Just as the name suggests, the main role of a nurse supervisor is to manage the team of nurses working with them and ensure the highest amount of efficiency and discipline at all times. Their daily tasks include scheduling, distribute different tasks among the nurses, make sure that work is being done under the given guidelines and keep things working smoothly on any given working day. Apart from their supervisory role, they also interact with the patients on a regular basis and assess their level of satisfaction. Furthermore, if anything goes amiss, it is the nurse supervisor who has the authority to step in and take appropriate action to ensure that the best practices are followed.
Job Description Of Nursing Supervisor
While a nurse supervisor may juggle several different tasks, their core duties are to manage everyone on their team and ensure adherence to the rules and regulations of the facility during the operation. They are also constantly monitoring the staff and have an involvement in the recruiting of newer ones. Nurse supervisors frequently act as the intermediate between the physicians, the hospital staff, the patients and the families. At all times, they are required to stay up to date with the ongoing at the nursing house.
Clinical Nurse Supervisor Job Description
The most important role of a clinical nurse is to focus on the staff involved in the patient care and work towards the improvement of coordination. She may also offer hands-on patient care if required. They act as the Nurse Shift Supervisor for their respective units and make sure that there is a sufficient number of staff for all the shifts. For this, they are required to keep accurate records about the number of patients in different wards and the type of patient care needed by each patient.
It is her responsibility to analyze if the patients are receiving appropriate care if the staff is executing their tasks in a comprehensive manner and if the interactions between the patients and the healthcare providers are going in the right way. The clinical nurse supervisors also have frequent interactions with the families of the patients and report them about them about the medical condition of the patient, the treatment procedures, medications and the type of care that is being given while also addressing their concerns.
Due to a large number of Responsibilities, the job of a clinical nurse supervisor can get highly stressful at times. Apart from being efficient at all times, they should also be able to make prompt action at critical times. They should have the strength of mind to stay calm under all circumstances while also keeping other staff members under control and work efficiently even when under pressure. They should always be prepared to deal with difficult situations, handle bodily fluids and blood without giving in and providing comfort to the people who are in pain.
Duties Of Nursing Supervisor
Nursing supervisors are usually appointed to their designations after years of experience, irrespective of the type of industry they are working in. The experience gained through the years allows them to handle any situation with great efficiency. Their core roles and Responsibilities in a health care facility are as described below.
- Look after the day to day management of the nursing home
- Develop a long-term care for the patients
- Active participation in the selection, training, orientation, coaching and disciplining of the staff. In addition to this, they are also responsible for developing schedules and assigning tasks to the staff.
- Plan the daily operation of the facility, communicate job expectations to the employees and praise the contribution, monitor the staff and see if they adhere to the policies and procedures during the working hours
- Make sure that the nursing unit is being able to meet the demands in several areas of patient care
- Make sure that the services provided are of the highest standard
- To make sure that all the plans developed for the facility are being implemented in a full-fledged manner
- Identify any glitches in the system and ways in which it can be corrected
- Keep a record of the financial accounts, monitor expenses and provide full information about the annual budget
- Establish a healthy rapport with the patients, their families and all other personnel involved in the patient care to ensure effective communication at all times and understand the actual requirements
- Make new policies and procedures and update the existing ones
- Ensure that all the nursing procedures are in accordance with the state and federal laws
- Frequently measure the outcomes and make recommendation for adjustments
- Establish and maintain a compassionate environment at the healthcare facility
- Educate the patients and their families about the disease, the appropriate treatment and medications and self-care skills
- They should be prepared to work under all the stressful conditions
Nursing Supervisor Education Requirements
Nurses working as supervisors usually have many years of experience. The minimum Nursing Supervisor qualification is to complete any one of education programs that prepare the aspiring candidates to appear in the NCLEX-RN. Upon clearing this exam, the nurses are given the certification of registered nurses by the National Council of State Boards of Nursing. Following this, the nurses are eligible to start practicing as a professional.
All the candidates are required to complete a nursing education program. Before this, the nurses may choose to earn a diploma in any of the related fields such as kinesiology. These programs may take around 4 years for completion. Other nurses may go for a Bachelor’s Degree in Nursing. Before the licensing, they are also required to go through a clinical internship program.
