Supervisor's Hall

Disclaimer: All persons, places and things in this document are imaginary; any resemblance to actual persons, places or things is purely coincidental.


I've got a couple of days off, but this blogging thing is so much fun that I find I want to write something anyway...

There's a hallway in the hospital, where the Nursing Services supervisors have their offices. When I first started working there, the hallway was a busy place. The largest office housed the secretary and her assistant. It was a kind of reception area where you could go and plunk yourself down, awaiting your turn at the secretary's attention, or chat with the assistant, or run into your supervisor to complain about something. You could generally get a piece of candy off the desk, read the recent announcements, get a feel for how things were going at that next bigger level of the hospital. In a little cubby off one side of the big office was the Director of Nursing, in a cubby off the other side was the assistant Director of Nursing...you could stick your head in either door - they were usually open - and say hello. You were pretty much guaranteed a warm reception.

I was new back then....not new to public mental health, but new to this state hospital environment. I remember admiring the Director of Nursing and her assistant...and feeling sure of their support of me and of the patients. We were all there to participate in what felt like important, inspiring work; the welfare of patients was the top priority and we could be certain that if we had a problem in providing care for them, we'd have the complete support of the nursing supervisor. She'd go to bat for us. She seemed to like us, to care about us. We could bring up emotional issues that might impact our work performance and feel comforted, reassured, protected.

There was a larger group of supervisors back then....in addition to the Director and her assistant, there were Division Chief Nurses - one for Adult services, one for Children, for Adolescents, ....for gosh, I don't know what all...but they all had offices down this hall, and at any given time during the working day, you'd find several of them in, doors open, streaming light into the hall...hubbub happening. There was a normal amount of grousing and sniping and jockeying for position, but there was energy there, a focus on quality care, a sense of humor, a love, - dare I say it, - for the work and particularly for the patients. The hospital had an important role in the community...and had, I think, a good reputation in the community of State Hospitals. Maybe I'm gilding the lily here...maybe I'm idealizing stuff in my membory...wouldn't be the first time. I know that when this place was founded in the 60's, it was innovative - an example for others of how things could be done. It was multi-disciplinary, community oriented, unlocked, unfenced...a place of refuge for the mentally ill. I know somebody who worked here then and can tell stories about how things were.

Things had begun to erode from that high pinnacle by the time I started, but hope hadn't died.

Today, when you walk down supervisors' hall, it's quiet and dark. The big office has become the Director of Nursing's office and the doors are always closed. The secretary, who has no assistant, is in the cubby; there are no Division Chief Nurses. There is an Assistant Director of Nursing, hired in from the outside, but her office is across the hall....and ususally closed. There is no hubbub, no warmth, no welcome.

There is now a sense of siege, of defensiveness. Complaints are received as threats. Staff is ignored or disciplined more often than encouraged or supported. I've laid eyes on the Director of Nursing maybe once in the last two years; I know of no reason to admire her.

Her boss is the Director of the Hospital. Not only do I have no reason to admire him, but have been given several to disdain him. He appears to have set the tone...of disrepsect for employees and patients, of commandments instead of collaboration, of favoritism, of immoral behavior.

Naive idealist that I am, I think that in times when money is short in a place like this, and the state is tightening its belt, there is an increased need for teamwork, mutual support, strong alliances, an energetic proactive determination to advocate for the helpless and disabled among us. Instead, the institution has been led into a dark, dim hallway where our footsteps echo off the closed doors. Lord knows what's going on behind those doors....probably better not to ask.