"Employee loyalty is incredibly important to me as a leader, it helps to foster a positive work environment. To improve employee retention in my last position, I scheduled the nurses on my team for shifts that made the most sense for them and their personal life. It was important that the parents could spend as much time with their families as possible. That being said, I tried to make the night shifts as fair as possible."

"I often find its parents of children who are the most difficult to manage. Whenever there is a seriously injured or sick child I know to expect high emotions from the parents. To help mitigate stress or problems I make sure to always speak calmly to the parents every time I communicate with them. I also explain everything that is happening in a lot of detail and simple terms so it is easy for them to understand."

"I have worked for a variety of different departments within a hospital. I have also worked with a range of different sized teams. The smallest team I have managed was a team of 3 and the largest was a team of 85. My management style changed little based on the size of the team but with the smaller one I ended up having to do a lot more of the day to day work than I did with the team of 85."

"Growing up, I was in and out of the hospital because I suffered from a chronic illness. I have it under control and managed now, but as a child, it was scary constantly being hooked up to machines and told a lot of medical information. The nurses always treated me well and make my stays enjoyable. I got into the profession because I wanted to be that beacon of hope for people as well."

"It's really important that we take the right steps to prevent the spread of infection or illness. Nursing staff work with a lot of patients every day and some with compromised immune systems. I make it a priority for my staff to have proper sanitization practices so that we aren't contributing to the problem. If I saw someone not washing their hands after treating a patient I would pull them aside and explain why it's important or perhaps give them a small bottle of sanitizer that they could carry around with them."

"I am very fortunate to never have had this problem. However, if I were to then I would pull the particular staff member aside and ask them if they think their behaviour is appropriate. I would make sure they were no longer responsible for overseeing that patient. I would then report the issue to human resources and if it were serious enough, I would also report it to the nursing association."

"It is not uncommon for patients to refuse treatment, especially those that come in through the emergency department. What I try to do when this happens is remain calm and logically explain to the patient why we are giving them the medication. Often the patient is scared because they don't understand what is happening, this is especially true if a doctor has used a lot of medical jargon. I try to make it easy for them to understand, I usually find this approach works best."

"I graduated from Carleton University with a concentration in nursing. I then applied and became a registered nurse in Ontario. After 10 years working in the industry, I enrolled in night courses to receive a leadership certification from George Brown College to help position myself for a managerial role."

"I'm a firm believer that you need to perform the job of the people you are managing. You never know what's going to happen, and so it's important to be prepared to step in at any time. I spent 15 years working as a nurse in the emergency department before they promoted me into a manager role, so I'm very familiar with the duties and responsibilities of my nursing staff."

"I think the most important characteristic a nurse should have is the ability to communicate and interact with people well. It's pretty easy to tell who has that ability in an interview. While it's important that the candidate understands the profession and has the qualifications, I think bedside manner is incredibly important. I also find hiring people with great interpersonal skills helps to build an environment that is pleasant to work in and helps to improve loyalty."

"It can definitely be a tough part of the job trying to manage everyone's schedules. What I do is have a large monthly calendar available in the office. Anyone who has scheduling conflicts can write it on that calendar. Once it's there I have an excellent overview of who is available or not available and when. I work backwards to create the schedule from there."

"I think it's important when dealing with grieving families or families in difficult situations to give them as much time as they need. I typically try to give them the options and all the information they need to make the right decision. I make sure that I, or any member of my staff, is available to answer their questions. As a nurse manager, I sometimes need to coach my staff members on how to have these conversations as well."

"It's not my favourite part of the job but calming difficult patients is something I have learned to be good at. The key is to make sure the patient knows they are being heard and that you understand their concerns. I always stay calm in these situations and if their concern is irrational than I try to explain this to them as nicely as I can. I always make sure I satisfy the patient's concerns before I leave or end the conversation."

"I worked as the nurse manager for the emergency department in my last position for four years. Every day there was a situation where I had to make a quick decision that sometimes was the difference between life and death. One time in particular we had a young child who broke their leg and was next in line for surgery. Unfortunately, we had someone come in who had cut through half of their leg with a chainsaw so I had to decide to bump the child's surgery to the next day to try to save the patient's leg."

"Unfortunately, this happens occasionally, so I have experience dealing with conflicting opinions. Whenever I disagree with orders set by a doctor, I address any issues I have outside of the patient's room. Once outside, I calmly explain what I think the best approach should be and why. Sometimes doctors can lose sight of the right approach individually because they don't spend as much time with the patients that I or members of my team do."