How can I improve my med/tele unit?

Nurses General Nursing

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I just took a sort of mid-management position on my unit, it's a rather busy 48 bed med/tele floor. I'm looking for suggestions on how to improve things to make life easier and nurses happier. Among my brainstorms: having the nurses write on a whiteboard at the station which MDs were paged by them, so the doc doesn't call the unit all frustrated because he doesn't know who called. That idea went dead, nobody wants to walk up to the station every time they page an MD. Next is to take pix of the staff's kids in nurse garb and post them around the unit for the cuteness factor and better morale. That may work, but hasn't gotten off the ground yet because we don't have the resources.

So my question: Any ideas out there that work?

And as always, thanks in advance.

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The idea sounds cute, but I wouldn't want to publicly post kids ( or in my case, grandkids) pictures, particularly if there was any way it could be traced back to me ('aw, isn't he cute! whose little guy is that?') Too many damned weirdos out there...

Paranoid? Yepper.

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Maybe you should ask your staff what would improve their unit. I think it is frustrating when an administrator tries to "fix" something that isn't even a problem, or the fix becomes a bigger problem than the original.

Are you a nurse yourself? If so, I suggest you work a couple of shifts on the floor. Get input from your staff. Working the floor will give you an idea about which complaints are just venting, and which ones are truly problems that you need to work on solving.

I feel like our manager should work the floor in times of heavy census. I also feel like she should get the schedule out sooner. Scheduling and staffing are the two major issues on our floor. If someone came in to address issues of morale on our floor, and totally sidestepped these two issues, then I would assume that they weren't really interested in improving our lot, but more interested in getting their managerial paycheck and hours without actually having to do any significant or effective work.

So I can't emphasize enough--you don't need to ask *us* what would improve moral on your unit. TALK TO YOUR STAFF. All your efforts will be 100% more effective if you make your decisions based on staff input.

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Specializes in ED, ICU, Heme/Onc.
I just took a sort of mid-management position on my unit, it's a rather busy 48 bed med/tele floor. I'm looking for suggestions on how to improve things to make life easier and nurses happier. Among my brainstorms: having the nurses write on a whiteboard at the station which MDs were paged by them, so the doc doesn't call the unit all frustrated because he doesn't know who called. That idea went dead, nobody wants to walk up to the station every time they page an MD. Next is to take pix of the staff's kids in nurse garb and post them around the unit for the cuteness factor and better morale. That may work, but hasn't gotten off the ground yet because we don't have the resources.

So my question: Any ideas out there that work?

And as always, thanks in advance.

Hmmm... improving morale.... I guess my biggest issue is having to work short. Not just RN's - it's the days where we have no ancillary personnel that are particularly rough. On super busy days where you are short, nothing boosts moral like a nice lunch or dinner. Since my unit started doing that for us - (making sure we were fed on days where it's insane), it's helped morale.

I'm with Goldstein with the photo board- I don't like patients or their families knowing anything about me other than the fact that I am taking good care of them. I have been on units where staff has put up pictures of their pets - and it gives it a homey touch.

Blee

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Maybe you should ask your staff what would improve their unit. I think it is frustrating when an administrator tries to "fix" something that isn't even a problem, or the fix becomes a bigger problem than the original.

Are you a nurse yourself? If so, I suggest you work a couple of shifts on the floor. Get input from your staff. Working the floor will give you an idea about which complaints are just venting, and which ones are truly problems that you need to work on solving.

I feel like our manager should work the floor in times of heavy census. I also feel like she should get the schedule out sooner. Scheduling and staffing are the two major issues on our floor. If someone came in to address issues of morale on our floor, and totally sidestepped these two issues, then I would assume that they weren't really interested in improving our lot, but more interested in getting their managerial paycheck and hours without actually having to do any significant or effective work.

So I can't emphasize enough--you don't need to ask *us* what would improve moral on your unit. TALK TO YOUR STAFF. All your efforts will be 100% more effective if you make your decisions based on staff input.

This post says it all.

Good luck.

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The idea sounds cute, but I wouldn't want to publicly post kids ( or in my case, grandkids) pictures, particularly if there was any way it could be traced back to me ('aw, isn't he cute! whose little guy is that?') Too many damned weirdos out there...

Paranoid? Yepper.

