All Entries Tagged With: "communication"
Apple’s iTouch and iPhones connect nurses in Florida hospital
On any given day at Sarasota Memorial Healthcare System in Florida, the overhead page was going off every three minutes. And when a patient is in pain and trying to recover, that can be an issue.
So Sarasota Memorial brought peace and quiet—along with improved healthcare—to its hospital by supplying Apple’s iTouch to its nurses.
With help from Voalte, a startup developing point-of-care communications company that uses mobile technology, Sarasota began a 60-day pilot program in June where 25 iPod Touches were given to nurses on one specific floor with the goal of reducing the amount of noise and inefficiency involved in paging.
The iTouches reduced the number of pages in eight hours from 172 to 38, while the devices received an average of 4,000 messages a day—along with positive comments from the patients on the floor. [more]
Announcing Patient Safety Monitor!
Have you ever needed to look up a hospital regulation in a neighboring state and not known where to look? Or have you needed to double check your state’s current regulation on patient identification, and had no time to go searching for the information? Well look no further!
HCPro launched its newest product earlier this week: Patient Safety Monitor, an online resource for your patient safety needs. The main feature is the Crosswalk, which organizes many patient safety-related regulations by what is required by The Joint Commission, CMS, and all 50 states. The product also features the monthly newsletter Briefings on Patient Safety, a tools library, access to our popular “Patient Safety Talk” listserv, and weekly news alert.
The Patient Safety Monitor blog is actually a part of the larger Patient Safety Monitor product, and you’ll now notice a link back to the home page in the “links” section in the righthand column of the blog. If you’re already a subscriber of Briefings on Patient Safety, you now have access to Patient Safety Monitor as part of your subscription.
If you’re interested in finding out more about Patient Safety Monitor, be sure to check out the demo. You can also sign up for a free 7-day trial.
Taking the pulse of nurse-physician relationships
Taking the pulse of physician relationships is a good starting point for change. Doing so allows you to dissect the current relationships in your facility and make sense of the problems you face. Five categories can be broken down to define the types of relationships:
- Collegial: Relationships between the nurses and physicians have mutual respect and power. Because of this, both parties feel empowered. When both nurses and physicians have power, they are better able to recognize the value in each other’s education and experience. With this environment, physicians and nurses consult each other frequently and seek each other’s advice, to the full benefit of patients.
- Collaborative: Physicians and nurses participate together in the plan of care to produce positive outcomes for patients. The nurses and physicians have a mutual respect for each other. The key difference is that the power is not equal between nurses and physicians. The power difference does not interfere with the working relationship, and both parties are able to work together for the benefit of the patient.
- Teacher-student: The physician or the nurse takes on the role of mentor. Typically, the physician educates the nurse. Often, however, nurses are in a position to teach physicians what they have learned from their experiences.
- Neutral: These kinds of relationships evoke only indifference. Such relationships originally cropped up in healthcare when, in an effort to increase productivity, hospitals decided to move patient charts from the main nursing station to outside patients’ rooms. Now, physicians can come to the floor, write orders, put up the yellow flag on the chart rack, and never speak to anyone.
- Negative: Nurses report that negative patient outcomes occur more frequently when nurses interact with difficult physicians. After physicians establish a negative reputation for themselves, nurses will go out of their way to avoid them. The critical common thread in every disturbing physician-nurse interaction is that the patient loses.
How does your facility deal with difficult relationships between nurses and physicians?
Source: Speak Your Truth: Proven Strategies for Effective Nurse-Physician Communication
Providing culturally competent care at the end of life
Among healthcare professionals, nurses have been leaders in recognizing that cultural factors influence healthcare practices and disease processes. It is useful for nurses to be aware of the beliefs and understandings of various patient populations when discussing end-of-life care and recognize that end-of-life decisions are made within the cultural context.
The significance of autonomy, informed decisions, and control over the dying process are understood differently by different ethnic or cultural groups in America. Autonomy, to the level often expected by European Americans, may not be expected in many cultures that have a long tradition of family-centered healthcare decisions.
For example: [more]
Supporting nurses through those terrible, horrible, no good, very bad days
It comes with the job of being a nurse: dealing with the injured, the sick, and the dying; constantly trying to do the best for your patients with limited time; and always asking “How are you feeling?” But nurses are rarely asked that question. Peers, patients, family members, physicians, and even the nurses themselves are too concerned about the health of the patients to take a step back and make sure those giving the care are doing all right.
In a study of 1,215 nurses conducted by the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing published in the journal Social Science and Medicine, 25% said moral distress made them want to leave their position. Moral distress can leave nurses feeling powerless because if they feel they did not carry out their duty to the best of their ability, even after exhausting all possible options. [more]
Schwarzenegger replaces most of California’s State Nursing Board
On Monday, July 13, Californian Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger replaced most of the members of the state’s Board of Registered Nursing after reports of potentially dangerous nurses continuing to work even after being accused of egregious misconduct.
[more]
Let’s talk: Twittering nurses connect us all
Twitter, the social networking site that allows users to keep friends, family, and colleagues up-to-date on everything that is happening in their lives, is taking the world by storm. Healthcare providers are commenting on surgeries in real time, nurses are reaching out for experts on the latest clinical care best practices, and there is a constant flow of information and advice.
The information you can share is never ending and Twitter is starting to become a useful tool in the nursing world. Here are some ways nurses and nurse managers are using Twitter:
Set the tone for nurse-physician collegiality
by Kathleen Bartholomew, RC, RN, MN
Imagine that a nurse has come to you complaining about a physician who talked to him or her rudely and arrogantly. The nurse feels humiliated. The very next day, you see this physician on the unit. What do you do?
It is vital that nurse managers role model zero tolerance for any kind of disruptive, intimidating, or verbally abusive behavior. Research shows that 1-3% of physicians are disruptive, yet this group causes exponentially devastating effects on morale, retention, and patient safety (Rosenstein & O’Daniel, 2005). Managers must take the necessary actions to demonstrate to nurses and physicians the standard of acceptable behavior and set the tone for collegiality on the unit. [more]
Communicate and commit to nursing
by Kathleen Bartholomew, RC, RN, MN
Healthcare is characterized by a culture of silence, especially surrounding errors. Deeply embedded in both the physician and nurse culture is the belief that good nurses and physicians don’t make mistakes. Whether vocalized or not, we expect perfection from these human beings, and this is unarticulated belief results in a culture of blame, shame, and most of all silence. [more]
‘Polling’ for collaborative practice
You want staff to deliver excellent patient care so in return, they achieve excellent patient outcomes. But you know how hard this can be if staff can’t, won’t, or don’t know how to work together effectively.
If you are looking to enhance collaborative practice at your facility, begin with a process that causes staff to take a step back and truly understand what collaborative practices are about. You can initiate this process by having medical staff, nursing staff, and other professional departments, such as respiratory therapy and pharmacy, participate in a survey that asks questions such as:
1. What does the term “collaborative practice” mean to you?
2. Do you feel that by improving collaborative efforts we improve patient care?
3. What are two things you can do to improve/enhance collaborative practice?
4. What are two things other professionals can do to enhance collaborative efforts?
5. Would you be interested in being part of a team that works with administration on a project targeted to improve collaborative practices in our organization?
You can also use the survey to begin to educate staff about collaboration by giving them a question that requires them to look at the literal definition of the term. For example:
Which of the following terms are synonyms for collaboration?
Joint, group effort, two-way, relationship, mutual, cooperation, shared, teamwork
This type of exercise reminds people that collaboration is more than co-signing standing orders or serving on the same committee.
How do you create an environment of collaborative practice?
