Tips on getting people to come to staff meetings

[asilmk]

Any tips on getting nurses to actually attend staff meetings? Our hospital requires that each nurse attend 6 meetings a year! It is about impossible to get them to attend! Any creative tips???? We have tried keeping minutes in the communication book, but they won't read them. We have several meetings at convenient times for all shifts, but they won't come. We include # of meetings attended in the yearly eval, but this does not help. Any suggestions are GREATLY appreciated!!!!! Thanks!

[dragonflyRN]

I have issues with meetings and inservices. Management likes to have them after am rounds. Great if you work the day shift. I don't and there is rarely a time I get off when I'm supposed too, only because am rounds last too long, an inservice, and the am nurse is having coffee or whatever. I actually joined a comittee to improve things on our unit. I guess they only wanted day shifters on it as every meeting was in the middle of the afternoon.

[casi, ASN, RN]

Definately schedule them to work with each shift. I had it out today with my DON because I let her know I might not be able to attend an inservice as I worked night shift and was exhausted. I didn't think that getting up at 1pm and driving to work was a safe option after so little sleep.

It's necissary to remember that 1pm is like 1am for night shifters.

Also maybe kidnap someones teenage child and offer them $20 to sit and color with staff members children. Especially on days off or oddball hours it's hard to find a baby sitter for small kids. That would eliminate the "I don't have a babysitter excuse."

Make the meetings short, sweet, informative, and fun.

I am so tired of staff meetings that are management telling the minions what they are doing wrong with no ideas of how to improve, or spending hours explaining information that honestly can be expressed in a short memo stuck in my mailbox.

Keep the meetings down to at the most one a month. I've had 3 I've been expected to attend this month already. One meeting is all that is really needed unless an emergency situation or change occurs that all staff need to be informed of.

Make sure that staff has ample warning of meetings. (one of this months meetings I had 24 hour notice!!!) I liked it when the facility I am at simply said "expect a meeting first pay period of the month." That way people could make plans around meetings without them popping up out of nowhere and taking everyone by surprise. Unless it's urgent, it can wait until the next meeting.

I love the idea of taping the meetings for those who don't attend. Let them sign out the tape and maybe give a quick questionaire on it to make sure they watched it.

yeah.... I've had a bad day concerning work meetings today... I had a bit of a mini rant... sorry

[rninme]

My first choice is........Beer and pizza!! But I am sure that would cause some major :smiley_ab .

Realistically....schedule it on the same day...such as last Wed or whatever of the month. Have it at more than 1 time....to facilitate working staff members being able to attend. Publish a topic list for the meeting....these are the things we are going to discuss. Video tape it for people that are unable to attend.

I always used food as a lure.....potluck, catered, munchies. That and valid topics.....and remember to include something positive...a way to go, or you guys are doing a good job....along with any negative issues that may have come up. No one wants to come to a staff meeting where the only news you get is bad.

[madwife2002, BSN, RN]

Report them all and get them written up-they seem to do this for evey other misdemenour?

Sorry being devils advocat:rotfl:

[jyoung1950]

change the word "meeting" to "beer fest", staff beer fest sounds a lot more fun than a staff meeting....ok, just kidding!

first, i say make it mandatory and pay the employees for attending. if it is part of the job, then it is part of the job and the staff has to accept that as much as they have to accept that they must be there on time, in uniform, etc.

second, as an employee, what i hear is that staff meetings are not important because 1) no new/useful info is put out, 2) management doesn't care about employees input anyway, and 3) they are inconvenient. SO...

1) make sure info that is put out is new/useful or at least explain why this is

useful to the staff.

2) staff can pick up on management that does not really care or management

that wants to "pat you on the back" because that's what some

management manual said "motivates employees to be more productive."

examples...tell everyone what a great job they are doing, but you don't

give out raises, OR you tell them how important it is to get meds out

ON TIME, but you do not staff adequately or you do not offer employees

double time when you try to call someone in because you are short staffed

(if meds on time is really important then you will pay double time in order

to insure that the floor is staffed adequately enough to have meds passed

on time!)

