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Healthcare is a team sport. Building relationships—both personal and professional—is crucial for success in both business and life. While people may have differences of opinion, it’s this diversity of thought that makes us all unique as people. Gaining multiple perspectives always leads to better decision-making.
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The responsibility for workplace culture lies with the leaders to set the direction, and it can either be healthy or unhealthy. It’s the “how” work gets done. Each person in the work environment has a daily opportunity to make a contribution to the whole by living the mission, vision, and values set by the organization. They are the “who” that does the work. Part of feeling satisfied with your work is finding a place where you “fit” evidenced by common beliefs, values, and behavior.
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We know communication is a key competency. Each person must be able to clearly articulate what they would like to communicate to others and be sure the message was received and interpreted the way the sender intended. Mastering two-way communication is essential for optimal understanding and to ensure safety in the healthcare work environment.
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Practice Pearl
Consider doing something nice or helpful for someone else before you need something yourself.
Action Step: Think about how you help others at work to demonstrate you are an asset to the nursing or healthcare team. List the times you have helped someone at work over the last week here:
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Share new information when you receive it.
Action Step: Describe how you share new information that you learn from professional journals or other reputable sources with your coworkers:
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Action Step: Meet with your supervisor and discuss how one new method to share professional information with your coworkers might be implemented to improve patient care or operational efficiency. Document your idea for sharing information with your coworkers here:
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Work to improve the communication process with teammates. You can read more about the importance of communication specifically in healthcare from https://cipherhealth.com/blog/importance-of-communication-in-healthcare/ and https://hphr.org/23-article-ratna/
Action Step: Ask three of your coworkers how communication between others in your department can be improved. Write your findings here:
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Describe one area to improve communication, identify three possible solutions, who you included in the decision-making process, and the outcome when the solution was implemented:
Area to improve: _________________________________________________________________
Potential solution #1:______________________________________________________________
Potential solution #2: _____________________________________________________________
Potential solution #3______________________________________________________________
Who was included: ______________________________________________________________
What was the outcome: ___________________________________________________________
Learn to use the concepts of change to facilitate positive cultural change: driving forces, restraining forces, and equilibrium. You can learn about change concepts from the Institute for Healthcare Improvement via https://www.ihi.org/resources/Pages/Changes/UsingChangeConceptsforImprovement.aspx. You can also learn why most projects fail from https://project-management.com/top-10-main-causes-of-project-failure/#:~:text=Why%20Do%20Projects%20Fail%3F%2010%20Common%20Causes%20of,8.%20Culture%20or%20Ethical%20Misalignment%20...%20More%20items
Action Step: Conduct a literature review and list the concepts facilitating change management. Think of a recent scenario that you can use to practice the change management techniques here:
Techniques I would use for change management:
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