What's the easiest way to disseminate information on a floor?

[mappers]

Before nursing school I worked in business for years. Meetings, meetings, meetings all the time. Now I'm a floor nurse and I get frustrated on how we communicate as a floor. We are between managers right now, but my former one would have monthly unit meetings at 7:30 in the morning. She'd schedule several of them and usually one on the weekend. That was great for night-shift, who'd just stay over, but for days it stunk. On your scheduled day, 7:30 - about 10:00 is the busiest time. On my off day, I'm not coming in at 7:30 in the am, especially with kids to get off to school, etc. And for people who lived 45 minutes away, it was very inconvenient.

Our educator uses "Read and Signs" which I also think are kind of worthless. I'll read them, but it doesn't usually stick with me. Email always seemed to work well, if it comes from my manager. We get so much corporate "junk" mail it's hard to find sometimes. And I check my email from home, since I rarely have time to check it at work.

So, I'm really frustrated. I'm all for improving a system, being a team player and trying to make improvements to our floor. But finding time to really do that well, when working a busy 12-hour shift, seems impossible. We have "practice councils' but it seems like the only people who attend are management types who have offices and aren't responsible for direct patient care.

What do your facilities do?

[McBx3]

The facility I used to work at did the same kind of monthly meetings, except they would schedule them at 7a & 7p, that way neither shift was put out, which was pretty handy! We also had an "email" of sorts, but it was in-network only, so there was no way to check it from home - really inconvenient if you had no time to check it, which was most of the time! They were also really bad about randomly posting schedule changes on the bulletin board, and not notifying the staff in any other way (you were just SOL if you happened to be off when those changes took place & got scheduled BEFORE you were originally expected back).

Sorry I don't really have any suggestions... good luck getting it organized!

[JustEnuff2BDangerous, BSN, RN]

Our manager holds monthly meetings, one at 0640 and one at 1440, so that all the shifts are covered whether you're nights, days, or evenings. And you can choose which one you want to attend, so on someone's day off, they can come in in the afternoon if they don't want to get up early. I'm sure it sucks for those of our nurses who live out of town and have to drive in for a 30 minute meeting, but this is your job, and one of your job expectations is that you will attend unit meetings so that you are informed of changes and, as such, can do your job better!

[heron, ASN, RN]

Post it in the staff bathroom.

[Reno1978, BSN, RN]

Post it in the staff bathroom.

It's horrible, but this is what initially came to my mind too.

[mn_nurse]

The best way that I have seen is when the manager will send a weekly email that summarizes everything we need to know. If there is a major change or a rumor that needs to be put to rest, then a meeting will be called.

[Up2nogood RN, RN]

No matter what the hours or means for meetings and/or information to be conducted you will never be able to please everyone. Our meetings are once a month 8 am and 1 pm, and offered 2 days in case you're off one day and not able to drive in or whatnot. I don't always make it to a meeting since their usually useless and the meeting minutes are emailed to us.

[meandragonbrett]

We have memos plastered all over the bathroom wall. Can't even do your business in private!

[bigbub3000]

This is a secret!!! Do not read!!!

[classicdame, MSN, EdD]

as an Educator and former manager I will tell you this is one of our greatest problems. The more senses that are involved the more people remember, so seeing a video or poster, hearing a presentation and showing me you can do this all work differently for different people. Adults have to feel the information is pertinent to them or they are not motivated to absorb it. That is the real challenge. When someone discovers the panacea for this, please bottle it! I will buy it!