Posted: 3/30/2011
Expert negotiator Ronald Shapiro taught more than 60 nurses “How to Negotiate so Everyone Wins at the Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing” on Wednesday, March 9, 2011. The famed Baltimore sports agent and attorney shared his knowledge with Doctor of Nursing Practice students, who are nurse practitioners, administrators, and leaders in nursing.
“Nurses probably negotiate more than any other group of people we work with at the Shapiro Institute,” he said. They not only negotiate in their personal lives, he noted, but professionally as well to see programs implemented, budgets approved, and patient care adjusted. They go through the process with their peers, patients, pharmacies, and other healthcare professionals.
“With all this responsibility,” said Shapiro, “nurses ought to be well-equipped to negotiate.” So he delivered a four-hour seminar for the nurses, which included tips on preparing for negotiations, probing to discover other people’s needs during the negotiating process, and how to make a proposal.
Shapiro says he feels very connected to the nursing profession, and in 2009 he agreed to serve as an executive mentor to DNP student JoAnn Ioannou, DNP, MSN, MBA, RN, Assistant Director of Nursing in the Department of Medical Nursing at Johns Hopkins Hospital.
“Shapiro is the most prepared individual I’ve ever met,” Ioannou said. “He will know anything and everything that he needs to know before he walks in the room [for a negotiation]…that’s one thing I’m trying to emulate.”
Shapiro believes that everyone should have basic negotiation skills. “Negotiation is life. And you get to practice it every day, everywhere you go.”