Be In the Know!

How do your nursing assistants handle workplace conflict? Do they ignore it and pretend it isn’t happening? Do they give in just to make it go away? Or, do they compromise respectfully with each other? At your next CNA inservice meeting, consider using this case study as a way to open a discussion about conflict management at your organization.

You Can’t Avoid Conflict

It’s true: whenever people spend day after day together, conflict cannot be avoided completely. You may be nodding in agreement or you may be thinking that you’ve never had a dispute with anyone. However, conflict at work happens to everyone at some point in his or her career.

A dispute between people usually begins with a disagreement. When you and a co-worker disagree, you have one opinion and your co-worker has another. Often, it doesn’t really matter to either of you what the other person thinks. You both go on with your lives, each sticking to your own opinion. Usually, disagreements consist of only words and they do not affect how people interact with each other.

For example, Tim and Connie, both CNAs, disagree one day at work about the proper way to give a bath to a bedridden client. They each express their opinion, saying that’s how they were taught in school. They end the discussion by saying, “OK…you do it your way and I’ll do it mine.” Tim and Connie disagree, but they respect each other’s opinion and have no trouble working together.

A full-blown conflict can begin with different opinions, but it grows into something much larger. Generally, it is not what people say, but how they act, that causes a disagreement to escalate into a conflict. In almost all conflicts, the problem is not the initial disagreement, but the way in which it is handled.

Let’s take another look at Tim and Connie’s situation. Imagine that instead of agreeing to disagree about bathing a client, they get into an ongoing struggle about who is right.

Tim starts telling other co-workers that Connie doesn’t know how to give a proper bath. Connie gives Tim hateful looks and refuses to work with him. They have entered into a contest of opposing forces. Having gone past the point of disagreement, Tim and Connie are in a full-blown conflict, which can start causing a disruption among their co-workers and eventually in job performance. Both Tim and Connie are creating a situation where neither will back down; each thinks that they would appear to be wrong by offering a truce. Unless their conflict is resolved, work will remain an unpleasant place for both of them!

Tim and Connie must put an end to their conflict, as it is hurting them both… and is also causing a disruption to the rest of the workplace. Let’s see them fix the problem by going through five simple steps:

1. Connie realizes that they need to stop this fight and asks Tim politely if she can speak to him. Tim agrees and they sit in an empty meeting room together–away from their coworkers.
2. They take turns telling one another their points of view. One speaks while the other actively listens.
3. They see that the problem is they each have a strong personality, are competitive and like to be right. They agree that the problem was never the actual bathing technique—but how they communicated.
4. They discuss the bathing method they each use and decide that both techniques are acceptable. However, Tim and Connie say they will continue using their own method. Neither person wins or loses.
5. Tim and Connie decide that, in the future, they will keep their own techniques to themselves. As long as the job is getting done, they can agree to disagree on the proper method. If either Tim or Connie uses a method that is not getting the job done, they will discuss it politely at that time. In the meantime, they agree that the conflict is over, and they both decide to apologize to their co-workers.

Would Your Nursing Assistants Like to Know More?

If you’d like to give your CNAs more information about workplace conflict, consider presenting an inservice on conflict resolution that includes:

• The common ways that people approach conflict.
• A step-by-step process for resolving workplace conflict.
• How gossip and workplace bullying promote conflict.
• How to respond to an unprofessional coworker.
• How to handle conflict with a supervisor or a client.

Don’t have time to put together your own inservice?  Then, please check out our inservice called Conflict in the Workplace.  It covers all of the above information…and more.

Happy Teaching!

There’s a book I’d like to recommend to nursing supervisors and educators everywhere.  It has nothing to do with health care or nursing specifically, but has everything to do with helping us inspire those around us.  The book, Start with Why, emphasizes the importance of uncovering what makes you “tick”.  Its author, Simon Sinek, encourages readers to reach past the “what” and “how” of their jobs and dig deeply for their “why”—the purpose, cause or belief that gets them out of bed every morning.

For example, here’s how I examined myself after reading the book:

WHAT I do:  I run a company that sells continuing education for nursing assistants.

HOW I do it:  Along with a team of writers, I create CNA inservices and sell them to health care organizations around the globe.

WHY I do what I do:  Here’s where it got challenging.  The process of mining my personality for my “why” took some time.  Basically, here’s how it evolved…

• I create inservices for nursing assistants because I’m a nurse. Well, yes, being a nurse is a requisite, but I could have taken my nursing career in many different directions.  So that’s not the answer.

• I create CNA inservices because I like to teach. Sure, that’s true.  But that’s not exactly what makes me eager to come to the office every day.  I had to start thinking beyond the obvious and look for my purpose, my true beliefs.

• So, I began looking around me, examining the company that I had created.  Then it struck me.  I had named my company In the Know.  The website address I established is made up of the words knowing and more.  My employees are all encouraged to continue learning…and even have library time during their workday when they can read up on any subject of interest to them.  Together, we create learning materials.  Everything pointed toward the same thing: knowledge.

