NR 582NP Week 7 Negotiation Brief Example

Negotiation Brief: Asking the Unit Manager for Four Protected Hours a Month to Run the Telemetry Indication Pilot, With Both Sides' Interests and the Walk Back If the Answer Is No

Student Name

College of Nursing, Chamberlain University

NR 582NP: Leadership and Role Development for Advanced Nursing Practice

Instructor Name

Month Day, Year

Negotiation Brief: Asking the Unit Manager for Four Protected Hours a Month to Run the Telemetry Indication Pilot, With Both Sides' Interests and the Walk Back If the Answer Is No

The Outcome I Want

Four protected hours a month, for three months, scheduled off the floor and paid, to run the telemetry indication audit and report results. That is a decision the unit manager can grant or refuse in one reply.

Positions

Mine: I need four hours a month off the floor.

The manager's likely position: there is no money for non-productive hours this quarter.

Interests

Mine: to run the pilot properly, with audits done the same way each month; to do it on paid time rather than on days off; to have results the medical director will trust.

The manager's, given more generous treatment because a brief that has not worked out the other side's interests will not survive the first reply: staying within the non-productive hours budget, which is tracked monthly and reviewed by the director; not setting a precedent that every project gets paid time; reducing alarm fatigue and transfer delays, which appear on the manager's own quality report; being seen by the director as supporting staff-led improvement.

Shared: fewer unnecessary alarms; faster bed turnover; a unit that keeps experienced nurses. A unit where staff feel supported in improvement work tends to keep them, which relational leadership research supports (Cummings et al., 2018).

Interests We Share, Made Concrete

The manager's quality report includes alarm counts per patient-day and how long emergency patients wait before a telemetry bed opens. Both are numbers the pilot might move, and the practice standards behind the pilot are designed to reduce unnecessary monitoring (Sandau et al., 2017). If the first month's report shows either moving, the manager has something to show the director, and I have evidence that the hours were worth it. Framing the request around these two numbers puts our interests on the same page.

What the Manager Can Give and What the Manager Cannot

The manager controls the schedule and the non-productive hours budget within limits. The manager cannot create new budget. Asking for something the manager cannot give would end the negotiation.

Opening Offer

Four hours a month for three months, scheduled on a day with the lightest census, with a written report at the end of each month to the manager first, so the manager can share results with the director.

Room to Move

Two hours a month of paid time plus two hours I contribute on my own time. Or four hours charged to the hospital's quality improvement fund rather than the unit's budget, if the manager will co-sign the application. Or a shorter pilot of two months.

The Manager's Constraints, Listed

The non-productive hours budget is set by the director and reviewed monthly; going over it requires an explanation. The manager has already approved paid time for two other projects this quarter. The unit is two nurses short, so any hour off the floor is an hour another nurse covers. These are not objections to argue with; they are the conditions any offer has to fit.

What I Will Not Give Up

Paid time for at least half the hours, because unpaid project work sets the precedent I am trying to avoid for colleagues who follow. A consistent audit method, because inconsistent data would make the pilot worthless.

How I Will Handle a Firm No

If the manager says no and explains why, I will thank the manager, ask whether a request next quarter would be considered and move to the fallback. I will not go over the manager's head to the director, even informally, because the pilot needs the manager's support to work on the unit, and losing that would cost more than the hours.

Fallback If the Answer Is No

If the manager says no to every version, I will ask whether the audit could be folded into the charge nurse's existing quality rounds once a week, and I will offer to train the charge nurses. That is less than I want, but it keeps the pilot alive. Fisher et al. (2011) call this the best alternative to a negotiated agreement, and knowing it in advance makes it easier not to accept a bad offer.

Questions I Expect From the Manager

"Why can't you do this on your own time?" Because unpaid project work becomes the expectation for everyone who comes after me, and because the audit needs to happen at 08:00 on a weekday, during a shift. "What do I get out of it?" Monthly results on alarms and bed turnover that the manager can take to the director, on the manager's own quality report. "What if it shows nothing?" Then the unit will know that telemetry use is appropriate, which is also worth knowing, and the pilot ends after three months.

Timing

I will ask for the meeting in the first week of the month, before the manager's budget review, so the request can be considered with the month's numbers rather than after them.

What I Bring That Helps the Manager

I can produce the monthly report the manager would otherwise have to request from the quality department. I can train the charge nurses on the checklist so the audit could continue without me. I can present results at the director's meeting if the manager wants. Each of these is an offer, not a demand, and each reduces the manager's work.

The Opening Lines

"I'd like to ask for something specific and small. The telemetry pilot needs about four hours a month of my time to audit and report. I know non-productive hours are tight this quarter. Is there a way to fit four hours in, or would a quality fund application be easier for you?"

What Would Make Me Accept Less Than I Want

If the manager offers two paid hours and no quality fund application, I will accept, because the pilot can run on two hours if I simplify the report. If the manager offers nothing paid but agrees to the charge nurse option, I will accept the fallback rather than walk away, because the goal is the pilot, not the hours.

After the Meeting

Whatever the answer, I will send a two-line summary of what was agreed within the hour, so both of us remember it the same way.

References

Cummings, G. G., Tate, K., Lee, S., Wong, C. A., Paananen, T., Micaroni, S. P. M., & Chatterjee, G. E. (2018). Leadership styles and outcome patterns for the nursing workforce and work environment: A systematic review. International Journal of Nursing Studies, 85, 19-60. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2018.04.016

Fisher, R., Ury, W., & Patton, B. (2011). Getting to yes: Negotiating agreement without giving in (3rd ed.). Penguin.

Sandau, K. E., Funk, M., Auerbach, A., Barsness, G. W., Blum, K., Cvach, M., Lampert, R., May, J. L., McDaniel, G. M., Perez, M. V., Sendelbach, S., Sommargren, C. E., & Wang, P. J. (2017). Update to practice standards for electrocardiographic monitoring in hospital settings: A scientific statement from the American Heart Association. Circulation, 136(19), e273-e344. https://doi.org/10.1161/CIR.0000000000000527