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.
Hmmm, Well if your out on the floor helping already that is a big big thing. Your not telling them what to do. Set up a suggestion box so everyone can participate. Tell them its their unit so you want to help them make it run better. The dry erase board only really works for a little while. We developed order sheets for when we talk to the doctor about anything. When we call them we fill it out with what we need, the situation, vs, lab results and just let the people at the desk know if we have to go do something. Most of the time we know if the doc is one that will call right back. If not a nurse that is at the desk can look at the chart and see exactly what was needed. It seemed like just another piece of paper at the time it started but it really is a help. There are spaces for who you called, time you called and the time you recieved a call back. The docs know the time is on there and it really holds them accountable when they see how long they took to call back. Donuts in the morning are cheap and can help set the mood for the day. We put up pics of all the staff on the floor to show customers who was involved in there care. Hmmm I am sure I can think of other things....
If your unit doesn't have the money for things like new blood pressure machines, does your hospital have an endowment association? Ours does, and we can petition for certain items through it. It is typically used for froofy pt comfort things like new TVs--but obviously if you are lacking basic equipment, I think a case should certainly be made for something like that.
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."
I have to agree here. You're going to be the scapegoat, and are obviously being used to keep the staff off management's orifice.
While I understand you wanting to do the 'little things', until management addresses the real issues--- chronic understaffing, lack of good, functioning equipment, high numbers of temporary staff and turnaround, lack of support staff--- your people are not going to be happy and morale is going to continue to plummet. Then you will be the fall-guy, because you "failed". I've seen this happen many times before.
There's some intelligence here on every post. Got some good ideas and I'm getting a little perspective as well. Thanks all, again. Come Monday I'll be chasing some of these ends, hope I don't end up standing in the hallway waiting for a handout.
However, I am beginning to feel like a filter between staff and management. I think that's right on the money.
You are on the floor that is HUGE, keep helping as much as you can.. For BP stuff see if you can get some capital exp. dollars off endowment or vol deprtments some times that works.. When we had a floor close we poached ours..
litbitblack, ASN, RN
596 Posts
Hmmm, Well if your out on the floor helping already that is a big big thing. Your not telling them what to do. Set up a suggestion box so everyone can participate. Tell them its their unit so you want to help them make it run better. The dry erase board only really works for a little while. We developed order sheets for when we talk to the doctor about anything. When we call them we fill it out with what we need, the situation, vs, lab results and just let the people at the desk know if we have to go do something. Most of the time we know if the doc is one that will call right back. If not a nurse that is at the desk can look at the chart and see exactly what was needed. It seemed like just another piece of paper at the time it started but it really is a help. There are spaces for who you called, time you called and the time you recieved a call back. The docs know the time is on there and it really holds them accountable when they see how long they took to call back. Donuts in the morning are cheap and can help set the mood for the day. We put up pics of all the staff on the floor to show customers who was involved in there care. Hmmm I am sure I can think of other things....