team building

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I need help. I work in an ER and we have had a huge turnover in the past 1-2 years. The problem is that many of the nurses can't stand eachother but they barely know eachother. I am trying to come up with ideas to help people get along and take care of eachother. No one wants to help eachother. Does anyone have any ideas about getting to know eachother or building a team. (or at least getting people to not despise eachother.) I had a couple ideas like a bulliten board that people could write thank you's on to eachother for helping. (thanks for coming in extra, thanks for starting my iv, etc).

Hi Kelly911,

I have some practical suggestions, some tried and true, some just ideas:

  • At a team meeting, or call a meeting, attach a piece of paper to everyone's back, give everyone the same color crayon and spend 10 min. having people writing something nice on the backs of people. Read some out loud.

  • guess who belongs to which baby picture (self explanatory)

  • pot luck days/nights, alternate with themes (i.e. mexican, your specialty etc.). Or have a routine of ordering out from a new place every Friday or something.

  • celebrate birthdays once a month with cake/ice cream. Also, celebrate new homes, babies prn

  • secret santa/holiday gifts. (This helps people get to know each other by finding out what they might like for a gift)

  • get a pin/small ribbon/button (your choice of design) and put it on your bulletin board with instructions that staff are encouraged to give this pin to someone to wear for the remainder of the shift in appreciation for something special they've done. You'll be surprised at how people will start extending themselves to get that pin. You may want to pick up spare pins as some people forget to take it off after their shift...
    :rolleyes:

  • at a team meeting or an after hours get-together, have everyone bring in one trivia question, either about themselves or someone else in the department. Put questions in a hat/bag. Read the questions and have others try to guess who it relates too. We had some with multiple answers, like 'who has a tattoo?' or 'who bought a new car within the last year'

That's all I can think of right now. Hope it helps. Keep us posted on how it's going!

Linda

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