Last week I asked you about how you are rewarding and recognizing your people and that got a little into how you speak to your people. How you speak to your #staff, your #colleagues, your #team, can make or break them. Newsflash people! We are not here to break anybody. We are here to serve our patients.
I bring this up for several reasons. I have literally had Charge Nurses tell me that they push incoming #nurses, their nurses in training, to their limit intentionally. It is their process and their plan to make them ‘break’ as part of their onboarding. These Charge Nurses are totally committed to this and see this as learning how the incoming nurse will perform in an emergency. I, however, see it as a complete loss of integrity on the part of the Charge Nurse. Systematically putting an excessive workload on someone, causing them to lose breaks and miss meals says nothing about how they will perform in an emergency. There is no correlation.
It does, however, say a lot about the teamwork of an #organization that allows that to happen on a regular basis. It says much about the #EmotionalIntelligence of all parties involved. The nurse who is onboarding is in training. She is learning the ins and outs of a new work environment. Being browbeaten by a superior is not going to teach her to be enthusiastic about coming to work.
Nurses aren’t the only ones affected by words at work. #Physicians work excessively long hours. This can also make them unable to defend themselves properly against verbal attacks. If you are the physician who is chronically hearing negative words from coworkers, along with working long hours in an inflexible situation, this can be a recipe for #depression, #burnout, or even #suicidalideation.
The cool thing is there are options. We can learn to do better. We can take action to change how we listen to one another and speak to each other. Learn people’s #values. Listen for them and speak to them. This will change the culture in your organization. When you’re ready for #culturechange, reach out to me.
