team member who had survived breast cancer took special note. She
wanted to talk to the patient to see if she could answer any questions
about her personal experience, something that could help allay the
patient's fears.
"She had been there and wanted to talk to the patient one-on-one,
tell her that she knew what the patient was going through and ask if
there was any way she could help," says Susan Byrd, MBA, RN, direc-
tor of surgical services at Bayfront Health Spring Hill (Fla.). "We try to
go in and touch that person, tell them what we've experienced and
how we overcame some of the challenges. Our nurses are just being
themselves, and that's what makes the connection."
It's that unscripted approach — encouraging staff members to be
themselves and offer that extra personal touch — that propelled
Bayfront Health Spring Hill to win the 2018 OR Excellence Award for
Patient Satisfaction.
Ms. Byrd knows a lot of people who love scripting — having staff
members saying the same things to patients over and over — and
think if the message is continuously the same, you get better results.
But that's not what Ms. Byrd believes.
"I think patients get more of an active, engaged experience if the
staff are allowed to be themselves," says Ms. Byrd. "Patients know
when we're being scripted. My experience has been you get so much
more patient satisfaction if you just be yourself while doing your job."
The experienced staff does it over and over with patients. They
never get tired or annoyed and each member of the team looks for-
ward to the individual interactions with the patients, opportunities
where the staff members can transfer their knowledge to the patients,
according to Ms. Byrd.
Right from the onset
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