Nursing Supervisor Salary
The Nursing Supervisor average salary in the United States is estimated to be $72,375. This is the figure reported as of Jan 30, 2018. The salary can range between $50,048 and $100,764 depending on the area of employment. This report has been calculated according to the data collected by a team of Certified Professionals who approached a maximum number of industries of all sizes, all across the country, which had employment for nurses bearing the title of Nurse Supervisor. 1
It was also revealed that the nurses at the entry level had average salaries of $46,465 while those with a sufficiently large amount of experience were even bound to have salaries as high as $109,721. It should be noted that the above survey did not take into consideration factors such as short-term economic fluctuations, demand, and availability of the nurses, legislation in the respective states, etc., which tend to have an influence over the salary. 2
In addition to the annual salary of Nursing Supervisor, it is also very common for the employers to offer extra benefits in the form of bonuses, tips, overtime pay, profit sharing and so on. It is estimated that nurse supervisors can receive yearly bonuses of at least $5,000 and an annual share of $10,000 from the total profit. Other than this, the geographical location of the area of employment tends to have a large influence on the salary. Areas with higher costs of living are also likely to have higher wage rates for the nurse supervisors and vice versa.
Other hidden monetary benefits in this area work include medical coverage, dental insurance, child care, pension and house rent allowances. However, not all the employees receive health insurances. It is seen that about a fourth to a fifth of the total number of nursing supervisors do not receive any coverage at all. Despite that, the nursing supervisors are seen to enjoy a high amount of job satisfaction. This is also one area of occupation that is largely dominated by women. It is seen that almost 86 percent of the total nurses working in this field are women.
How Much Do Nursing Supervisors Make On An Hourly Basis?
The median Hourly pay for the nursing supervisors is expected to $34.54. This is according to the same survey that calculated the annual pay scales for the nursing supervisors. Furthermore, the hourly wage rates are likely to vary in between $24.22 and $48.45 from one place to the other. 3
Salary Difference Due To Career Transitions
The most common role of Nursing Supervisors is that of a Nursing Director. This post has average annual salaries of about $74. However, most nurses working as the Nurse Directors make their way up into higher designations and therefore higher salaries. The employees who transition into the Chief Nursing Officer usually have the largest salaries. The average annual salary for this post is $120,000 per year. At the same time, the lowest paid post is that of the Registered Nurse Supervisors with an average annual salary of only $66,000, which is a much smaller amount by comparison.
Pay By Experience
As can be obvious, the amount of experience tends to have a huge impact on the basic salary as well as the total amount of compensation. For example, the nursing supervisors who have been serving for a considerably longer amount of time are likely to receive more paid leaves or higher amounts as allowances for travel, house rent, and so on. It is seen that nurses who have just entered the profession receive a total compensation of about $62,000 per year. This includes bonus, tips, and overtime payments. The nursing supervisors who have been working for about 5 to 10 years are likely to receive an average total compensation of $73,000 per year. The nursing supervisors with substantial experience and who have been serving in the field for 10 to 20 years can expect total compensations of about $78,000 per year, while those who are in the late phase of their career and hold more than 20 years of work experience may expect total annual compensations of about $82,000. 4
The compensations received by the Registered Nurse Supervisor, however, are slightly different than above. For example, the registered nurse supervisors working at the starting level earn average compensations of about $63,000 per year, those with an experience of 5 to 10 years can expect total compensation of about $67,000 on an annual basis, the nurses who are in the mid-stage of their career or an experience of 10 to 20 years earn total annual compensations of about $70,000 while those in the retirement phase, with more than 20 years of experience can expect to have annual compensations of around $73,000 per year. 5
Pay By Location
The difference in pay scales can be seen all across the country. California, New York, Houston, and Alaska are the highest paying states. The increase in pay scale is either due to high costs of living or a scarcity of nurses willing to work in the given area. Los Angeles, New York, Houston, Dallas, Denver, Philadelphia, Chicago, and Seattle are some of the highest paying locations in the United States, while the lowest paid include Louisville, Oklahoma City with annual salaries 10 and 5 percent lower than average. 6
Highest Nursing Supervisor Salary Paying States
STATE | ANNUAL MEAN WAGE |
---|---|
Los Angeles | $87,582 |
New York | $81,325 |
Houston | $76,942 |
Dallas | $83,142 |
Philadelphia | $73,875 |
Chicago | $74,804 |
Salary : Source
Salary By Skill
The salaries for the nursing supervisors are also determined by the number of skills they possess or in another word, the workload they can be assigned to work. Acquiring skills that can come useful in the medicine and surgery wards, emergency room and critical care units can provide a boost to the salary by about 7 to 11 percent. Nursing supervisors with only the basic skills such as home care, hospice, home health and case management are expected to have salaries lower than the market rate. The highest salaries are earned by the nurse supervisors who have a high amount of research-oriented knowledge in areas such as surgery, medicine, geriatrics, emergency room and intensive care unit. Therefore, the nurses who can look after multiple areas tend to have higher salaries along with those who serve in posh cities and suburbs.
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