Published by: Rebecca Caschette on 10/19/2011 2:54:33 PM
This entry is the third in a series for National Healthcare Quality Week (Oct. 16-22).
This year the American Hospital Association (AHA) and the National Patient Safety Foundation (NPSF) Comprehensive Patient Safety Leadership Fellowship adapted and embraced topics emerging from health care delivery system transformation which includes (1) Care Coordination, (2) Patient Centeredness, (3) Organizational Culture, and (4) Transparency and Learning in an Organization. Lucien Leape’s article entitled, “Transforming healthcare: a safety imperative” supports the same focus; transparency, make patients and families our full partners, multidisciplinary teams working in integrated care platforms, change medical education to prepare physicians to work in the new environment and assist healthcare workers to find joy and meaning in their work.
Hospitals have the most chaotic environment known. Leaders cannot watch and monitor what each care provider is doing for each patient, so we must figure out how to provide a positive healing environment for our patients and staff. Imagine a hospital where the healthcare provider walks into the patient’s room with an awareness of their presence as it contributes to the patient‘s healing. Imagine the healthcare worker centering themselves while washing their hands to eliminate any germs and preparing their hands to heal. Imagine the healthcare provider speaking in tones of respect to each other, the patient and family members. Imagine that everything the healthcare provider does contributes to the healing of the patient. Imagine the nurse is more open, responsive and sensitive to what is occurring – more able to “read the field,” to pick up on subtleties in the field, to use all resources and draw upon all ways of knowing: empirical, ethical, intuitive, personal, aesthetic, even spiritual knowing.
Our healthcare system uses as our foundation, The Caring Theory, by the nursing theorist, Jean Watson and the previous sentence is a quote from her book. There are no easy answers for how to increase joy and meaning in work but the first step is the awareness that it is available. Supporting a just and learning culture, developing team skills, and bringing sacredness back into our environment are critical. Getting back to the basics of what we are REALLY trying to do, which is help patient’s heal, begins with the right intention.
Quality, Safety and Service begins and ends with each human connecting.
Ms. Rebecca Caschette, RN, MS
Administrator of MHS Quality and Safety
Memorial Healthcare System