Outpatient Surgery Magazine

Special Outpatient Surgery Edition - OR Excellence Program Preview - June 2017

Outpatient Surgery Magazine, providing current information on Surgical Services, Surgical Facility Administration, Outpatient Surgery News and Trends, OR Excellence and more.

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4 4 S U P P L E M E N T T O O U T P A T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E J U N E 2 0 1 7 co-workers instead of running to their managers, use words to communicate instead of eye rolls or sighs, and create a space where others feel safe to dis- agree. • No harm? Really? The reason 440,000 patients die unnecessarily every year due to medical errors is that healthcare professionals don't have the courage to reveal their mistakes. The same errors reoccur time and again across the country. If that many people died at once, the public would be outraged. It would be like watching the evening news and seeing 3 Boeing 747s crash every day for a year. • Communication and teamwork matter. Most healthcare professionals are good people who want to do the right thing, but unfortunately they believe that "bad stuff just happens" once in a while because they're human. That's not why. Bad stuff happens because they don't function with a high level of teamwork. One way to tell if you truly function at the highest possible level of teamwork is if everyone feels safe to speak the truth. That's often not the case. Recent studies show that nurses assess a situation and decide if having a tough conversation is worth the risk of facing personal and professional consequences, and usually decide that it's not. More nurses need to have the courage to speak up when something seems amiss. • Promote healthy communication. Dauntless nurses create a healthy and productive workplace when they speak up and agree as a team to communicate professionally and constructively. They don't join in when someone talks about another person who isn't present and they offer to assist other team members who are drowning in work. They routinely compliment colleagues, ensure everyone's opinions are valued and respected, and make it clear that no one should hesitate to ask a question about something they don't understand. OSM

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