HCAHPS and Service Excellence

[CamillusRN, BSN]

Greetings, fellow healthcare professionals! I have a question for you folks who have been "forced" to attend those 3-4 hour workshops on service excellence.

I was "voluntold" to help spearhead a committee for Service Excellence workshop development in September and we debut in March. I've almost completely remastered the material given to us to make it more palatable and exciting. I've also confirmed that all staff (including physicians and mid-levels) will be in attendance to at least one of the workshops. There are plenty of well-timed breaks and food to be provided, as well as HCAHPS-related games and interactive exercises to help with retention of interest.

My question is, is there anything that you saw in the workshops that you wish would have been explained better? I realize this legislation kinda sucks all the way around in terms of the pain control criterion, but has anyone out there come up with a good answer for the overall suckiness of that part?

I guess what I'm trying to ask is, how can I make this 4 hours (for the attendees, at least) pass as quickly and painlessly as possible?

[jadelpn, LPN, EMT-B]

You need to start with semi-funny vent groups. Divide your participants. Each and every group needs to come up with the top 2 thoughts about HCAPS and Patient Satisfaction that they have heard/read/think. ("We shall be glorified wait staff!" "This is all so fake!") Whatever it is that is a hindrance to the goal at hand. Once all of those are out in the open, you would best be able to address the block to have your suggestions move forward.

This is not something that a lot of nurses are on board with. I think (and just my opinion) it can be seen as a dumbing down of the practice of nursing. So your job is to make it not seem so. And to educate on why this is important. (you get paid, I get paid, we all get paid)

Also, part of the "solutions" part to this education is what to do when you are knee deep. Often the best of patient satisfaction attempts can take a bad turn. Even if it is a nurse on the unit in question to be the "go to smoother" and help a primary nurse to deal with patient dis-satisfaction.

My point is, there needs to be a time where people have coffee and talk about any foolishness that they have heard, seen, done and then a plan in place to change that. And it needs to be done with acknowledgement ("Ah, yes, the dreaded 'I want my coffee RIGHT THIS MOMENT' patient gone wild"....), talking of coping mechanisms ("At 2pm you will not longer be NPO, lets visit the coffee talk then, shall we?") and back-up (says Susie the nurse who knows everyone "Virgil, you can't have coffee, you can't have a thing until 2. Then I will get you your coffee and a cinnamon bun. Kitchen saved you one, plus, there's shrimp for supper, so let me put on the Price is Right and let me see about a couple of ice chips.")

Patients can be quite savvy, and know when they are being taken for a ride with canned talk and stoking. Your education needs to be specific on how to avoid that, and everyone reaching the same goal.

Best wishes, have fun with it, and let us know how it goes.

[CamillusRN, BSN]

Awesome advice - especially about the venting. Thanks for this!

[CamillusRN, BSN]

Thanks again for the advice! The workshops went over much better than expected. It turned into a very thorough, well-moderated discussion. Based on the participant reviews, many objections were satisfactorily addressed and the staff in general was pleased with the new approach.

[klone, MSN, RN]

That's awesome! Good luck to you!