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Ask the expert: Council chairs feeling overwhelmed? Support them!

HCPro's Weekly Update on the ANCC Magnet Recognition Program®*, August 28, 2007

This week, a reader asks how to support council chairs and help keep them from feeling overwhelmed with responsibilities and time commitments. Read the response below from our advisor Meryl Montgomery, RN, MSN, ANCC Magnet Recognition Program® coordinator, director of learning, at Medical Center of Central Georgia in Macon, GA.

Q: How do you support council chairs and keep them from feeling overwhelmed with responsibilities and time commitments?

A: Council chairs can feel overwhelmed, especially when they are new to their role. At Medical Center of Central Georgia, we provide orientation, mentors, and specific role expectations for the council chairs. We also find that not everyone is suited to be a council chair and selection is very crucial to ensuring success for this bedside nursing leader.

We hold a quarterly to bimonthly meeting with all the council chairs. This is a potluck meeting where they report on successes and barriers and, as a group, brainstorm solutions to their barriers. This meeting has proven to be an important support structure for our council chairs, and I always have the CNO come to update and support them.

Several of our nursing directors or advisors for unit councils discuss council projects and the amount of time needed to complete the projects. The nursing director creates a schedule for the project and ensures the nurses have time get the work done. In other councils, they have a work day or half day each month where they meet and do follow-up on their projects. The amount of paid time varies on the projects and the work the council is doing. The scope of issues being addressed by each unit council generally drives the amount of time out of staffing. Some of that is impacted by vacancy rates and volume increases, but nursing directors cover staffing by tapping into our robust internal flex pool because they like to provide time for the council to do their work.

Support your council chairs by adhering to the following tips:

• Select someone with strong leadership skills
• Meet ahead of council meetings to help organize
• Visit the council chairs to see what they need help with
• Have unit council updates at each staff meeting
• Keep council updates visible through bulletin boards
• Ensure council chairs are addressing issues that will improve patient care or nursing work environment
• Celebrate successes, for example, we select a unit council of the year and runners up and provide pizza parties as an award

Editor's note: Do you have a question for one of our advisors? If you'd like us to consider your query for publication, please send it to Cameran Erny.

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