Boosting Staff Morale

[gizzy76]

Hi!

Anyone out there have any suggestions on how to boost staff morale at work? I am trying at my LTC facility but it seems like everyone has a miserable attitude. I really dislike working with people who constantly belly-ache about everything and anything that is happening in their workplace yet they won't support their fellow co-workers or even themselves and let the manager know. Heck, they won't even come to the scheduled staff meetings. Out of 50ish employees, maybe 4 show up for the meetings.

I was asking staff last night about things they wanted to see dealt with and I wrote a letter in regards to it so they would be addressed on the meeting agenda and then I encouraged these staff members to come to the meeting. I got responses like:

"Why should I bother?...I'm not getting paid for it

"I'm not driving 1/2 hr for a stupid meeting"

"Nothing gets accomplished at these meetings"

Nah, I have better things to do with my time"

It was sad and frustrating at the same time. They sure were willing to tell ME about what they wanted to see addressed but weren't prepared to come to the meeting and address it themselves.

Does anyone have any advice? People like this can really knock staff spirits down a few notches...I don't want to lose my spirit! Please help~

[NICU_Nurse, BSN, RN]

In our unit, I'd give my curling iron up if our manager would come by ONE SINGLE TIME and say something positive to someone. She breezes through, doesn't stop unless she's got something to ***** about or criticize you for. When I say breezes, I mean she walks so fast by us in the morning that she'd lift my skirt if I was wearing one. Superspeedy, zipping from one side to the other, fussing at one person, then the next, and so on. It doesn't matter how clean we keep the unit, or what we do to go out of our way for, or how nice we are, or anything. The only words that come out of her mouth are negative. No "How are you all this morning?" or "Wow, the unit is spotless!" or "Everything go alright last night?". NOTHING. It's all "You forgot to do this..." or "Why didn't you do this?" or "You did this wrong and you have to stop doing it" or whatever.

It would improve morale on OUR unit if she'd shut the hell up and treat us like hardworking adults, or, at the very least, like valuable team members (which we certainly are).

When we approach her with ideas, suggestions, etc., she turns her hand to every single one. It's always, "No, we can't do that..." or "No, that's not going to work...". You ask why, she's got an excuse. Then, in our meetings, they actually encourage us to speak up! LOL! For what purpose? So you can tell us no again?

As for our meetings, they're held once a month and we have to actually attend 6 in person, for which we remain on the clock until the meeting is over. The other six we read the minutes of in a large binder and have to sign off on. They're held in the mornings, at shift change, and they're alternated (days) each month so all of us can attend at least half of them.

I'd also suggest having two meetings- one for days and one for night shifters. It's not fair to always make the night shifters stay late and the day people never have to do that. You could ask for suggestions and then actually IMPLEMENT some of them, no matter how small.

We've got a reward system where if another nurse or staff member does something good, anyone can write up a little card-thing and give it to them saying what a good job they did. When you've gotten three cards you get a little pin and become a member of the Service Excellence Team. At the end of the year, all those who got three or more cards get a little treat of some kind, and get entered into a raffle for a gift basket.

Another thing we wanted to do (but of course it was vetoed) was "How well do you know your co-workers?". We were going togive everyone a questionnaire about curious aspects of their lives, or things that most people wouldn't know about (like bizarre hobbies or collections, favorite candy or ice cream, how they met their spouse, secret desire, etc.) and then type it up and post one each month on the bulletin board. People could submit votes, and if no one could guess who it was, that person would get a prize of some sort.

I think ultimately, though, we'd be much happier if we felt our opinions were valued and we were getting positive feedback of any sort from SOMEONE in charge. When you are treated as if you don't count, you aren't going to be very wiling to come up with new ideas or be interested in making changes.

On the money issue, I wouldn't want more money if I was happy where I work. However, I'm not, so therefore, I do.

[pickledpepperRN]

Originally posted by ainz

. We started incorporating some of those principles in our hospital 2 years ago and now we have a waiting list for nursing, lab, and radiology of people wanting to come to work at our hospital because they have "heard" what a great place to work it has become.

We started a service excellence program lead by the, of course, service excellence team. The CEO gave the team the responsibility and authority to do whatever was needed to have, as he put it, "happy patients, happy nurses, happy doctors." There are many many many things that can be done to improve morale if your leadership will allow it. If you came up with a plan and a program and approached them with it, I bet they would let you implement it as well.

Those positive "IFs" make a big difference.

Sounds like YOU CEO truly want the hospital to care for patients. Too bad others do not.

At one"forum" an LVN was talking about an idea to put disposable or any other brush to clean large fracture bedpans. Many are thrown away because they cannot be cleaned deeply enough, the gloves are not long enough.

Do you think wasting supplies, infection control, or the nurses opinion was respected?

Well he took out a clipper and began to work on his cuticles. No eye contact.

Good IF the leadership will allow it.