All Entries Tagged With: "nurse satisfaction"
H1N1 flu conditions have nurses’ union ready to strike
The California Nurses Association (CNA) announced on Monday that its members may participate in a one-day strike on October 30 due to concerns regarding healthcare organizations’ inadequate safety precautions regarding the H1N1 pandemic. The strike would involve more than 16,000 registered nurses at more than 30 hospitals, targeting three large California hospital chains.
The CNA says nurses are concerned about safety preparations to protect patients, families, and healthcare workers during an H1N1 pandemic. Specific areas of concern include isolating patients with symptoms to prevent contagion and adequate supplies of fit-tested N95 respirators.
The CNA also wants California hospitals to adopt guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Occupational Safety and Health Administration. They say this would ensure that all hospitals in the California area meet the highest safety measures demanded and that they be uniform throughout the state.
Different ways peers are improving nurse satisfaction
The July 28 blog post discussing ways to boost nurse morale in a time of uncertainty has been one of the most popular recent topics. The post provided quick and helpful hints on no- or low-cost ways to boost the morale of nurses in your organizations. The post also generated a lot of discussion and many readers shared their own tips and strategies about what they have been trying.
Here are some of the highlights of the suggestions:
- Caught red handed campaign: Recognize staff members who have been “caught” doing their job well.
- Gift cards: Present a gift card to acknowledge a nurse who has gone out of his or her way to be an excellent nurse.
- Strive for five: Leave small questionnaires in plain sight of patients, visitors, and hospital staff members and ask everyone to fill them out. The person can comment on a particular staff member doing an excellent job, similar to a comment card at a restaurant. Any staff member receiving a good comment earns $10 on the next pay check.
- Hand written thank-you cards: Thank-you cards are always a great thing, but hand written ones can be the best. Instead of sending an email about a job well done to a staff member, write a thank-you card and leave it in their locker. After a tough shift, whether it’s night call or day call, the card will surely bring a smile to their face.
- The stupid nice game: Be over-the-top nice to everyone and overly complimentary to everyone at the hospital. Laughter is contagious, and sometimes taking the compliment to the next level, or having staff members realize how over the top you are being, could make their day that much better.
What are you doing at your organization to help boost staff members’ morale?
Improve nurse satisfaction in a time of uncertainty
Improving nursing satisfaction is tough in bad economic times, when many hospitals are experiencing census dips and cost cutbacks that are forcing reductions in work force, benefits, hours, and pay. But the state of the economy doesn’t need to bring your nursing satisfaction scores down—there are ways to boost morale immediately.
For example, you can:
- Begin nursing staff meetings by asking, “What was the best thing that happened to you today or during your last shift?” The meetings should focus on improving care and team-building.
- Focus on improving the image of nursing by gathering a group of nurses to volunteer with a community or organization project.
- Ask creative nurses to develop banners or posters that showcase nursing excellence and hang them around the unit or facility.
- Thank nurses for their fortunate choice of profession. In Gallup’s annual honesty and ethics professional survey, nursing has been rated No. 1 for the past seven years.
- Ask a nurse to create helpful hints on how to deal with stress and print them in your nursing or hospital newsletter.
- Ask the CNO to visit each nursing unit to listen and discuss why he or she is encouraged and hopeful about the future. Now is the time for leadership to paint an accurate but hopeful picture for nurses.
- Keep up the budget-friendly celebrations and recognitions for staff nurses. You can celebrate by handing out coffee coupons or recognizing a staff nurse during every unit meeting for his or her excellent patient care.
Time management tips for beating stress
Everything comes down to time management. You have to make sure there is enough time for your job, your significant other, your family, your friends, taking the kids to soccer practice and ballet lessons, the dog has to go to the vet, and somewhere in between all of that you are supposed to breathe and have time for yourself. In all this commotion, it can be hard to remain calm and stress free, especially for busy nurse managers struggling to keep track of other staff members and daily tasks. Exhausting!
Here are some helpful tips to remember while trying to manage your time and remain stress free:
Quick Retention Tips!
1. Your Laughter is contagious – let them hear you roar! Good moods affect others in a positive way and bad moods infect others negatively. (From Love ‘em or Lose ‘em!)
2. The more information you put into your brain, the more likely you are to come up with new ideas! Continue your own learning journey by attending at least one conference a year. [more]
Showcasing nurses as a retention strategy!
As managers, we’re always on the lookout for opportunities to recognize our staff – - but we’re also in a constant budgetary constraint . By looking for situations in which we can showcase our staff, we may be able to provide a form of recognition for those nurses who enjoy the public eye, while helping our organization with recruitment at the same time!
Here are a few ideas to get you started…
- The next time your unit has something to report on in your Deaprtment Head meeting (most organizations have these at least once a month), have 2 or 3 staff members get up to present your data.
- Does your cluster have any type of “Huddles” or “Management Meetings”? This is another grand opportunity for staff to present information!
- Are you currently experiencing a staffing crunch? How about sending one of your RNs to a job fair or a College Career Day with your organization’s Nurse Recruiter? No one can sell your unit to potential applicants like a nurse who works there!
- Most everyone is familiar with the strategy of beginning staff meetings with a recent “positive story” or compliment received. How much more of a positive impact would this have if presented by a nursing peer? Or one of your care assistants or unit secretaries?
WHAT OTHER IDEAS HAVE YOU IMPLEMENTED?!
Excellent Quote to Ponder…
“There are some people who live in a dream world, and there are some who face reality – - and then there are those who turn one into the other.”
~ Douglas Everett; Canadian Attorney and Senator
Retention tips!
Here is a quick idea that costs only about 2 minutes of time: Even though you may have thanked an employee at work for something they did “above and beyond”, take the time to call them at home after their shift to thank them again. It’s preferable for you to make the call from your home instead of your office. You may be surprised how far this small gesture can go!
When I originally sent this idea out to managers and administrators in our organization, our COO called me at home! I was not there to receive the call, but he left me a wonderful message saying how much he appreciated the retention ideas I sent out and how much he valued my position within the organization. WOW. I was floored!
If you’ve tried this idea, or are thinking about it, drop a comment on the blog and let us know how it goes!
Quick nurse retention ideas!
In my position as Nurse Retention Coordinator, I am always on the lookout for innovative ideas I can adapt as a retention strategy. I then share these ideas with our Nurse Managers.
Employee of the Month contests tend to become popularity events; try this instead: At monthly staff meetings, draw one name out of the hat and that person becomes Employee of the Month for that month. This gives everyone an opportunity to be recognized!
Encourage your staff to write down their KUDOS about that person. Who is your creative staff member who just loves crafts, design or scrapbooking? Ask that person to compile the peer comments in any way they think is appropirate: typed on a sheet, a collage, a scrapbook page, a certificate. Be creative (or allow them to be!). No one can win twice until all staff have had one opportunity to shine!
Kick It Up A Notch: Give your creative staff a bulletin board in your unit, but not in the staff lounge. You want patients and visitors to see it too. Encourage your creative person(s) to design the board each month highlighting the Employee of the Month. This is an awesome way to provide peer recognition!
One of my staff nurses also earned a degree in Recreation Therapy – she LOVES taking time each month to design a THEME board. If you have to pay an hour or so of OT, is the recognition factor worth it?
