Should Healthcare Agencies be Transparent?

Should Health care Agencies be Transparent? I thought about this, after talking to my cousin, who is also a RN and she told me that her floor at the hospital she works was having open interviews, after the top nurse manager candidates were picked, to allow nurses to have direct input in the hiring of a new nursing manager. I have personally never worked for an agency that allowed this practice, but it sounded like a great opportunity to allow those who will be directly impacted to have a say, whether real or perceived, in such an important decision. I think this was a great way to start or maintain a trusting nurse-employer relationship. Health care agencies that leave nurses in the dark when reviewing or strongly considering important proposals for nursing changes/new products or other nurse-related issues are often accused of not being transparent. The reality is, nurses realize that they are not privy to all information that takes place in making health care decisions and nor do they always want to be included in the small details, but when questions can't be asked or answered and it appears that there is a "secret project" it can be perceived by many as negative or unreasonable changes because those are the ones that no one wants to share until it is time to "enforce them". Many times the lack of transparency can also breed gossip and "grapevine" talk which may further impact the response to the change or diminish the trust in the nurse-employer relationship. Transparency is a great way to build a trusting nurse-employer relationship and create loyal nurses in a time when nurse retention is so vital for agency success and positive patient outcomes. In remaining transparent it does not mean that nurses need to know all the details behind all the nursing-related decisions, like who sat that the table, who disagreed with what, or who said what. It just means letting them know that the conversation will or is taking place and information will be shared from the appropriated channel {i.e. supervisor, nurse manager, nursing executive, etc} when it is available to be shared. A transparent health care agency for this nurse is a respected one by its nurses, but not always agreed with, but that is discussion for another post  Share how your agency remains transparent with it's nurses?