All Entries Tagged With: "staff collaboration"

General Test-Taking Guidelines

Successful test-taking is a learnable skill. Some people freeze up when faced with taking a test and find themselves forgetting facts that they knew well only hours before the exam. Others become physically ill or very nervous. However, there are specific strategies for taking tests, which sometimes depends on the nature of the test themselves. There are also general strategies for preparing tests. These often pertain to ensuring learners’ general health and well-being.

The following are some general strategies to suggest to nursing students and staff members to avoid test panic and to do their best on examinations: [more]

Encourage staff to work and play together

Nurses of different generations are bound to hold different values, beliefs, and interests. For effective communication in and outside your unit, you must increase staffs’ understanding of these differences. Here are some suggestions to get staff talking and bonding: [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?

Team building idea!

This is a quick idea you can implement either at the beginning or the end of a staff meeting. The purpose if two-fold: To provide opportunity for staff to identify unit concerns they’d like to see addressed, and To help staff think outside the box for possible solutions.

You Need:
A piece of paper and a pen for each person; a small basket.

What To Do:
1) Ask each staff member to write a unit problem, issue or concern they’d like help to solve (you may need to describe an acceptable concern that can be addressed by staff).
2) Staff then folds their paper and drops it in the basket.
3) Ask one person to choose a folded paper. Without reading it, ask him/her to hand the paper to someone else.
4) The recipient of the folded paper selects 2 peers with whom he/she would like to work.
5) Repeat steps 3 and 4 until everyone is on a problem-solving team.
6) Allow each team 5 – 10 minutes to compile ideas, suggestions or a soltution for the problem on their paper.
7) Each team has 1 minute to read the problem and describe their intended solution.

To Discuss:
1) Timeline for implementation of the solution(s).
2) Why don’t we think to ask each other for help more often?
3) How can we encourage each other to ask for help when it’s needed?
4) What should we do with the folded papers we didn’t get to today?

A Quote To Ponder:
“Forget about all the reasons why something may not work. You only need to find one good reason why it will.”
~ Dr. Robert Anthony, PhD.

Build an engaged team!

If asked, we’d all agree that we want to manage an enthusiastic and engaged team! That’s a tall order to fill, but it isn’t impossible. Here are a couple of quick-fire ideas to get started towards fostering engagement:

Try to identify one learning opportunity for each of your staff.
This doean’t mean that everyone has to attend an expen$ive conference. How about cross-training, one additional departmental responsibility, or a self-study project? A primary characteristic of engaged employees is the feeling of being challenged.

Offer 5 times more praise than correction.
Admittedly, this can be a challenge when considering a low achieving performer. Try to take note of any incremental progress, demonstration of positive behaviors or even a wonderful sense of humor that enables his/her peers to have a few minutes of stress relief!

What ideas do YOU use to foster engagement?

A great idea for teambuilding!

Purchase a puzzle large enough for each staff member to have a piece. Give each one a piece of the puzzle (during a staff meeting, in their mailbox, etc.). Explain that you need everyone’s participation to make the team fit together. Have a designated place for staff to begin working the puzzle until it’s completed.

Kick It Up A Notch: Leave a few pieces out, but give them to ancillary staff (RT, PT, CM, etc.). After a time of having “holes” in the finished picture, ask the other disciplines to fit their pieces into the picture. You could even have someone glue the puzzle and ask engineering to hang it–as a reminder that we cannot work together without everyone’s input.

2 GREAT QUOTES:
“Whoever does not love his work cannot hope that it will please others.” (unknown)

“Leaders must be close enough to relate to others, but far enough ahead to motivate them.” (John Maxwell)