2016, the month we pledged to complete the follow-up staff survey to
measure improvements to our workplace culture. Hang the chart in a
prominent area of the department. The visual tool will remind staff of
the efforts and progress you're making to improve the workplace
morale based on the recommendations they made.
Walk in their shoes
Lesia Very, MSN, RN, director of the ambulatory surgery center,
says team cohesion can have a direct impact on the quality of patient
care your team provides. She believes in bringing her team together
by listening to their concerns on a daily basis, finding out what mat-
ters most to them and keeping the lines of communication wide open.
If you don't know what's bothering your staff, you can't resolve what-
ever issues they're facing, says Ms. Very, who's at work at 4:30 a.m.,
when the first nurses arrive, and who always fills in as a circulator or
scrub tech when the OR team is short-staffed.
Ms. Very also revamped the surgery center's unit-based council,
which had devolved into constant gripe sessions. She restored the
gathering's intended purpose: a forum where team leaders could voice
common issues and develop shared solutions to make the surgical
department better.
The place to be
Whoever's in charge of your workplace improvement project must have
the communication skills needed to serve as the liaison between the
frontline staff and their managers. She must ensure the program main-
tains momentum and continues to progress toward the final goal.
Change won't happen overnight. Our journey took close to 2 years —
and it continues today. The ongoing efforts have paid off. No staff mem-
bers left in 2016 and our ASC recently achieved the highest patient satis-
4
Staffing
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