Pedagogy Welcomes Continuing Nursing Education Author Beth Boynton

Beth is a nurse consultant, author, and teacher specializing in communication and collaboration among healthcare professionals and within organizations. She offers interactive workshops, leadership coaching, a ‘whole systems’ approach for culture change efforts, and a new method for building ‘people skills’ called ‘Medical Improv’. She has recently completed her second book, a core text called: Successful Nurse Communication: Safe Care, Healthy Workplaces, and Rewarding Careers which is scheduled to be published by F.A. Davis Publishing Co. Spring 2015. She writes about related issues at, “Confident Voices in Healthcare” blog. Her video, “Interruption Awareness: A Nursing Minute for Patient Safety,” and blog have drawn audiences from all over the world. She is trained in the Professor Watson Curriculum for Medical Improv through Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. She has one grown son who is works in India. Beth loves improv, Zumba dancing, walking, and swimming, and lives in Portsmouth, NH.

Beth has authored the book Confident Voices: The Nurses’ Guide to Improving Communication & Creating Positive Workplaces, Ed. Bonnie Kerrick, RN, BSN. (2009)  and has authored the continuing education course 4 Essential Communication Strategies that Promote Patient Safety; This instructional continuing education course is designed for nurses who are in direct care or middle management positions in hospitals; long-term care facilities, and other frontline in- and out-patient practice settings.  Despite 15 years of national focus on improving patient safety outcomes, we continue to have staggering statistics involving preventable deaths, illnesses, and injuries that are due to medical errors. And because communication breakdowns and associated problems with inter-professional relationships have long been major contributors to these alarming problems it is imperative for nurses to develop skills and promote positive interpersonal dynamics. Respectful interactions and effective communication seem simple on paper, yet successful efforts to practice them in the field remain elusive.  In this course, students will examine patient safety statistics and root cause analysis data in order to understand the scope of the problem and how persistent issues with communication and human dynamics are interfering with providing safe care.  This foundation will provide the incentive to commit to exploring and practicing communication strategies that will help to solve them. A basic knowledge of assertiveness, listening, and emotional intelligence is required as students take a 'deeper dive' with Beth Boynton, RN, MS to develop their abilities to:  set limits, delegate tasks, and give and receive constructive feedback.

To take a closer look at Beth's continuing education course, click on the course title above.