I have seen boards with everyone's pets pictures on them. I liked that. Matter of fact even a few patients put pictures up there.:idea:

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Pitch in when ever you can, if you can help a few people tick a few things off the to-do list even a simple med pass, answer a light that will let people know you are not just a dress up nurse but a real leader - Give praise, if dosent have to be long or huge but a simple thanks or notice a really rough day - Kind words are better than 10000's of "incentives"

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Specializes in Ortho, Neuro, Detox, Tele.

Don't stand there and go "You need to x...."....TICKS me off when manager stands around telling nurses and aides, oh so and so's call light is on the warning light...you need to get that....Ummm...I'm sorry, you're a nurse, why don't YOU go answer it? I'm trying to get 12 other patients set up and I'm in the middle of 17 tasks at the moment....sorry.

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Specializes in Infusion, Med/Surg/Tele, Outpatient.

Seen this kind of unit at quite a few facilities. Never enough staff. Who wants to float there, nobody will ever help out? TEAMWORK is the key. I'd try to foster and encourage that "help each other out" attitude; possibly by (management or charge) making 'diaper and turn assistance' rounds q2h as a start.

The above poster who said "ask your staff" had it right; they know what they need.

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Specializes in Education, Acute, Med/Surg, Tele, etc.

A few ideas that we use on our floor (med/surge tele, and med/surge tele overflow...which means tele..LOL!).

1. A dry erase board in the staff bathroom for just US! No official info on that!!! It is just for us to write down things we wish...along with a small corkboard for comics or what not. We have put such things as favorite songs? Best Christmas gift? Waley/wong face drawing contest for nurses..(that was hillarious!), and so on. That board really makes me laugh! Somedays it is blank, and so I try to put something funny on it...and so do others so it isn't blank for long!

Someone suggested a check mark rating scale of the daily grind done weekly if we wish to help pinpoint probelm areas. Make it check mark only and no one put their names on it, so it is easy to do fast. Put check marks in the form of 1-10 on basic nursing vs customer service things like "Do you feel you had time to do all you wanted this week?" (you can leave a line for comments if they wish). "Do you feel staffing for nurses was appropriate this week? CNA's? "Do you feel your superior staff had time for you this week if you encountered a probelm you needed help with?", and so on...

Also, we have these little postcard type check mark cards for people we appreciated (it is hospital wide for us), and you put someone on it and check off how they were helpful and a statement you wish to make like "you really helped me turn that heavy patient when you were busy...thank you!". These have a bottom area to cut and put into a drawing for things at the end of the month...like a gift cert for books, or candles or anything...it is fun and really makes you feel great! The main part of the card goes into that RN's mailbox so they can see positive things in the AM so their day gets just a bit brighter before they get their assignments that is...LOL!!!!!!

I will try to think of others! But definately ask the floor nurses their thoughts on improvement....it isn't like we don't think about it all the time!

Good luck and thanks for wanting to make things nicer for your unit!

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i am a nurse, i still work the floor when i can, and when i'm not on the floor i do many tasks for the other nurses: start ivs, ng tubes, answer lights, all that. i told the woman who hired me that i won't sit in the office because it's insensitive to the other nurses. but, the paperwork is enormous and it is part of the job so i have to do that as well. the problems on my unit regarding staffing, i don't know if i can do anything about that. california ratios are 1:4 and we're almost always understaffed. unit secretaries are vanishing and our equipment is ancient. our bp machines are few and hardly work. we do try to foster teamwork, but with as many travelers as we've had, it's getting difficult to pair nurses with someone who cares. we're also getting more bad nurses. our cnas are, well, let's say they could work harder. as far as buying lunch for those more difficult days, call me cheap (go ahead) but i'm not going to start buying lunch for the unit whenever we're busy, i don't make that much and the floor nurse makes more than the person who hired me. by the way i was hired from the floor. i have asked the staff what they need, we've shouted it out in meetings. bp machines. we don't have the 4 or 5 grand apiece for the base model. turns teams, diaper help: how many times can we ask? nurses will help each other, most of them. some won't. i'm afraid i'm looking for suggestions like triagern_34. it's the little things i can do to help right now, the bigger things will come. and i think e.g. is right on the posting of the kids, unfortunately.

and i'm still not buying lunch. thanks all.

-johnny

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Sounds like you are set up in a position to fail. Good luck, I hope you can make this work for you. I'm thinking I would be too frustrated in a job where my description was "Make things better, but don't spend any money doing it."

BTW, no one was suggesting you buy lunch with your own money. That is something that should come out of your unit budget. On our unit it comes out of our dietary budget--we just order food from the kitchen to be delivered to the nurses.

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