Offering a show of support to middle managers

With the NHS and nursing in particular under great strain, it is easy for all clinical and non-clinical healthcare staff to feel at times stressed, pressurised, overwhelmed and perplexed. But perhaps we should spare a thought especially for NHS middle managers: ward matrons, heads of departments and team leaders.

These individuals, who have responsibility for managing staff, day-to-day management of departments, budgets and service-provision duties are often the point of contact for both more junior and more senior staff.

Middle managers are accountable to more senior managers, so they have targets and goals to meet as well as various objectives as set by senior and executive managers internally and at a national level. But they also have to meet the needs of their individual departments, dealing with staffing issues, operational issues, legal problems, budgets and many more duties besides.

While all of us are under pressure at the moment, at whatever level we work, we must remember the importance of supporting all of our colleagues with kindness, fairness and sensitivity, and that our middle managers must at times feel they are being come at from all angles.

About the author

Donato Tallo is a surgical nurse at East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust