Private online forum for nurses in our facility?

Well, that's fair input.

Emails seem to get lost in the shuffle. We are consolidating some units, and most of this issues we anticipate dealing with on the forum would be more technical, charge oriented issues, things like issues with the computer acuity program, how staffing is assigned (we do it differently between nights and days, per those shifts' preferences), more technical issues that don't concern the entire staff. I'm not interested in wasting 15 minutes of a staff meeting talking about how you are supposed to assign sitters in the PCSS system so that the budget projections next year are correct, particularly with only 1-2 charge nurses at each staff meeting. Group emails do not seem to create the dialogue that we would like, and nurses themselves have complained that they are overwhelmed with the number of emails they get on a daily basis, anyhow. We wanted the forum to serve as a sort of resource, with easy to find, updated info on staffing, chain of command, the computer program, charge nurse's role (what's the charge nurse's job when a code gray is called, when an external disaster occurs, when a pt leaves AMA, when a surgeon calls and says he wants to take a pt to surgery stat at 3am, when we place a pt in hard restraints, those sort of things). It would never be about personnel issues; just technical ones.

Due to staffing issues and life in general, we aren't able to get all our charge nurses at regular meetings. This way, we would have some sort of regular contact without requiring staff to come in for a 30 minute meeting every month. Basically, we're trying to increase communication and dialogue between the charge nurses themselves, and the charge nurses and our director team, but without burdening people with additional meetings or 15 more emails a day. Like I said, we also envision it as a resource for information regarding the skills and technical requirements of charging. Night shift and weekend charges in particular feel some disconnect, and we thought this would be one way to keep them in more contact and in the loop, and to allow the to find answers to some of the things that pop up at 3am, aren't urgent enough to call the director about, but then they forget to ask about it 3 weeks (or 3 months) later when they have the opportunity to ask about it at a meeting.

Frankly, I'm a bit surprised at the negative response, but I'm glad to hear it, to anticipate concerns that other staff might have. I would say that most of the concerns regarding a "secret" group could also be said about email: if someone is discussed, if someone isn't included, if someone printed something off or forwards it...yeah, those concerns exist. I think it would be good of us to remind the CNs it's not a forum for discussion of individual staff members, so I appreciate that comment. The "secret, private" issues is more that we just don't want to violate any sort of privacy laws, we want something that is a format that is acceptable in the health care setting (ie, I don't want to set up a closed group on facebook).

Right now my main concern is if it's even technically possible, and what format other facilities have used. I'm also open to hear what other facilities do besides email and meetings to increase dialogue between the charge nurses, and the charge nurses and their leadership team (directors, clinical nurse specialists, and the assistant directors).

Hmm, the idea of a blog is an interesting idea.

I know, it's an expectation at our work, too. But the reality is not everyone does it, and not everyone is good at creating folders for important messages to keep, that sort of thing. Meetings are expensive and not always as productive as the could be.

We could just set up some sort of online resource, and have it not be interactive; but I really wanted to include some sort of interactive aspect, so that off the cuff things could be quickly mentioned and addressed. Things like "Hey, day shift charge nurses, we'd like the night shift aides to start off with 7 pts a piece, since they tend to get a couple of admits during the night." or "Hey, how do you adjust it in the staffing program if you have an aide sit, but then you pull them to the floor for two hours, but then they get placed back as a sitter...do you keep reassigning them (which is a lot of confusing steps in the system), or just put them in as a sitter all night?" Those sort of issues. And in a place where they could be easily archived and viewed, not just that one time (like in an email), but for the future, if that same issue came up and someone wanted to reference a thread.

I wonder how difficult it would be to build a board like this one? Then we could have a general forum for the unit, and a subforum for the charge nurses. If the entire board were private, the subform wouldn't have to be, and that would take care of any concerns from general staff regarding what was going on in the "secret" forum. Important posts could be stickied or archived for easy future reference.

Sorry, just trying to think outside the box here. I just feel like staff meetings and emails have their place, but we could be using available technology to improve our communication even more, and in particular make night shift, weekend shift, and prn employees feel more in the loop, like they are more involved in and aware of the goings-on on the unit. I feel like those shifts in particular don't get as much input into the incidental decisions and conversations that come up, because they aren't there during the day when the administrative staff is.