Two people were sent to help them resolve their

Two people were sent to help them resolve their differences, and they eventually
"became a great team . . . [that] worked together and made tons of progress." She stated,
"He was smart, and he was good, and he was progressive," and he eventually saw that
they really had the same goals. Stefani "stood up for nursing with him," and he often told
people that she had had to hit him over the head with a two-by-four to wake him up, but
eventually they could laugh about it.
The scenario was very different with another administrator with whom Stefani
worked. The unions were against him, and according to Stefani, he was just plain
incompetent. "It was a very ugly scene," she reported. When Stefani would make night
rounds with him and the union, she would hear comments such as, "We ought to just

233
shove him down the stairs." She said it became very reminiscent of the situation with the
unions that she had faced when in her previous CNE position. She felt that she had to
walk a very fine line between trying to support administration where she could and
supporting the staff. Stefani said that she had always believed it was important to support
administration with staff whenever possible, but she added, "That's where you have to
have your values and your standards."
At one point, those who worked with this administrator were accused by people in
the state capital of being prejudiced, as this administrator represented a minority group.
They were told that they needed to work with him. The state department head at the time
was also of the same minority and thought that things were just being fabricated about the
administrator. An assistant administrator from another state facility was sent to work with
Stefani who had been labeled as unwilling to work cooperatively with the administrator
and the union in creating a staffing schedule for the nurses that was within the budget.
Apparently, this assistant administrator, who was very sharp and full of questions, was
"supposed to turn [Stefani] around." She invited him to every meeting with the
administrator and to the nurse management meetings and requested that he give her
feedback any time he thought she was not working with him to come up with the best
solution. She invited him to show her how she could do things differently. Stefani
realized that she needed to be able to work within the budget, but she needed to "be able
to do it in a way that would allow us to give care to the patients."
During this time, they were also having numerous meetings with the unions.
According to Stefani, the assistant administrator became a great asset to them in terms of

234
developing staff schedules and only one time, in all of the meetings he attended with her
and the administrator, did he give Stefani feedback on how she might have handled a
conflict with the administrator differently. Stefani was also seeing someone privately as a
consultant who helped her to "point out the process in the group," as well as with the
administrator, without any element of blame. Finally, Stefani told the administrator that,
if he continued yelling at her, she would leave the room. When it came time for the