Staff Meetings: What Are They Good For?

[steelydanfan]

In the last year, I have dutifully attended my staff meetings. Lately however, they seem to have become a forum to chastise the staffs failings, rather than a place of support and information.

Anybody else feel the same?

[Davey Do]

Does anyone else have that song going through their head while they read anything in this post?

Actually erik and Elvish, after reading suanna and madwife's comments, the song that kept going through my head was:

"You say you got a real solution

Well, you know

We'd all love to see the plan

You ask me for a contribution

Well, you know

We're all doing what we can"

Ya know?

Dave

[Elvish, BSN, DNP, RN, NP]

All joking aside, some of our staff meetings are more worth going to than others. It just depends on who of the staff is there. Going to staff meetings with the ones who never do anything wrong (you know what I mean!) sucks the life out of me, and those meetings are absolutely worthless. I avoid meetings scheduled at times when I know those folks are going to be there.

However, I actually like my manager; she is reasonable and will at least listen to staff, even if she doesn't agree with us and/or can't change what we are griping about. She will, however, do what she can do get us the tools we need to do our jobs. And she understands when we vent about not having them. She does make the effort.

PS - I have met madwife2002....and think she would be a good manager to work for.

[madwife2002, BSN, RN]

Do you know what I tell all the staff now who come to my office complaining and moaning, which I have to admit is getting less and less. Of course that could be because they dont think I will do anything lol

I tell them bring it to the meeting after all 22 heads are better than my one!

If they dont attend the meeting then I think 'ah well it couldnt have been that important.

I have an RN who constantly complains and it is great to tell that person bring it to the meeting.

Then recently all the RN's have issues with each other so I said OK let's sit and talk but you call the meeting tell me and I will attend!

[madwife2002, BSN, RN]

Thanks Elvish :redpinkhe:redpinkhe:redpinkhe

[chicookie, BSN, RN]

Staff meetings: what are they good for?

Making me come in on my day off -_________-

Actually what my old manager used to do is have different departments come in and do an in service. I learned about alot of programs that I never knew the hospital had. Now that I work in one of those programs, we try to get around to the floors ever couple months during staff meetings and remind the nurses who we are and why we are here. :)

[eriksoln, BSN, RN]

all joking aside, some of our staff meetings are more worth going to than others. it just depends on who of the staff is there. going to staff meetings with the ones who never do anything wrong (you know what i mean!) sucks the life out of me, and those meetings are absolutely worthless. i avoid meetings scheduled at times when i know those folks are going to be there.

however, i actually like my manager; she is reasonable and will at least listen to staff, even if she doesn't agree with us and/or can't change what we are griping about. she will, however, do what she can do get us the tools we need to do our jobs. and she understands when we vent about not having them. she does make the effort.

ps - i have met madwife2002....and think she would be a good manager to work for.

our meetings tend to be worthless because we have a few nurses and cnas who have not mastered talking to the powers that be. they have the alpha female gene and..........well, sometimes it seems everyone thinks they are right as long as they are the last one to speak.

and the minutes from the meeting, for a good reason, never actually reflect what was said at the meeting. for example:

said at the meeting in which manager and cna went back and forth:

"if you people expect raises, we need to focus more on our pg scores. i mean, really, what do you expect our scores to be when half the shifts don't even fill the water pitchers."

"so our raises are going to depend on pg scores this year?"

"if our pg scores don't improve, there won't be a hospital to give you a raise. people have options these days and we take pg scores very seriously, its what people refer to when comparing hospitals."

"really? you take pg scores "seriously" [and yes, she did the air quotes]? while i agree if they stay the same, there won't be a hospital here, but idk how seriously they take them. while they say they want high scores, they cut everything back that would bring them the good scores. staffing has gotten worse since i've started here, and it wasn't very good to start."

