Healthy Workforce
Creating Thoughtful Zones
Keeping conflicts away from patient care areas
If you’ve been a nurse for awhile, you are familiar with the ways some of us mistreat each other. The old eat their young; nurses get thrown under the bus in front of others; the day shift battles with the night shift; and nurses dread hearing that they have been floated to another unit (where they’ll be tormented as newcomers).
These experiences certainly don’t cultivate the culture of caring so many of us expect to find in healthcare. The good news is that simple steps can make a real difference.
Over the next few issues, we’ll present a series of “culture of caring” initiatives that can help transform your workplace into one of compassion, professionalism and mutual respect.
Bad Behavior: Yelling, gossiping and arguing in patient care areas
Culture of Caring Solution: Create “thoughtful zones”
According to our research, one of the most common forms of uncivil behavior healthcare employees report is being yelled at or openly criticized in front of others. Unfortunately, many times this happens in front of patients. I frequently hear nurses say things like these: