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Interview and Interdisciplinary Issue Identification
Name
Affiliation
Course Unit: Course Name
Instructor
Date
, 2
Interview and Interdisciplinary Issue Identification
Interview Summary
The interview involved a current nurse manager at a large urban facility. The 500-bed
teaching hospital offers a specialized, and critical care services including surgery, trauma care,
and intensive care. It serves a diverse population from surrounding urban and peri-urban areas,
having more than 20,000 in-patient admissions, and around 300,000 outpatient visits each year.
The interviewee is a registered nurse (RN) working in an intensive care unit of the hospital. Her
primary responsibilities include direct patient care, care coordination, patient education, and
monitoring safety within her unit. The interviewee revealed that the management of the hospital
had hired a new nurse manager during the beginning of the year, after the retirement of the
preceding nurse manager. However, the new nurse manager displayed high levels of toxicity.
The hospital’s management had been receiving complaints from members of staff about her toxic
behavior, characterized by lack of ownership of poor decisions, lack of empathy towards other
nurses, manipulative behavior, and intimidation.
Recently, the hospital experienced a significant sentinel event, where a 64-year old male
patient died from hypokalemia-induced arrhythmia. Nurses at the time did not communicate the
deteriorating condition of the patient to the nurse manager or the care team, fearing reprisal as
the nurse would have likely reprimanded them for challenging her judgment and bypassing her
authority to intervene. A root-cause analysis conducted by the management revealed that lack of
timely communication, and escalation about the patient’s deterioration was a direct consequence
of the toxic leadership behaviors of the nurse manager. Nurses reported feeling silenced, second-
guessed, and blamed for issues that were beyond their control, which created a culture of
mistrust and fear. The management responded by terminating the manager, but the unit’s morale
Interview and Interdisciplinary Issue Identification
Name
Affiliation
Course Unit: Course Name
Instructor
Date
, 2
Interview and Interdisciplinary Issue Identification
Interview Summary
The interview involved a current nurse manager at a large urban facility. The 500-bed
teaching hospital offers a specialized, and critical care services including surgery, trauma care,
and intensive care. It serves a diverse population from surrounding urban and peri-urban areas,
having more than 20,000 in-patient admissions, and around 300,000 outpatient visits each year.
The interviewee is a registered nurse (RN) working in an intensive care unit of the hospital. Her
primary responsibilities include direct patient care, care coordination, patient education, and
monitoring safety within her unit. The interviewee revealed that the management of the hospital
had hired a new nurse manager during the beginning of the year, after the retirement of the
preceding nurse manager. However, the new nurse manager displayed high levels of toxicity.
The hospital’s management had been receiving complaints from members of staff about her toxic
behavior, characterized by lack of ownership of poor decisions, lack of empathy towards other
nurses, manipulative behavior, and intimidation.
Recently, the hospital experienced a significant sentinel event, where a 64-year old male
patient died from hypokalemia-induced arrhythmia. Nurses at the time did not communicate the
deteriorating condition of the patient to the nurse manager or the care team, fearing reprisal as
the nurse would have likely reprimanded them for challenging her judgment and bypassing her
authority to intervene. A root-cause analysis conducted by the management revealed that lack of
timely communication, and escalation about the patient’s deterioration was a direct consequence
of the toxic leadership behaviors of the nurse manager. Nurses reported feeling silenced, second-
guessed, and blamed for issues that were beyond their control, which created a culture of
mistrust and fear. The management responded by terminating the manager, but the unit’s morale