"jobs are scarce right now [what that had to do with anything is beyond..............everyone except the manager]. every hospital is making and continues to make cut backs. we feel our staffing levels put us in position to be more than competitive with the other hospitals in the area. but more teamwork and less (fill this in with the common manager c/o........talking instead of working, being on the internet, staff infighting).

"competitive? they think the staffing is [yes, again, the air quotes] competitive. they might be, but like you said, everyone is cutting back, so you are competing with people who are underachieving. if you want the scores you say you want, you have to do better, not just [third time, air quotes] competitive."

"[a second time, starting to get why its coming up] jobs are scarce right now. administration has been more than generous in its staffing decisions. if it doesn't work, their first action will be to seek people that can make it work, not increase staffing. i'm just trying to help you all understand we can improve scores (reinsert c/o talking, internet, infighting that all must stop)."

"i can assure you, i've worked in a lot of places on night shift and this place doesn't stop at night like everyone thinks. forget about water pitchers and call bells, we're lucky if we can deal with all the emergencies and keep the nursing home patients they keep accepting from falling. don't you think all the rapid responses lately are because of your staffing cut backs? [a very insightful detail about the rapid responses, but the "nursing home" patient part was bellow the belt, manager had a friend's mother placed on the unit to get her out of a bad nursing home, and yes, said friend's mother fell]

"[turning red] staffing isn't going to change, its just not going to change."

"pg scores are not going to improve, they just are not going to [of course, air quotes while saying it all]"

meeting's minutes the next day say:

"pg scores discussed, must improve them and overall staff attitude."

this is a r/l example.

[canigraduate]

My pet peeve with meetings is that they are all scheduled for first shift during the week, all on the same day.

Hello.... 70% of us are in school or working a 2nd job because we can't make it on our current wages, so a little flexibility would be appreciated.

So I don't know if our meetings suck or not, because I am in clinical every time they schedule one.

[RNAM1965]

I can't believe people are talking about this. Doesn't everybody everywhere have staff meetings? When I worked for HOme Depot, we had to come in at 6 a.m. for staff meetings. Big deal, it was only once a month. It' s part of life for most grown up working adults. If your staff meetings aren't productive ,come up with a suggestion and be part of the solution.

[mazy]

No matter what the reason for our staff meetings they always end up being about the same thing: call lights not being answered. And no matter where the discussion goes they always end up concluding the same thing: nurses are lazy.

That is why I stopped going to staff meetings.

[noahsmama]

Does anyone else have that song going through their head while they read anything in this post:

"I say HUH..............GOOD GOD WAR..............what is it good for?"

Yup! Except its:

"WAR, good God y'all, what is it good for? ...... Absolutely nothin' "

By Edwin Starr. I'm old enough to remember it from when it first came out. Great song!

(and yes, one could replace the word "war" with "meetings" and in most cases it would still be true).

[coffee4metech]

we have staff meetings twice a month 2 meetings the same day one for am shift and another for pm's....... half the staff doesn't even show up .Its very discouraging to see how unmotivated and how time doesn't really matter when it comes to work . I am always on time for meetings maybe because I actually care about what is going on in my department and can give my opinion on issues and upcoming changes . Its the right thing to do .

[MMARN, BSN, RN]

There are good meetings and there are bad meetings. I attend all of mine because they are all "mandatory" and have seen both sides. The majority of the meetings begin and end with how we should "improve" our performance, patient satisfaction scores, and overall blah-ness. My manager does do a good job in recognizing team member achievements. She makes us banners that congratulate us and welcomes new employees to the unit. She's a very positive person, but she is also under stress from the "powers that be" to show us what we must improve on. There are some meetings that are a complete waste of time, and could have been left for another time in which something worth talking about was discussed. I never read the minutes, mostly because I'm always at the meetings, but also because I have looked at the minutes and none reflect what was actually talked about. Meetings are good to discuss concerns, ask questions, and come up with solutions. It helps to have an attentive manager who actually wants to make things better, though.