Change Management

Even though we know change in healthcare is inevitable, change requires effort and in some cases a substantial amount of effort to sustain it. Recently the Professional Practice Team and I had the opportunity to review a video “All Washed Up”.

In the video Hyrum Grenny, a junior researcher works with 80 children to change their hand washing behaviour, prior to being treated to some very delicious looking cupcakes. The children are challenged to complete a group activity where they are asked to put together an interesting puzzle. Hyrum’s research is to try to understand what works best to get the kids to wash their hands: personal motivation, changing the environment to make the task easier or social influence, peer pressure. Hyrum’s findings suggest that both motivation and ability are key and that personal influence, social influence and the influence of the structure of our environments are all important. He identifies that to make change stick, you need to include at least 4 of the influencers, preferably all 6. What is most interesting is that the motivators to get kids to wash their hands before they touch the cupcakes are easily transferred to our hospital environment. We are always trying to improve how we make change; we think Hyrum has some great ideas. I invite you to take a look at Hyrum’s research: http://bit.ly/3tkgNr .

Any suggestions you can offer to help us with making change stick would be greatly appreciated.

The NOD

During the Service Excellence training in the spring, we learned there are behaviours that will demonstrate to patients and visitors how we intend to improve their experience and the public image of CKHA. Those behaviours are outlined in the service excellence standards we adopted in January 2010 and which we were all invited to sign. The plan is to roll out at least one service excellence standard every couple of months. The first standard we are implementing is “the NOD”.

We all use the NOD - name, occupation and duty, in many of our daily encounters with patients. It is the right thing to do, shows patients our respect and gives them dignity. But we need to ask ourselves do we treat others in our work environment with the same dignity and respect? By introducing ourselves to others we are acknowledging each person we come into contact through our work are important to us. Unfortunately, we miss opportunities to assist others and make a good first impression when we don’t ask if we can help. If we are truly to embrace Patient and Family Centred Care/Service Excellence (PFCC/SE) each and everyone one of us needs to go the extra step, of aiding the lost or elderly, our co-workers and patients. Simply by using the NOD, introducing ourselves, my name is, I am______ (fill in your job or role), and duty (I’m here to do, or how can I help) we demonstrate our personal commitment to PFCC/SE. Over the next few weeks you may meet someone who needs the NOD.

Patient and Family Centred Care/Service Excellence Signature Boards

In the spring, Chatham-Kent Health Alliance undertook the huge task of educating all staff, physicians and board members about our strategic direction of partnering with our patients and families to provide the best service possible. All patients expect and should receive excellent care through partnership with their care providers. All staff, physicians and board members were invited to demonstrate their personal commitment to these strategic directions by signing both the service excellence standards as well as poster signature boards which were to be put on display at both the Sydenham site and the Chatham site. In the last week of June those signature boards were posted, at the Sydenham Campus and across the hall from Tim Hortons at the Chatham Campus. What an amazing tribute to the dedication of everyone at CKHA to make every patient experience our passion!

Mentoring Others and Sharing in the Spotlight

Chatham-Kent Health Alliance, one of 21 Best Practice Spotlight Organizations (BPSO) in Ontario, assists others after being through the experience ourselves. In our three years as a Registered Nurses Association of Ontario BPSO candidate and one year as a BPSO designate, CKHA has learned a great deal about moving research and best practice guidelines into practice. We have agreed to act as mentors to two other organizations (Kitchener Grand River Hospital and Guelph General Hospital) in their journeys as BPSO candidates.

On May 26th, Denise Dodman of the Professional Practice Team and co-lead for CKHA’s BPSO activities traveled to Grand River hospital and met with the team of best practice champions. The group spent time exploring strategies for champions and how to use knowledge translation theory to explore their own units and clinical situations. At CKHA, we are committed to sharing the lessons we have learned about implementing best practice and best practice guidelines with other organizations. We are also learning lessons from them – a mutually beneficial relationship, sharing in the Spotlight.