussed these changes with anyone else. When the schedule was printed out and posted, it showed that Anna, Barbara, and Charles were all off for five days that week, from Monday to Friday, and all three began work on Saturday. In the meantime, the only nurse left working was Dan.
Discussion Questions 1. What are the different forms of communication flow taking place in this scenario?
2. What changes should have been implemented?
3. What should be done now?