• I believe that knowledge is power. Hmm…I felt like I was getting close!  But thinking of knowledge as power paints a static picture.  My “why” felt more dynamic than that.

• I believe that lifelong learning is essential to both personal and professional success. Ah ha!  That’s more like it!  Learning is an ongoing, fluid process.  Learning brings people together—and when two people share what they know, they both come away with more than they had before.  That’s my personal and professional “why” and is what inspires all of us at In the Know to do our very best!

As a nursing supervisor or educator, are you tapping into your “why” when it comes to inservicing your nursing assistants?  For example:

WHAT you do:  Present inservices to your CNAs.

HOW you do it:  By passing out and discussing handouts at monthly one hour meetings.

WHY you do it:  Because it’s required? That’s just the surface.  To share your knowledge with your nursing assistants? Maybe, but author Simon Sinek would have you dig deeper.  To join together with your aides to learn something new? That’s better.  Because you believe that the more your CNAs know, the more they can achieve? Maybe…but only you can figure out your “why” and use it to inspire not only yourself but everyone around you.

If you don’t have time to read Simon’s book, at least take a quick peek at his blog.  You’re sure to find inspiration in his words.  And, have fun pondering your own personal and professional “why”!

Quality inservices develop top-notch CNAs!

Is part of your job as a nursing supervisor or nurse educator to develop monthly inservices for your nursing assistants? If so, you know how time consuming that process can be. Perhaps you’ve considered purchasing “ready-made” topics from a company (like In the Know) that sells CNA inservices. You’re really tempted, but are not sure it’s worth the cost. Here are five tips for helping you make that decision:

1.  Tally Your Time.

Next time you need to prepare an inservice, keep track of how much time you spend. Remember to include the time it takes you to think of a topic, come up with learning objectives, research and write the inservice, create some handouts, develop a quiz and produce an evaluation form. Chances are, this will take at least 10 hours of your time. Multiply that by your salary and you’ll probably be shocked at what one inservice is costing your workplace! By purchasing inservices, you avoid “reinventing the wheel” and can bring down your cost per inservice considerably.

2.  Do a Quality Check.

No matter how knowledgeable you are about the nursing field, creating inservices may not come easily to you. It requires a variety of “non-nursing” skills such as knowing how to research quickly and effectively, being a good writer and having some computer savvy. Are the inservices you’re creating capturing the attention of your CNAs? Do they provide an in-depth study of each topic? If not, they may not be having a positive effect on client care. Inservices from a respected inservice company can spark interest for both you and your aides. However, before making a purchase, insist on trying out a sample inservice. You’ll want to see the quality of their product for yourself.

3.  Take a Look at Compliance.

We all get in a rut, causing us to do something a certain way just because that’s how it’s always been done. But, when you look at your current system for providing inservices, is it really working? For example, do your CNAs skip inservice meetings because they are too busy or just aren’t interested? Do you struggle to get all your nursing assistants to meet their inservice hours by the end of the year? If so, there is probably an easier way. A quality inservice provider can give you a flexible, easy-to-institute inservice program that will please you, your CNAs and any surveyors that come your way.

4.  Eye Your Inventory.

Over time, you’ve probably built up a library of inservice topics. Take a peek at what you’ve got to offer your nursing assistants. The basics are probably there: standard precautions, nutrition, Alzheimer’s disease, abuse, confidentiality. And, you might find yourself reusing these topics with each newly hired group of CNAs. But, it’s important to meet the learning needs of your aides by offering a wide variety of inservice topics. Coming up with mandatory topics, disease process inservices, psychosocial issues and basic skill reviews could be a full time job and/or eat into your personal time! A good inservice provider has dozens of topics from which to choose. And, the more your CNAs know, the more they can achieve!

5.  Ask Your CNAs.

To find out if your current inservice offerings are meeting the needs of your nursing assistants, ask them! You might distribute an evaluation form or have an informal group discussion. Ask questions such as: Do our current inservices prepare you to succeed at your job? Do you feel that your skills are enhanced by every inservice you complete? Are the inservices providing you with information that you can apply in your daily client care? If your CNAs answer “no” more often than “yes”, then it may be time to try an inservice provider. Quality inservice education should do more than fulfill state requirements. It should enhance the professionalism of your nurse aides and improve your client care. So, take the time to investigate inservice providers and find the one that helps you develop a team of top-notch CNAs.

Welcome to our blog, brought to you by In the Know. You may know us as publishers of continuing education for nursing assistants…and indeed we are. But, at our core, we believe that lifelong learning is essential for both personal and professional growth.

It’s simple: the more all of us know, the more we can achieve. In this blog, you’ll find thoughts, ideas and tips for how to encourage lifelong learning at your workplace. We welcome your comments and feedback, so that we can benefit from your knowledge and experience, too!

Thanks for joining us. We look forward to hearing from you!

Linda

Linda Leekley BS, RN
President, In the Know, Inc.