Idea for any managers out there

[widi96]

I just thought since there are so many problems and bad things listed about nursing, I would give some insight on a positive thing my manager has done. A year or so ago our hospital started a program called 'Catch us at our best'. These forms are provided all over the hospital for patients, family or staff to write positive things about staff. i.e. "So and So was extremely helpful. Even when busy with her own patient's she came to help me with starting an IV and assisting my patients." These forms are then turned into the staff members supervisor. Now this is a hospital wide thing and I transferred from the ER to tele in June. I think my old manager just threw them away if she received them - now my new manager always makes a copy for our file, gives us a copy (with a kind word of encourgement from her (the last one I received said - "Thank You XXXXX! Great Job!" and was signed by my manager.) These are left in our mailboxes so we get them when we come into work. It is a small thing that I wouldn't think takes a whole lot of time and can really make someone's day and make them feel appreciated at work. :) I think when I go into work tomorrow I am going to fill one out for my manager for her extremely positive attitude towards the staff.

[cornell]

I think this is great what your manager has done. It show concern and care. I think if more managers was caring this would help retain our nurses.

Corn:lol2:

[traumaRUs, MSN, APRN]

What a wonderful manager!

[sheluke]

One of the things we do that is similar is also to encourage peer to peer recognition; so for example if someone goes above and beyond in covering or helping out another nurse (or support staff) that person can turn in "sea dollars"-short term it's a sincere pat on the back but we went a step further and these can be kept and accumulated to 'buy' a token of appreciation you choose for yourself.

Not a huge budget issue or anything, most of the items in the so called catalog (a box that sits under my desk, haha) are company logo or donated from marketing, or movie tix, small items but things everyone loves!

[miko014]

We have a program like that where I work, but here's the catch. The only places you can get the forms are by the elevators. How many of our patients use the elevators?? And how many family members notice them? Staff are encouraged to fill them out for each other, but a lot of people don't do it (like the time I stayed two hours late to help cover someone else's orifice when they...shall we say "made an error" - not that I'm saying I think I deserve one for that (I could always write it for myself, haha), but why would that not be worthy when "So-and-so let me go to first lunch because I was really hungry" can get one??). The point is that the only people that get them are the ones that hand the forms to their pts, and I just feel like if you have to ask for it, it doesn't count. I think it would be a great program it it was appropriately advertised to pts - like, if the forms were in their room, or in their admission packet. But people saying thank you is good enough for me. I guess I'm just a bit defensive because one time in my eval they asked me why I only had half as many forms as the person who had the most, and I was like, "uh well I guess people didn't write them for me", and they asked me for examples of great customer service that I thought would have been worthy of beig written on a form! Stupid! But that's just my !!

[SarasotaRN2b]

One of the things we do that is similar is also to encourage peer to peer recognition; so for example if someone goes above and beyond in covering or helping out another nurse (or support staff) that person can turn in "sea dollars"-short term it's a sincere pat on the back but we went a step further and these can be kept and accumulated to 'buy' a token of appreciation you choose for yourself.

Not a huge budget issue or anything, most of the items in the so called catalog (a box that sits under my desk, haha) are company logo or donated from marketing, or movie tix, small items but things everyone loves!

We actually have something like this called "Star Grams" but it is hospital wide, not just department-wide. Each Star Gram is worth 300 pts and the recipient can either cash them in right away for small gift rewards or they can bank them and get some real nice items.

[RN1989]

I have used this type of thing as both a staff nurse and a manager. As a manager, I encouraged my staff to pass out the compliment cards to their patients whenever their patients expressed how great they were - or told them how great they thought that another staff person was. So when the patient says - "You know, you and the night shift nurse last night have been the best. You guys kept my pain under control and made me feel like I was special. I sure appreciate you". To which the staff person can say "You know, we have a program here to recognize our staff for doing a good job. Would you mind filling these out with your compliments on them? You can return the cards to me or have your family put them in the box up at the nurses station." - then hand the patient the correct number of cards with that staff person's name written on it (since the patient frequently doesn't remember the names). I had a few nurses too embarrassed to do this, but others got into the groove and I saw an increase in the number of compliment cards filled out on the staff. Nothing wrong with blowing your own horn or helping to blow a co-workers horn. If you did good and the patients want to say something about it - pass out those cards!

[rn-jane]

We have a gem program in our hospital and our unit decided to have one of our own. Whenever a person becames gem of the month through the hospital it is usually due to patients writing in thank you notes to them. Whenever we have someone do something special for our floor, we have a box we put our suggestions in, such as thanks to ? for ??? One employee is picked and they have their pic put on the wall and they get a 50.00 gift certificate to walmart. It comes out of our budget, and it give good morale to the floor.