3)convenience - well that is self-explainatory. sometimes, esp. with today's

gas prices, even if you pay the staff for the meeting, it is not worth the

trip in to the hospital on their day off.

i think if these three problems are addressed, then you will see full attendance! best of luck.

sincerely,

jay

One of the best posts for suggestions I've seen in this thread. Personally the "cookies and milk" carrot and stick approach is insulting - we are dealing with adults here, not pre-schoolers. Staff don't attend staff meetings because they can't afford to leave their patients (does management expect the whole floor of nurses and nurse assistants to go to a meeting and not have any coverage?). Have a meeting for staff after the next shift has gotten report and is covering the floor. Three staff meetings in a day. The meetings should be made convenient for staff - after all isn't that why it's called a staff meeting.

[htrn]

Have meetings on the same day - for ex: our staff mtgs are the 2nd Tuesday of every month - and if she absolutely has to change the date, she lets us know asap. Two mtgs that day (we work 8 hour shifts), 0730 to catch off going nocs and day shifters and 1330 to catch the other half of day shifters and PM's. We get paid for our mtg time and someone does take minutes so that if we weren't able to attend we can read the minutes. Even if we are slow, no one is given off (off at department request (odr), low census off, etc - whatever it's called at your hospital).

I have requested to work the noc before a staff mtg so that I can be there because I refuse to drive in for a 1 - 1 1/2 hour meeting. With the price of gas, each trip to work costs me about $30 round trip.

[flashpoint]

When I worked at the hospital I hated meetings...they always lasted about three hours (they were actually scheduled for three hours), most of the time they were just a lecture about what we were doing wrong, adn they interrupted my sleep time. Most of the time, everything said in the meeting could have been put out in a memo. I think I would have gone if the meetings hadn't been at 1:00 in the afternoon, when I just got off work at 7:00 AM and had to be back at work at 7:00 PM...it was pretty hard to get home at 4:00 PM and try to get some more sleep befor egoing back to work.

My suggestions...

Have meetings that are convenient for every shift.

Keep them brief.

Let staff know what they are doing right as well as what they are doing wrong.

Have a comfortable place to sit...folding chairs get pretty uncomfortable after three hours.

Have an alternative like watching a video of the meeting, reading detailed minutes, or just putting new information in a memo.

[lovinghands]

try the direct approach - ask your staff and really listen to what they have to say. why not take a chance and open up the lines of communication between mananagement and staff? it may just benefit everyone.

[TiffyRN, BSN, PhD]

Things that have motivated me to come to meetings in the past:

Food (I guess I'm a pre-schooler).

Offering CE's; A former manager made sure we could get 1 CE for each meeting so if we attended them every month we met our state's requirement easily.

Creative times; One manager used to have several meeting times including the following Saturday night at 9:30pm and then again at 10:30pm. That way most of that shift could get away for one of those times.

What works now is that "attendance" at the meetings directly affects our pay raise. However we don't have to be there in person, we can sign the minutes that are distributed the next week. All the staff who didn't attend gets a copy of the minutes and a "receipt" sheet to sign and return. All the minutes are kept in a binder in the breakroom.

[madwife2002, BSN, RN]

Ok I will write a sensible suggestion now. How about utilising a teaching session on a different topic each month, followed by the ward meeting. The atendees would hopefully be motivated by the teaching session and then get more from the meeting and actually contribute.

[lsyorke, RN]

I this day of internet technology, why hasn't anyone come up with a webcast "meeting"? Sign in with employee number and watch.. from home! Any questions could be emailed.

[SharonH, RN]

At the last hospital job I held, the staff meetings were held in the breakroom. The unairconditioned breakroom held only about 5 people comfortably. Seriously. The rest of us spilled out into the hallway and had to stand for a long period of time or squat. I kid you not. Additionally, I rarely felt that we received any valuable information, only lectures as though we were children about what we were doing wrong, perhaps 1 or 2 people might get a pat on the back which I gather was suppose to motivate the rest of us losers. When I was doing clinicals, my preceptor conducted a 2-hour staff meeting in a room that felt like a freezer. 2 hours. Does that sound reasonable? My point is there are many variables to consider in evaluating low staff attendance:

1. Times of meeting

2. Meeting environment

3. Usefulness of information conveyed to staff and the way it is presented

4. Incentives such as snacks to show appreciation for their presence

5. Consequences for multiple no-shows i.e. write-ups, lower annual evaluations

Good luck.