Be In the Know!

Whether we’re RNs, LPNs or CNAs, most of us got into nursing out of a desire to help people.  But, like it or not, health care is a business…with both external customers (patients) and internal customers (co-workers).  How each of us treats our “customers” has a big impact on our most important outcome:  patient health and well-being.

I was reminded of that today, in a small way, when I went to the drug store to pick up a prescription.  The pharmacist greeted me and asked how she could help.  I told her my name and she brought my prescription to the counter.  She asked if I had any questions…the usual drill.  Then, instead of ringing up my prescription and sending me on my merry way, she said, “My assistant will be with you shortly.”

Unfortunately, her assistant was swamped with people who were dropping off prescriptions.  And, the “drop off” line kept getting longer as I stood at the register.  This meant that people who arrived after me were being served first.  Meanwhile, the pharmacist stood a mere five feet from the register.  I was the only person waiting to pay, so she could have checked me out in less than a minute.  In fact, in the time it took her to tell me the assistant would help me, she could have been halfway through the process!  Instead, I was forced to wait more than ten minutes for the pharmacy assistant.

OK, I get it.  The pharmacist went to school for a lot longer than her assistant.  And, I’m sure the pharmacist had plenty of prescriptions to fill.  But, she did not demonstrate good customer service to me (the “patient”) or to her co-worker.  She was in full-on “it’s not my job” mode!

We’ve probably all been guilty of ignoring the needs of a patient or co-worker with the justification that we had something more important to do or that the task wasn’t in our job description.  In my work with CNAs, I’ve heard stories that make me cringe: the nurse who brushed off the patient who asked for fresh water because that was the aide’s job (so the patient waited 30 minutes for water).  Or the CNA who ignored her co-worker’s plea for help making an occupied bed…because she didn’t like the co-worker.

We all get busy, caught up with fulfilling the responsibilities of our daily assignment.  But who suffers in the above examples? The patient.  Each and every time.

There’s no way around it:  every interaction between two nursing co-workers has an impact, either positive or negative, on patient care. If you think your staff could use a reminder of this fact, consider downloading our FREE inservice, Customer Service in Health Care.  It focuses on issues like internal and external customers, customer expectations, the price of poor customer service, handling customer complaints…and much more.  Like all our CNA inservices, it provides an hour of inservice credit.

And feel free to share your customer service stories–for example, a story of exceptional customer service by one of your CNAs or a cautionary tale of what not to do!

Happy Teaching,

Linda

Are you looking for new ways to present In the Know Inservices to your staff members?  We’ve been fortunate to have so much helpful feedback from nursing supervisors over the years.  In this blog entry, we will share some creative ideas that will keep your continuing education classes fresh and exciting.

• Try handing out the supplied puzzles and word searches the day before the classes so your CNAs know how much they need to learn.  From what might presumably be quite a few wrong answers, or from the multiple questions that they can’t answer, they will understand the importance of the upcoming inservice training session.
• Some supervisors tell us that they have improved their aides’ attitudes towards their monthly classes by making them more interactive.  Everyone likes to offer input.  Allowing each aide the chance to offer their perspective on the topic improves the training atmosphere immensely.
• Try splitting your class into two or more groups.  Have each group come up with a discussion question for another group to answer.  This promotes leadership, problem solving, self-reliance and cohesiveness among the aides.
• Another supervisor told us that she pulls interesting facts from each of our inservices and distributes them on separate strips of paper to the class.  Throughout the inservice, she asks each participant to read his or her fact to the class.
• Some nurses keep the interest level high by having each aide “teach” an inservice topic once a year, with the assistance of the inservice coordinator.  This opportunity helps the aides practice assertiveness (a much needed asset for working with difficult clients) and also allows them to shine in a public presentation.
• We’ve heard about a supervisor that tapes a $5 bill in two or three copies of the inservice each month.  Word is that the CNAs get very excited about “winning the prize” every month.
• Additional pay per hour is offered by some administrators if any of their aides complete a certain number of In the Know inservices in a year.
• After the inservice has been presented, some instructors ask each participant to tell the class something new that they have learned about the topic.

If you have used other games or can think of some fun ways to present an inservice topic, we’d love to hear from you.  Please leave your comments!  Thanks and happy teaching!

Evan Leekley
In the Know, Inc.
evanleekley@knowingmore.com